F5 announces Web acceleration revisions

31.07.2006
F5 Networks Inc. will announce new versions of its Web application acceleration products Monday that are designed to work with specific applications such as those from Microsoft Corp. and Oracle Corp.

The revisions rely largely on technology obtained during F5's purchase of Swan Labs last October, said Jason Needham, director of product management at F5.

The new release, WebAccelerator 5.2, will be available inside add-on hardware modules to F5's BIG-IP 6400, 6800, 8400 and 8800 hardware products, Seattle-based F5 said. Pricing starts at US$24,995. The revised software is also available on the WebAccelerator 4500 stand-alone unit for $59,995.

Needham said the application-specific intelligence is unique in the market, which will help customers reduce customization time and cut deployment costs.

Chad Jackson, portal manager at NetJets Inc. in Woodbridge, N.J., said the private-jet time-share company has been using WebAccelerator 5.0 software for about 18 months on two WebAccelerator 4500 devices at the company's two data centers in Columbus, Ohio. He said he plans to upgrade to the 5.2 software this week to take advantage of many standard templates for improving Web performance.

With the existing software, NetJets has been able to speed up access to its portal by some 2,500 pilots. One caching feature in WebAccelerator has eliminated congestion over the company's wide-area network, improving some download times by 1,200%, Jackson said.