F5's major enhancements to the industry-leading BIG-IP iSeries of application delivery controllers is now available to African enterprises.

"The new iSeries devices have received significant attention in the data centre and networking communities globally," notes Anton Jacobsz, managing director at Networks Unlimited, an authorised value-added distributor of F5 products throughout Africa.

"In large part, this is due to a step-change in the way the devices are configured, using the latest in software-defined network architectures, to enable new agility and prepare organisations for a data-rich future."

"Local enterprises will enjoy a more malleable networking architecture that adapts to all sorts of evolving infrastructure needs. They're better able to dynamically manage the flow of network traffic between users and applications," explains Jacobsz.

Known as Turboflex Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) technology, iSeries devices use software-defined hardware to effectively morph into a particular wire-speed controller that is most required at any given point in time.

At different moments, network administrators may look to focus resources on, for instance, dealing with security threats, or scaling their environments, or enabling optimised voice and video across the network, among many other requirements.

F5 marketing solutions architect, Robert Haynes, explains on the company's DevCentral blog that the latest generation of the iSeries "offer the line-speed performance of specialised silicon – like SSL offload cards, but with a re-programmable, upgradable capability more like a software/ CPU combination.

"The FPGA successfully balances hardware performance with the potential for flexibility and innovation," he adds.

Jacobsz notes that many African organisations are starting to recognise the power of big data. As the volumes of data continue to grow – through the explosion of mobile networks, new devices, and connected sensors – organisations will need modern networks to handle the increased loads.

"We predict massive volumes of data will descend on organisations and traverse their networks," he notes, "this latest-generation of BIG-IP iSeries devices has the capability for firmware upgrades, meaning they can continue evolving, to cater for the future demands on the network."

For more information, please contact Alexa Gerber, F5 product manager at Networks Unlimited at alexa.gerber@nu.co.za.