SEATTLE, SEPTEMBER 9, 2002--F5 Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ: FFIV), the leading provider of Internet Traffic Management (ITM) products, today announced that it remains the No. 1 provider of SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) acceleration products, in the Layer 4-7 Switch/Load Balancer with SSL category. According to the Infonetics Research1 report, F5 continued to increase their lead to 67% unit market share and 79% revenue market share in the first half of 2002. SSL is the industry standard for securing web applications and continues to be a top decision criteria for most enterprises buying web optimization hardware solutions.
"F5's Internet traffic management products are positioned at a strategic point in the network, inspecting all traffic, making their decision to integrate SSL into their switches and appliances a wise move," said Neil Osipuk, directing analyst at Infonetics Research. "A move that benefits their customers who continue to place security as a top priority. Furthermore, as the adoption of web services increases, enterprises will need to leverage SSL to provide a secure channel for delivering all types of IP-based applications."
F5's BIG-IP® family of products, which include IP Application Switches and appliances, are capable of handling both the intelligent management of traffic and SSL termination on a single integrated platform. The BIG-IP systems' built-in SSL acceleration feature effectively increases a customer's ROI when deploying web services and applications by consolidating hardware, SSL processing, Private Key and SSL Certificate Management. "We've witnessed widespread SSL adoption by our customers because our BIG-IP solution, in addition to SSL acceleration, also serves as an enforcement point for securing application and web services," said Dan Matte, vice-president of product management and marketing at F5 Networks. "The BIG-IP system is an excellent addition for strengthening overall business security and our No. 1 market share position for SSL underscore's F5's commitment to delivering the market's most advanced traffic management products that support our customers' stringent security requirements."
1 Source: Infonetics Research, Inc., SSL Acceleration Hardware - Bi-annual Worldwide Market Share and Forecasts for 1H02; August 2002.
About F5 Networks
F5 Networks is the leader in Internet Traffic Management (ITM) and delivers application aware networks through its open Internet Control Architecture. F5 features the industry's leading set of integrated products and services that manage, control and optimize Internet traffic and content. Our solutions automatically and intelligently deliver the best possible Internet performance and availability for service providers, enterprises and e-businesses. Our products remove bandwidth congestion and optimize the availability and speed of mission-critical Internet servers and applications, including web publishing, content delivery, e-commerce, caching, firewalls and more. Our solutions are widely deployed in large enterprises, the top service providers, financial institutions, government agencies, healthcare, and portals throughout the world. The company is headquartered in Seattle, Washington, and has offices throughout North America, Europe and Asia Pacific. F5 Networks is located on the web at www.f5.com.
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