F5 Networks touts new tools for remote workers

F5 Networks' Big-IP Edge Gateway offers improved security and faster speeds

Mobile and home workers could benefit from a new application delivery controller announced today by F5 Networks.

The Big-IP Edge Gateway offers improved security and faster speeds for those working remotely, as well as scalability for up to 40,000 workers, enabling organisations to equip large numbers of staff with remote access to databases and applications, the firm said.

Ken Salchow, technical manager at F5 Networks, claimed that virtual private networks running on Secure Socket Layer were expensive to scale and offered no acceleration advantages, and that the Edge Gateway service overcomes these problems.

"With mobile working increasing everyday the Edge Gateway offers the ability to speed up data being sent between home workers and office databases, and does so with improved security as well," he said.

Salchow explained that the system enables users to log on to corporate applications from a variety of access points and be remembered on the internal system, thereby saving time by removing the need to log in repeatedly.

The company has also announced several new products as part of an upgrade of the BIG-IP application delivery controller to BIG-IP 10.1, including geo-location, access control and wide area network (WAN) optimisation tools.

The geo-location service, provided by Quova in partnership with F5 Networks, will allow network providers to apply policies and host users on the relevant datacentre based on their location, making for a more efficient use of technology, the firm said.

The BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM), meanwhile, will offer a far simpler and cost-effective means of allowing access to networks and relevant applications, according to Salchow.

"In order to make sure people on the network don't have access to applications they shouldn't be able to see, the APM provides an effective means of controlling the areas individuals can access within the F5 Networks system," he said.

The firm also said that the WAN Optimisation Module offers an upgrade to F5 Networks' free WAN service with the BIG-IP 10.0. This will feature data deduplication for faster connection speeds and allow firms to manage huge numbers of users on networks and remove latency, the firm claimed.