F5 Networks expands presence in Asia

By Eden Estopace | Jan 25, 2012

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F5 Networks is expanding its presence in Asia, looking to tap opportunities in the area of web security, fast applications delivery and disaster recovery.

“The proliferation of smart devices, web applications and social media platforms has created an environment where users expect hassle-free, straight-forward access to Internet-based resources and services anytime, anywhere, and in any way. These demands have led to an increased pressure to align IT with changing customer conditions in business," said Erik Giesa, Senior Vice President of Global Products, F5 Networks.

Giesa disclosed that it can bring its expertise in many sectors including telecommunications, finance and the public sector.

"Worldwide, the government vertical alone represents about 7 percent of F5 revenue. So it is a significant market which we will be carrying over to the region," he said. "Our technology enables best practice disaster recovery design so when a website goes down due to a disaster, we can automatically redirect traffic to a secondary site. Many companies are actually looking for secondary sites they can fail over to when disaster strikes."

Newly appointed country manager to the Philippines Oscar Visaya affirmed that he is eyeing cloud-bursting services.

"As you know, lot of global companies are outsourcing to the Philippines and we are looking at data center resources that can be outsourced to the Philippines through cloud bursting. For example, in the US or Europe when a company needs additional resources, why not get it from the Philippines. We can work with this ecosystem of providers that can work together and be able to offer the service," he said.

Geisa added that Philippine companies, too, can benefit from a secondary site outside the country, considering the many natural calamities that visit the country every so often.

Teong Eng Guan, Managing Director for ASEAN and Korea, F5 Networks, said companies, government agencies included, are also under cost pressure to do more with less and to secure the IT infrastructure better.

"Attacks on government websites are common across ASEAN. However, government agencies are now realizing the importance of web application firewalls. The question now is how we can help the government ensure high availability of services," he said, adding that F5's solutions in this area are used by central government agencies as well as the healthcare and defense sectors in Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia.