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Hardware Quality and Design
As a F5 Differentiator
Presentation
Name/Date
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F5 believes customers deserve….
o
o
o
o
o
Products that will last
Ultimate reliability—delivering 99.999 availability
High performance
Products that will be supported for many years
Problems to be handled quickly if they do arise
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It Wasn’t Me! Doesn’t work for F5.
How can we guarantee what
we don’t control?
How can we test what we
didn’t design?
How can we optimize with
what was made for the
masses?
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Why Build Custom Hardware?
F5 spends $18-20 Million Dollars Annually on Hardware R&D
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Hardware Failures
Loss of business
Poor customer satisfaction
Increased Operational costs
SLA defaults
=
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F5 Believes In Transparency
F5 wants our customers to know what we do to ensure
quality, performance and reliability
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F5 Believes in Purpose Built Design
o Our hardware is designed
for Application Delivery
o Our hardware is designed
to function as a complete
system with our software
o Robust design process and
exhaustive assurance
testing enables world class
reliability
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F5 Believes in Purpose Built Design
High Speed Bridge and Disaggregator
o High Speed Bridge provides 5X the packet performance than off the
shelf solutions
o Created in concert with F5’s TMOS operating system
o Delivers a system level solution that provides higher performance,
reliability, extensibility, scalability than a non-integrated solution
o Patented Disaggregator facilitates a near 1:1 linear performance growth
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F5 Believes in Testing Above and Beyond
o Environmental Stress
Screening subjects products to
extreme high and low
temperatures, voltage extremes
o Highly accelerated life testing,
simulates years of use and
weeds out early design &
component flaws
o Testing spans product lifetime
for continuous improvement
F5’s State-of-the-art
Environmental Stress Screening Chamber
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F5 Believes in Hand Selected Components
o Components for
application delivery
o Most reliable
components not the
cheapest
o Lifecycle commitments
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F5 Believes In Best In Class Partners
o Comprehensive supplier selection
process
o Suppliers assemble and test
product to strict F5 specifications
o Monitored with performance metrics
including delivery and quality
o All Partners are ISO9000 &140001
certified
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Monitoring the Manufacturing Line
o Real-Time view into
manufacturing line
o React quickly to any
potential issues
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Questions?
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The Finished Product
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F5: Design for High Availability
Two Power
Supplies
Standard
Designed for
better reliability
Dual MultiCore CPUs
Chosen for long
product lifecycle.
On Intel’s
embedded
roadmap.
Dual Hard
Drives
Full RAID
redundancy
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F5: Design for Quality and Performance
8 GB
Compact Flash
Industrial quality
for extended write
life
5X the packet
performance
High Speed
Bridge
Custom
Mezzanine card
w./SSL and
Compression
Chips
F5 designed board
w/industrial strength
connectors
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Why important?
Standard (mass market)
SuperMicro x86 server
motherboard, not ADC-specific.
- Who owns / tests system?
- Who validates suppliers with
4 point onsite quality audit?
- Who integrates the board ?
- Who builds the diagnostics
for the ADC?
- The server vendor? No.
SSL acceleration chips
on PCI-E cards.
Danger! Connectors
will unseat with
excessive vibration;
even from the fans.
If you don’t own and control the
whole design, how do you
diagnose and continually improve?
What’s the feedback mechanism
into test, supply chain, and
manufacturing?
SuperMicro 2U server
case. Danger! An ADC
can run hot unless
mechanicals are
designed for optimal
airflow. Is this?
Chelsio or Intel
PCI-E NIC. Expect
latency and lower
packet rates
affecting your
apps.
Intel CPUs not on
embedded roadmap.
Expect a forced
change in 18 months
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World Class Technical
Support Services
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World Class Technical Support Services
o F5 provides customer support, 24/7 anywhere in the world
o Expedited RMA Services with a 4-Hour delivery window
o ISO 9001:2008 Certified
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World Class Technical Support Services
10.00
9.00
8.00
7.00
6.00
FY10-Q1
5.00
FY10-Q2
FY10-Q3
4.00
3.00
2.00
1.00
0.00
Scheduling
Process
Professionalism
Punctuality
Attention to
detail
Skill level
Overall
Satisfaction
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Questions?
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In Summary
F5 believes customers deserve….
o
o
o
o
o
Products that will last
Ultimate reliability—delivering 99.999 availability
High performance
Products that will be supported for many years
Problems to be handled quickly if they do arise