F5 brings traffic management to UK

F5 has launched its traffic management devices, BIG/ip and 3DNS, in the UK - though they have been available in the US for nearly two years.

BIG/ip is an intelligent load-balancing device based on an Intel architecture and running a customised version of the BSDi operating system. This turnkey, rack-mountable box sits between a company's routers and servers, and intelligently redirects server requests based on a number of customisable factors, such as server speed, response time and current connections.

The advantage of BIG/ip over alternative load-balancing methods, such as Round Robin systems that merely spread the load between the servers, is that BIG/ip provides a single IP address for all server requests, and is invisible to users. It has the added advantage of acting as a firewall, only allowing genuine Web server requests to go through to the server farm.

3DNS is based on BIG/ip but adds WAN support, acting as an add-on to standard DNS servers. 3DNS acts as the primary DNS server for a distributed Web site, such as a mirrored archive or a corporate extranet with a number of locations. When a user makes a request for a page, their machine queries the local DNS which then queries the 3DNS server, which returns the closest server to the user's location.

3DNS also actively queries any active BIG/ip servers to log and report on the health of the WAN, creating a weathermap of the network which it uses to choose the best path for any future requests.

Founded in February 1996, F5 has only just launched in the UK due to the lack of growth in the UK Internet market up to now. ISPs make up 30% of its existing customers, with Ecommerce sites, financial clearing houses, banks and companies with intranets making up the balance. The products are squarely aimed at sites that require maximum reliability and uptime.

A spokesman said that eventually the company would port away from BSDi, probably to Linux, because it has to pay a royalty to Berkeley Software Design, maker of BSDi, for each unit shipped.

The entry-level BIG/ip LB package costs $9,990 (#6,091), rising to $44,990 (#27,433) for the BIG/ip HA+ system. 3DNS costs $27,490 (#16,762). UK pricing has yet to be announced.

All systems are licensed for an unlimited number of content servers, and apart form the entry-level model, include installation and one year's support.