Audio White Paper: Optimizing Application Delivery in Support of Data Center Consolidation

Data center consolidation means more than simply reducing the number of servers, routers, and switches your company has in outlying offices and data centers. Data center virtualization is more than multiple images mapped to physical devices. Efforts to reduce both capital and operating expenditures by consolidating data centers can fail if the applications and the network are not optimized.  By architecting data center infrastructure to be as nimble and agile as possible, IBM and F5 enable enterprises to better react in real time to customer requirements and to position the customer for success. The combined strength of IBM and F5 tackles these challenges at the core of the infrastructure by creating a strategic point of control where the network, servers, storage, and security come together to create customized solutions that add significant business value.  Running Time: 17:28  Read full white paper here.  And click here for more F5 Audio.

  
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Simplify VMware View Deployments

Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) or the ability to deliver desktops as a managed service is an attractive and cost effective solution to mange a corporate desktop environment.  The success of virtual desktop deployments hinges on the user experience, availability and performance, security and IT's ability to reduce desktop operating expenses. 

VDI deployments virtualizes user desktops by delivering them to distinctive end point devices over the network from a central location. Since the user's primary work tool is now located in a data center rather than their own local machine, VDI can put a strain on network resources while the user experience can be less than desired.  This is due to the large amounts of data required to deliver a graphical user interface (GUI) based virtual desktop.  For users who want to access their desktops and applications from anywhere in the world, network latency can be especially noticeable when the virtual desktop is delivered over a WAN.  Organizations might have to provision more bandwidth to account for the additional network traffic which in turn, reduces any cost savings realized with VDI.  In addition, VMware has introduced the PCoIP (PC over IP) communications display protocol which makes more efficient use of the network by encapsulating video display packets in UDP instead of TCP.  Many remote access devices are incapable of correctly handling this distinctive protocol and this can deteriorate the user experience.

Keeping mobile users connected to their own unique, individual environments can also pose a challenge.  When a user is moving from one network to another, their session could be dropped, requiring them to re-connect, re-authenticate, and navigate to where they were prior to the interruption.  Session-persistence can maintain the stateful desktop information helping users reconnect quickly without the need to re-authenticate.  Secure access and access control are always concerns when deploying any system and virtual desktops are no different.  Users are still accessing sensitive corporate information so enforcing strong authentication, security policies, and ensuring that the client is compliant all still apply to VDI deployments.

Lastly, IT must make sure that the virtual systems themselves are available and can scale when needed to realize all the benefits from both a virtual server and virtual desktop deployment.

The inclusion of BIG-IP APM's fine grained access control to BIG-IP LTM VE offers a very powerful enhancement to a VMware View deployment. BIG-IP APM for LTM VE is an exceptional way to optimize, secure, and deliver a VMware View virtual desktop infrastructure.  This is a 100% virtual remote access solution for VMware View 4.5 VDI solutions.  In addition, the BIG-IP APM for LTM VE system will run as a virtual machine in a VMware hypervisor environment so you can easily add it to your existing infrastructure.  As the number of users on virtual desktops grows, customers can easily transition from the BIG-IP virtual edition to a BIG-IP physical appliance.

The BIG-IP provides important load balancing, health monitoring and SSL Offload for VMware View deployments for greater system availability and scalability. Network and protocol optimizations help organizations mange bandwidth efficiently and in some cases, reduces the bandwidth requirements while maintaining and improving the user experience.  BIG-IP APM for LTM VE also opens the possibility of making virtual server load balancing decisions based on user’s identity, ensuring the user is connected to the optimal virtual instance based their needs.  F5 also overcomes the PCoIP challenge with our Datagram Transport Layer Security (DTLS) feature. This transport protocol is uniquely capable of providing all the desired security for transporting PCoIP communications but without the degradation in performance.  In addition, F5 supports View’s automatic fallback to TCP if a high performance UDP tunnel cannot be established.  Users no longer have to RDP to their virtual desktops but can now connect directly with PCoIP or organizations can plan a phased migration to PCoIP.

The BIG-IP APM for LTM VE comes with powerful security controls to keep the entire environment secure.  Pre-login host checks will inspect the requesting client and determine if it meets certain access criteria like OS patch level, Anti-virus/Firewall state or if a certificate is present.  BIG-IP APM for LTM VE offers a wide range of authentication mechanisms, including two-factor, to protect corporate resources from unauthorized access.  BIG-IP APM enables authentication pass-through for convenient single sign on and once a session is established, all traffic, including PCoIP, is encrypted to protect the data and session-persistence helps users reconnect quickly without having to re-authenticate. BIG-IP APM for LTM VE simplifies deployment of authentication and session management for VMware View enterprise virtual desktop management.

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Resources

• F5 Accelerates VMware View Deployments with BIG-IP Access Policy Manager on a Virtual Platform
• BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager Virtual Edition
• BIG-IP Access Policy Manager
• Application Delivery and Load Balancing for VMware View Desktop Infrastructure
• Deploying F5 Application Ready Solutions with VMware View 4.5
• Optimizing VMware View VDI Deployments
• Global Distributed Service in the Cloud with F5 and VMware
• WILS: The Importance of DTLS to Successful VDI
• F5 Friday: The Dynamic VDI Security Game 
• F5 Friday: Secure, Scalable and Fast VMware View Deployment

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Technorati Tags: F5, BIG-IP, VMWare, Optimization, Pete Silva, F5, vmview,virtualization,mobile applications,access control,security,context-aware,strategic point of control

In 5 Minutes or Less Video - BIG-IP APM & Citrix XenApp

Watch how F5 customers can now simply use BIG-IP Access Policy Manager or BIG-IP Edge Gateway to consolidate access control in a central location, keeping infrastructure administration concerns to a minimum. With BIG-IP solutions, customers enjoy the flexibility and scalability needed to extend Citrix applications to both local and remote users without changing local XenApp deployments or requiring STA to provide secure remote access to applications.

Highlights of deploying Citrix and F5 technologies together include:

• Reduced Management Time and OpEx – By simplifying and centralizing local and remote access authentication, BIG-IP solutions eliminate the need for customers to add separate Citrix STA infrastructure or make changes to existing Web Interface servers, resulting in an environment that is less expensive to deploy and requires less time to manage.
• Simplified Configuration and Deployment – With BIG-IP solutions, administrators can support users of Citrix applications with fewer devices, configure deployments to support flexible access models, and easily scale the environment. This fully integrated functionality makes it quick and easy for customers to set up and deploy local and remote access capabilities for Citrix applications, keeping users productive.
• Centralized and Comprehensive Access Control – Unlike the separate Citrix products required to adequately support applications for remote users, BIG-IP solutions provide centralized application access control and use a single access policy to support all types of users securely, so IT teams can be confident that application access is aligned with the organizations’ specific business priorities and security policies.

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Resources:

• F5 Simplifies and Centralizes Access Management for Citrix Applications
• BIG-IP v10.2.1 Download (Log in required)
• BIG-IP Access Policy Manager
• BIG-IP Edge Gateway
• F5 YouTube Channel

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Audio White Paper: F5 BIG-IP WAN Optimization Module in Data Replication Environments

Data loads are constantly on the rise: where transmissions once included only plain-text email and a few static web hits, people now send rich text email, dynamic web pages including multiple AJAX requests per page, replication data, and a host of other data types.  Replication data in particular is critical, especially to businesses. Businesses need their replication data to arrive at the appropriate destination, in a timely manner and with no doubt of delivery. The slower and less reliable your replication is, the less useful it is to your original purpose.  Using the F5® BIG‑IP® WAN Optimization Module™ (WOM), enterprises can increase efficiency, decrease backup windows, offload encryption, and improve wide area network throughput to distributed data centers.  Running Time: 22:36  Read full white paper here.  And click here for more F5 Audio.

  
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The New Wallet: Is it Dumb to Carry a Smartphone?

When I was a teenager, I used to have one of those cool nylon surfer wallets with the Velcro close, you remember those don’t ya?  While pumping diesel (had a VW Rabbit) one day at an old Gulf station, I left the wallet on top of the car and drove off.  Realizing that my wallet was not snug in the sun visor when I got home, I retraced my path and found it - parts of it - scattered all over Route 1.  Luckily, I got most of my belongings back but had that sickened feeling of almost losing my most precious possession at the time, my fake I……um, my driver’s license.  I then got a leather wallet and shoved so many things in there I could have been mistaken for George Costanza, not to mention the hole that evolved right at the bottom point of my back pocket.  Not liking the bump on my butt, I eventually moved to ‘money-clip’ type holders, you know those money holder things you carry in your front pocket.  I felt ‘safer’ knowing it was in my front pocket and I only carried the essentials that I needed, rather than the reams of receipts I’d have in my wallet.  When I was younger, I’d use tie clips, metal binder clips, and other things until I got a nice Harley-Davidson one which holds credit cards and clips currency.  I’d still feel sick if I lost it however.

Not having a wallet, purse, money clip or other currency container at all, may eventually be our new reality.  You see, our smartphones are starting to carry all that digital information for us and according to a recent CNNMoney article, our smartphones are becoming one of our most dangerous possessions.  We can do banking, make payments, transfer money, use the phone for loyalty card swipes along with credit card transactions.  At the same time, mobile users more vulnerable to phishing attacks, some banking apps for Android, iPhone expose sensitive info, Android Trojan Emerges In U.S. Download Sites and how IPv6: Smartphones compromise users' privacy.  We knew it would eventually happen but the crooks are now adapting to the explosive mobile growth, the rise of mobile banking and our never ending connection to the internet.  Don’t get me wrong, like many of you, I love having email, contacts, calendar and entertainment at my fingertips along with the convenience of having all my stuff with me; but the chances of losing much more greatly increase since you have the equivalent, or even more, of all your credit cards, personal and private information and other sensitive stuff right on your smartphone.  Sure there are backup programs but how many of you actually backup your computer on a weekly basis?  How many have wipe or lock software installed to destroy everything on the smartphone if it is stolen?  How many have tracking software if it is lost?  How many have your actual home address in the GPS navigator so the offender can find where you live and visit while you are away?  How many have sensitive corporate information stored on the smartphone since you use it for both personal and business use?  Now I’m starting to spook myself. 

Many people will willingly trade some personal info for personal convenience.  You might never give a total stranger your home address and phone number but if they add, ‘in exchange, we’ll give you this branded card and you’ll get 10% off every purchase,’ more than likely, we’ll turn that personal info over.  If you understand that every purchase will be scanned, sent to a database and used for marketing or as the merchant describes, to ‘provide you with the best service and offerings,’ then you might accept that.  If you accept and understand the risks of doing mobile banking, transferring money, making payments and carrying around your entire life on your mobile device….and take actions to mitigate those risks, like using encryption, backups, wipe/locate software, antivirus, OS updates and other mobile security precautions along with practicing the same discretion as you would with your home computer (like not clicking links from strangers) then you should stay relatively safe.  Unless, of course, you leave that digital wallet on the top of your vehicle and drive off.

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Resources

• Android Trojan Emerges In U.S. Download Sites
• Sophisticated New Android Trojan "Geinimi" Spreading in China
• Chinese crack down on 'money-sucker' Androids
• Your most dangerous possession? Your smartphone
• IPv6: Smartphones compromise users' privacy
• Mobile users more vulnerable to phishing attacks
• Report: Banking Apps for Android, iPhone Expose Sensitive Info
• Make Sure Your Smartphone Payments Are Secure
• F5 BIG-IP Edge Client App
• F5 BIG-IP Edge Portal App
• Securing iPhone and iPad Access to Corporate Web Applications – F5 Technical Brief
• Audio Tech Brief - Secure iPhone Access to Corporate Web Applications

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Technorati Tags: F5, banking, trojan, Pete Silva, security, business, education, technology, application delivery, ipad, cloud, context-aware, mobile, iPhone, web, internet, security, android, privacy, smartphone, 

iDo Declare: iPhone with BIG-IP

Who would have imagined back in 1973 when Martin Cooper/Motorola dialed the first portable cellular phone call, that one day we'd be booking airline tickets, paying bills, taking pictures, watching movies, getting directions, emailing and getting work done on a little device the size of a deck of cards.  As these 'cell-phones' have matured, they've also become an integral part of our lives on a daily basis.  No longer are they strictly for emergency situations when you need to get help, now they are attached to our hip with an accompanying ear apparatus as if we've evolved with new bodily appendages.  People have grown accustomed to being 'connected' everywhere. There have been mobile breakthroughs over the years, like having 3G/4G networks and Wi-Fi capability, but arguably one of the most talked about and coveted mobile devices in recent memory is the Apple iPhone.

Ever since the launch of the iPhone in 2007, it has changed the way people perceive and use mobile devices.  It's not just the tech-savvy that love the iPhone, it's Moms, Florists, Celebrities, Retailers and everyone in between that marvel at the useful ways iPhone can be used, and for their very own novel purpose.  There are literally hundreds of thousands of apps available for iPhone, from the silly and mundane to banking and business. Browsing the web is a breeze with the iPhone with the ability to view apps in both portrait and landscape modes.  The ability to zoom and 'pinch' with just your fingers made mobile browsing tolerable, even fun from an iPhone.  Shopping from your cell phone is now as common as ordering a cup of coffee - often at the same time!  iPhone developers are pushing the limits with augmented reality applications where you can point your iPhone into the sky and see the flight number, speed, destination and other such details as planes fly by.

When the iPhone was first introduced and Apple started promoting it as a business capable device, it was missing a few important features.  Many enterprises, and small businesses for that matter, use Microsoft products for their corporate software - Exchange for email, Word for documents, Excel for spreadsheets and PowerPoint for presentations.  Those were, as expected, not available on the iPhone.  As new generations of iPhones hit the market and iOS matured, things like iPhone Exchange ActiveSync became available and users could now configure their email to work with Exchange Server.  Other office apps like Documents-to-Go make it possible for iPhone users to not only to view Microsoft Word and Excel documents, but they were able to create and edit them too.  Today, there are business apps from Salesforce, SAP and Oracle along with business intelligence and HR apps. Companies can even lock down and locate a lost or stolen iPhone.

Business users are increasingly looking to take advantage of Apple iOS devices in the corporate environment, and as such IT organizations are looking for ways to allow access without compromising security, or risking loss of endpoint control.  IT departments who have been slow to accept the iPhone are now looking for a remote access solution to balance the need for mobile access and productivity with the ability to keep corporate resources secure.

The F5 BIG-IP Edge Portal app for iOS devices streamlines secure mobile access to corporate web applications that reside behind BIG-IP Access Policy Manager, BIG-IP Edge Gateway and FirePass SSL VPN.  Using the Edge Portal application, users can access internal web pages and web applications securely, while the new F5 BIG-IP Edge Client app offers complete network access connection to corporate resources from an iOS device; a complete VPN solution for both the iPhone and iPad.

The BIG-IP Edge Portal App allows users to access internal web applications securely and offers the following features:

• User name/password authentication
• Client certificate support
• Saving credentials and sessions
• SSO capability with BIG-IP APM for various corporate web applications
• Saving local bookmarks and favorites
• Accessing bookmarks with keywords
• Embedded web viewer
• Display of all file types supported by native Mobile Safari

Assuming an iPhone is a trusted device and/or network access from an iPhone/iPad is allowed, then the BIG-IP Edge Client app offers all the BIG-IP Edge Portal features listed above, plus the ability to create an encrypted, optimized SSL VPN tunnel to the corporate network.  BIG-IP Edge Client offers a complete network access connection to corporate resources from an iOS device.  With full VPN access, iPhone/iPad users can run applications such as RDP, SSH, Citrix, VMware View, VoIP/SIP, and other enterprise applications.  The BIG-IP Edge Client app offers additional features such as Smart Reconnect, which enhances mobility when there are network outages, when users roaming from one network to another (like going from a mobile to Wi-Fi connection), or when a device comes out of hibernate/standby mode. Split tunneling mode is also supported, allowing users to access the Internet and internal resources simultaneously.

BIG-IP Edge Client and Edge Portal work in tandem with BIG-IP Edge Gateway, BIG-IP APM and FirePass SSL VPN solutions to drive managed access to corporate resources and applications, and to centralize application access control for mobile users.  Enabling access to corporate resources is key to user productivity, which is central to F5’s dynamic services model that delivers on-demand IT.

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Resources

• F5 Announces Two BIG-IP Apps Now Available at the App Store
• F5 BIG-IP Edge Client App
• F5 BIG-IP Edge Portal App
• F5 BIG-IP Edge Client Users Guide
• iTunes App Store
• Securing iPhone and iPad Access to Corporate Web Applications – F5 Technical Brief
• Audio Tech Brief - Secure iPhone Access to Corporate Web Applications
• Is the iPhone Finally Ready for Business Use?
• iPhone in Business
• The next IT challenge: Mobile device management
• Use Your iPhone to See Where Planes are Headed

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