Partnership to Develop 'Application Balancing' System

New Web balancing system will equalize traffic from Web-based and non-Web-based business applications.

by Wayne Kawamoto [January 25, 2000]

F5 Networks, Inc. and Top Layer Networks announced a strategic OEM relationship to produce the industry's first application balancing product. According to the companies, the upcoming application will let organizations control and optimize the performance and handling of their business-critical traffic. Under the agreement, Top Layer Networks will OEM the software component of F5 Network's controller, and use it with Top Layer Networks' AppSwitch family of switching solutions.

According to the companies, the new application will equalize traffic from Web and non-Web-based business applications, in the same way that Web products now work to balance Web content hosting. As a result, service providers and enterprises can better guarantee that their mission-critical transactions, such as E-Commerce, ERP, and CRM applications, as well as those that use streaming video and audio content, will work at the highest possible efficiency.

"Our companies' technologies are highly complementary and we share the same objective of giving customers the ability to have greater levels of intelligence and control of Internet traffic," says Tom Pettigrew, Senior Director of Corporate Development at F5 Networks. "Our relationship with TopLayer should benefit customers by giving them an effective way to seamlessly distinguish and prioritize all types of traffic, ultimately enabling them to achieve their goal of providing their users with superior performance and the highest level of service."

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