F5 Networks: Leveraging The Network As An Integral Part Of The Application
Despite the important role that networks serve, the realms of application development and network operations have traditionally been separate and disconnected domains. This artificial separation of concerns causes problems when distributed computing approaches merge many of the traditional concepts of application and network. In particular, the movement to Web Services and SOAs eliminates many of the artificial barriers between what was once considered the domain of software, and what was the domain of network hardware.
F5 aims to change this IT status quo through its products that give greater ability for network appliances to be utilized as application resources by developers . At the core of their products is their iControl technology, which leverages Web Services to provide an API that enables remarkable levels of control over the network infrastructure.