F5 Networks Claims Frost & Sullivan’s 2006 Market Penetration Leadership Award

Published 13th September 2006

F5’s FirePass Selected for Outstanding Performance in the SSL VPN Market...

SEATTLE, SEPTEMBER 13, 2006
F5 Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ: FFIV), the global leader in Application Delivery Networking, today announced it has received Frost & Sullivan’s 2006 Market Penetration Leadership Award. To earn this distinction, a company must exhibit excellence in product innovation, marketing, and sales strategy.

F5 was singled out for its impressive performance in the SSL VPN market, where its FirePass® product established the company as a major force in a dynamic market space. Frost & Sullivan praised FirePass for its unique usability features including Visual Policy Editor and EasyConnect. Frost & Sullivan also commended the product’s flexibility, management, and endpoint security capabilities. “FirePass has categorically improved features such as ease of management, usability, integrated endpoint security, thereby reducing the time, complexity, and cost of deploying an SSL VPN solution,” noted a Frost & Sullivan announcement accompanying the award.

In addition to its performance in the SSL VPN market, F5 was also lauded for its customer base and significant reseller relationships. “With a client base of more than 10,000 different organizations that are well represented across the spectrum of geographical and vertical segments…F5 continues to attract new big wins with a portfolio of products focused on security, optimization, and availability of its clients’ networks,” said Frost & Sullivan research analyst Loren Rudd.

The Market Penetration Award builds on last year’s Frost & Sullivan Competitive Strategy Leadership Award, which F5 received for market originality demonstrated through initiatives like DevCentral, F5’s collaborative online community. With nearly 11,000 members, the DevCentral portal brings together enterprise networking, application, and security professionals to facilitate the creation of customized business solutions. DevCentral continues to be a key strategic differentiator for F5, and was cited as a contributing factor for this year’s prize as well.

“Awards like this are proof positive of the strength of F5’s sales and marketing strategy and our commitment to the SSL VPN market,” stated Erik Giesa, Vice President of Product Management and Product Marketing at F5. “With our technology and integration capabilities through our unique TMOS architecture, F5 is in a prime position to address the needs of the Application Delivery Networking market across the board.”