In this post, I would like to provide a high-level explanation of F5 technologies. What are the different types of F5 network devices?
F5 is not the name of a device. It is the name of the company that manufactures F5 network and application centric devices.
F5 technologies can be described as a combination of hardware, software and modules. Their main product is F5 BIG-IP.
BIG-IP is a collection of hardware and virtual platforms and software solutions providing services focused on security, reliability, and performance.
It is not just a single product or software but includes all BIG-IP hardware, all BIG-IP software modules, and the BIG IP operating system (TMOS).
- BIG-IP software modules include BIG-IP ASM, BIG-IP LTM, BIG-IP DNS, BIG-IP APM, etc.
- BIG-IP platforms includes various BIG-IP hardware and virtual platforms like BIG-IP iSeries hardware appliances, BIG-IP Virtual Edition, BIG-IP Cloud Edition.
- BIG-IP software is the solution that powers and runs all the software modules. It runs on top of F5 TMOS (Traffic Management Operating System).
New technologies have been introduced by F5 in recent times like F5 VELOS hardware platform and BIG-IP NEXT software platform which is going to replace BIG-IP in future. For now, both co-exist! BIG-IP NEXT will be covered in future posts.
F5’s next-generation BIG-IP software, BIG-IP Next, helps simplify operations, strengthen security, enhance observability and maximize application performance.
F5 VELOS is a chassis-based system with the new F5OS operating system that can accommodate tenants running different BIG-IP software versions.
Similarly, rSeries standalone platforms run base F5OS on which multiple tenants running BIG-IP software can be accommodated.
Below is the summary of F5 Platforms. Link is in the comments for more information.
- BIG-IP Standard series
- VIPRION hardware products
- BIG-IP iSeries hardware products
- F5 rSeries hardware products
- VELOS hardware products
- BIG-IQ hardware products
- BIG-IP Virtual Edition
- BIG-IP Cloud Edition
Thanks for reading! Hope it was informative and helpful.
LinkedIn (and Source): 