F5 Enhances Replication and Data Migration

F5 Networks, Inc. announced performance testing results that demonstrate the value of combining storage, virtualization, and WAN optimization solutions to achieve superior data transfer capabilities. With F5’s integrated solutions, including the BIG-IP WAN Optimization Module product, enterprise customers can more efficiently use existing bandwidth and reduce the costs of replicating data between data centers.

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BIG-IP WAN Optimization Module

"As enterprises consolidate their globally dispersed data centers, business continuity/disaster recovery (BC/DR) requirements drive the need for data center to data center storage replication and virtual machine migration capabilities," said Joe Skorupa, Research VP, Data Center Transformation at Gartner, Inc. "This trend – coupled with the general increase of data traveling between corporate data centers – has led to the emergence of focused WAN optimization products that enable enterprises to maximize the performance of critical BC/DR activities while minimizing bandwidth costs for very high speed WAN links."

Performance Testing and Results
Testing conducted by F5, NetApp, and other vendors confirms the value of combining WAN optimization services with storage and virtualization technologies. Results show that integrated WAN optimization services can help customers address availability, performance, and storage migration requirements, while greatly reducing the effects of latency.

"With F5 and NetApp, joint customers can further optimize secure replication and long distance live migration efforts between data centers to bolster data migration and traffic balancing capabilities," said Patrick Rogers, Vice President, Solutions and Alliances at NetApp.

Through additional testing efforts, Hitachi Data Systems has qualified F5’s BIG-IP appliances for use with Hitachi TrueCopy Remote Replication on Hitachi Universal Storage Platform and Hitachi Adaptable Modular Storage. And significant performance and security benefits related to WAN replication have been demonstrated in combining Dell EqualLogic PS Series Internet SCSI (iSCSI) arrays with F5 BIG-IP solutions, including the BIG-IP WAN Optimization Module (WOM).

F5 provides documented guidance on how results were achieved to help customers get the most from their IT investments.

More information related to the above solutions can be found in the following F5 documents:

F5 Solution Details
F5’s approach of layering in optimization services as part of an open and flexible application delivery platform, TMOS, ensures consistency and reduced management costs. This integrated approach delivers the advanced LAN-side throughput performance critical to data center to data center performance, and provides a superior alternative to other point solutions in the market.

F5’s WAN optimization solutions allow two BIG-IP devices to communicate across the WAN using F5’s iSessions technology to optimize traffic during data replication, offsite back-up, and virtual machine migration. iSessions uses TCP optimization, adaptive compression, intelligent byte caching, and other technologies to provide efficient bandwidth utilization and maximum throughput.

F5’s WAN optimization solutions
deliver performance benefits that:

Ensure accelerated and secure offsite replication required to meet the recovery time objectives (RTO) and recovery point objectives (RPO) associated with data protection
Extend the distance between disaster recovery and backup sites, based on maintaining acceptable performance levels
Mitigate the need for higher cost WAN links or isolated WAN replication infrastructure
Enable efficient live migration capabilities across long distances for VMware vMotion environments in a secure, accelerated manner

"Optimization of WAN traffic between data centers is a critical component of F5’s ADN strategy," said Jason Needham, Sr. Director of Product Management at F5. "With the ongoing trends toward data center consolidation and escalating data growth, it is vital that enterprises maximize data replication efficiency while capping bandwidth expenses."