F5 Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ: FFIV), the global leader in Application Delivery Networking, today announced the City of London opening of the F5 International Technology Centre (ITC), an industry-leading application and data delivery competency centre benefiting the entire EMEA region, and F5’s first non-US facility of this type.

Located close to London’s ‘Silicon Roundabout’ creative hub, the ITC will allow Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) organisations to learn and experience how F5 advanced technologies, providing strategic points of control over such critical elements of the data centre as security, acceleration, storage, mobility, access, and cloud, enable innovation by transforming static infrastructures into dynamic and adaptable resources that move businesses forward.

“There are commonalities in the challenges organisations face, not only across EMEA but worldwide,” said Erik Giesa, VP Product Management and Product Marketing, F5 Networks. “For example, mobile device proliferation is putting unprecedented demands on applications. They require advanced acceleration, scale, and availability, while necessitating new approaches for access and security. The new EMEA ITC helps organisations explore, design and implement solutions to address these challenges. The centre allows visitors to tangibly experience the transformative power of F5 technology, with the goal of educating and informing the EMEA marketplace.”

International Technology Centre Capabilities

Staffed by F5 Solution Engineers, the centre offers advanced live product and solution demonstrations, architectural discussions, planning, and design, as well as full Proof-of-Concept implementations. The EMEA ITC comprises a state-of-the-art data centre, test environments, an extensive application library of over 400 enterprise applications, an executive briefing centre, workroom and lab facilities and an immersive TelePresence room for high quality video conferencing. It is designed for high-density and flexible usage tailored to an organisation’s specific needs and desires. There is no cost to customers and partners for the use of the centre’s services.

“Our experience at F5’s new ITC in London was very positive.” said Ivan Desmidt, network engineer at Belgacom, Belgium’s leading telecommunications operator. “The facility is well equipped, so we were able to look beyond our installed equipment and examine F5 hardware and software we don’t currently have to see how it could potentially benefit Belgacom. The chance to talk through future infrastructure plans with F5 specialists was also extremely valuable.”

The ITC features the ability to demonstrate F5 integration and interoperability with partner applications and technologies from vendors such as:

• VMware
• Microsoft
• Oracle
• IBM
• SAP

Location

The ITC is located on the 3rd floor of 30 Old Broad Street in the City of London, close to the celebrated ‘Silicon Roundabout’ area of London and easily accessible from London’s airports.

About F5 Networks

F5 Networks is the global leader in Application Delivery Networking. F5 provides solutions that make applications secure, fast and available for everyone. By adding intelligence and manageability to the network to offload applications and optimize the data storage layer, F5 extends the power of intelligent networking to all levels of application delivery. F5's extensible architecture optimizes applications, delivers application reliability, and protects the application and network. Enterprise organizations, service providers and Web 2.0 content providers worldwide trust F5 to keep their applications running. The company is headquartered in Seattle, Washington with offices worldwide. For more information, go to www.f5networks.co.uk.

You can also follow @f5networksEMEA on Twitter or visit us on Facebook for more information about F5, its partners, and technology. For a complete listing of F5 community sites, please visit www.f5.com/news-press-events/web-media/community.html.