F5 Networks Releases 2015 ‘State of Application Delivery’ Customer Survey Results

Company to launch new webinar series detailing the top trends vital to fast, secure, and reliable application delivery

F5 Networks (NASDAQ:FFIV) today announced the results of its 2015 State of Application Deliverysurvey. This survey provides insight into the current state of application delivery—as well as confirming some unproven assumptions—about how IT approaches application availability, security, programmability, and software defined networking (SDN) for 2015 and beyond. A four-part webinar series has also been created, featuring F5 executives and in-depth information about key findings from the survey. The first webinar will be held on January 28, 2015 and will feature Manny Rivelo, F5’s EVP of Strategic Solutions. Sign up for the webinar and download the full survey here: http://f5.com/SOAD

“The data from F5’s first survey in exploring the state of application delivery confirms the role these services play in successful application deployments. As customers incorporate public, private, and hybrid cloud models, application service offerings must also continue to evolve to address complexity and meet new and existing challenges.”

Survey Highlights

More than 300 F5 customers from a broad range of vertical markets (including financial services, telecommunications, public sector, and consumer products) shared their perspectives on emerging trends and technologies that impact application delivery. Key takeaways include:

• Current application environments are huge, and growing: 20 percent of respondents said they have 201-500 applications currently deployed, and 28 percent have 1-200 applications deployed.
• Private cloud and mobile are top-ranked trends: When asked which technologies will have strategic importance in the next 2-5 years, private cloud was ranked highest at 59 percent, and mobile apps a close second with 56 percent. Findings indicate that the strategic importance of cloud-based and mobile apps will continue to increase, as will the number of applications requiring services and the complexity involved in their deployment.
• Application availability edges security in importance: When asked which services they couldn’t imagine deploying an application without, availability services was the top-ranking category with 40 percent of responses. Security services ranked nearly as high at 30 percent. Respondents reinforced the belief that if an application isn’t available, other services aren’t considered as important.
• API-enabled infrastructure needed to drive business agility: Programmability is a key component for DevOps, SDN, and cloud computing. F5 customers responding to the survey assigned importance to programmatic technologies and capabilities within the network infrastructure, indicating a substantial shift toward the adoption of customizable automation and orchestration of network services.
• Software defined networking (SDN) must reduce operating expenses: Customers continue to be interested in SDN as a means to operationalize their networks. According to the survey, two-thirds of respondents are considering SDN to reduce operating expenses. In order to progress from today’s early adopter stage to widespread implementation, SDN must address this requirement.

Webinar Registration

The State of Application Delivery webinar series will feature executives from F5 hosting live panel sessions. The webcasts will be broadcast online for free, and each will include a question-and-answer session with the audience. Register for the webinars atf5.com/SOAD.

“Applications are vital to business operations, as are the application services designed to improve performance, enhance security, and ensure reliability,” said Dean Darwin, SVP, Marketing. “The data from F5’s first survey in exploring the state of application delivery confirms the role these services play in successful application deployments. As customers incorporate public, private, and hybrid cloud models, application service offerings must also continue to evolve to address complexity and meet new and existing challenges.”

Additional Resources at f5.com/SOAD:

• Complete Survey Report (registration required)
• Summary Infographic

About F5

F5 (NASDAQ: FFIV) provides solutions for an application world. F5 helps organizations seamlessly scale cloud, data center, and software defined networking (SDN) deployments to successfully deliver applications to anyone, anywhere, at any time. F5 solutions broaden the reach of IT through an open, extensible framework and a rich partner ecosystem of leading technology and data center orchestration vendors. This approach lets customers pursue the infrastructure model that best fits their needs over time. The world’s largest businesses, service providers, government entities, and consumer brands rely on F5 to stay ahead of cloud, security, and mobility trends. For more information, go to f5.com.

You can also follow @f5networks on Twitter or visit us on Facebook for more information about F5, its partners, and technologies.

F5 is a trademark of F5 Networks, Inc., in the U.S. and other countries.