Reduce Risk and Simplify the
Journey to the Cloud
Organizations that deliver mobile, web-based, and SaaS
applications need innovative ways to stay competitive and expand
their operations without having to build more data centers. Many are
discovering how F5 can help them achieve these goals in a hybrid
cloud architecture without compromising security.
White Paper
by F5
WHITE PAPER
®
Reduce Risk and Simplify the Journey to the Cloud
Introduction
Our world today is unquestionably dominated by applications, and with the Internet
permeating nearly every part of the globe, even the smallest organizations can have
customers in multiple countries. To maintain their competitive edge, growing
organizations need to provide the best possible service to their customers, whether
they’re delivering corporate websites, e-commerce sites, social media sites, SaaS
applications, or any combination of these. Key to providing the best service is the
ability to deliver applications as close to the user as possible while still keeping costs
under control. But how does an organization accomplish that, especially a small- or
medium-sized one?
One option is to build out more data centers around the world, but outfitting and
running operations in multiple locations worldwide is a costly proposition; it’s simply
not economically feasible for many organizations to do so.
An alternative is to implement a hybrid cloud architecture using subscription-based
cloud services. A hybrid cloud environment—one that combines private data center
resources with public cloud resources—can be a viable option for many
organizations, but there are several factors to consider and challenges to overcome
so that risk is minimized.
Assessing the Challenges
All applications require services—specifically, application and networking services—
to ensure that the applications themselves are highly available, secure, and always
performing to users’ expectations. These services include anything from
acceleration and traffic management to security, access control, and advanced
management. IT organizations typically rely on a unique combination of solutions
(often from multiple vendors) to provide such services.
This is all well and good until the organization considers migrating or expanding to
the cloud and discovers that the cloud provider’s solutions are completely different
from its own. Suddenly, the organization is faced with the prospect of abandoning
its services in favor of the cloud provider’s services, which are an unknown quantity
in terms of features and functionality. The organization has no familiarity or
experience with the cloud provider’s services, and no guarantee that the cloud
provider’s services will meet existing deployment standards. What’s more, by
moving to the cloud, the organization gives up fine-grained control of those
services, forfeiting its ability to manage and customize services to meet its unique
business requirements.
To complicate things further, service offerings vary greatly from one cloud provider to
another. This difference is especially pronounced when comparing the services of
cloud providers in different countries, where regulatory requirements differ widely.
It’s difficult enough for an organization to deal with the new and unfamiliar services
of a single cloud provider, much less several providers. As a result, the challenges of
1
from its own. Suddenly, the organization is faced with the prospect of abandoning
its services in favor of the cloud provider’s services, which are an unknown quantity
in terms of features and functionality. The organization has no familiarity or
experience with the cloud provider’s services, and no guarantee that the cloud
provider’s
services will meet existing deployment standards. What’s more, by
WHITE PAPER
moving
theand
cloud,
the organization
fine-grained control of those
Reduce to
Risk
Simplify
the Journeygives
to theup
Cloud
®
services, forfeiting its ability to manage and customize services to meet its unique
business requirements.
To complicate things further, service offerings vary greatly from one cloud provider to
another. This difference is especially pronounced when comparing the services of
cloud providers in different countries, where regulatory requirements differ widely.
It’s difficult enough for an organization to deal with the new and unfamiliar services
of a single cloud provider, much less several providers. As a result, the challenges of
migrating services to a public cloud platform can seem quite daunting for
organizations that are considering using cloud providers in multiple locations.
Recognizing What’s Needed for Success
To overcome these challenges and alleviate risk, organizations need a unified
platform that enables them to deliver and manage applications in a consistent way
across the entire environment—whether that includes private data centers, multiple
public cloud providers, or any combination thereof. F5 BIG-IP is just such a
platform, delivering a broad range of Software Defined Application Services (SDAS)
—the services that all applications need, such as performance, mobility, availability,
access and identity control, and security. These services are “software defined”
because F5 provides the programmability that organizations need in order to enable
automation and orchestration within the environment and respond quickly to
changing business demands. What makes F5 unique is that SDAS is available
across all BIG-IP platforms. BIG-IP virtual editions (VEs) have the same features, and
functionality of physical BIG-IP systems—and the operating system is constant
across all form factors.
Application and networking services should not only be easy to provision, they
should also be easy to procure. F5 offers several deployment and purchasing
methods, including utility (pay-as-you-go) and direct licensing models. This enables
organizations to take the application and networking services they know and trust
from their private data centers directly into the cloud. And because the BIG-IP
platform supports multiple hypervisors, organizations have a wide range of public
cloud providers to choose from.
Reaping the Benefits
All of this should be welcome news for IT organizations, who aren’t necessarily
aware that they have options in the cloud when it comes to application delivery.
Realizing they have choices and a high degree of control over the environment
opens up a whole new world of possibilities for them. They can begin to see beyond
the borders of their own data centers and consider the potential benefits of
expanding to a hybrid cloud model.
Whatever the individual benefits might be, however, they must not introduce risk.
Let’s take a closer look at how the F5 platform delivers on that promise.
Consistency
Because F5 enables organizations to take all of their existing services and policies
2
aware that they have options in the cloud when it comes to application delivery.
Realizing they have choices and a high degree of control over the environment
opens up a whole new world of possibilities for them. They can begin to see beyond
the borders of their own data centers and consider the potential benefits of
expanding
to a hybrid cloud model.
WHITE
PAPER
®
Reduce Risk and Simplify the Journey to the Cloud
Whatever the individual benefits might be, however, they must not introduce risk.
Let’s take a closer look at how the F5 platform delivers on that promise.
Consistency
Because F5 enables organizations to take all of their existing services and policies
into the cloud environment, they can now achieve consistency across a hybrid cloud
architecture. This would be virtually impossible to achieve without the “portability” of
services and the policies that define them. The bonus is that the application and
networking services BIG-IP solutions deliver—things like optimization, acceleration,
access control, DNS services, and SAML federation, to name a few—will operate
exactly the same way in the cloud. Consequently, there’s no need for an
organization to build unique policies and configurations specifically to support
applications they’re hosting in the cloud.
With F5 solutions, application and network services are applied consistently across every
deployment environment
Take, for example, an organization with a production environment, a pre-production
environment, and a development and test environment. Networking professionals
have already built specific policies and configurations for each application based on
their particular needs. They have tested and proven each configuration; they’re
confident that it’s the fastest, most secure, and most highly resilient configuration
for a particular application. As a result, they can be confident that when they drop
that same configuration onto a BIG-IP VE in the cloud, it will deliver consistent
results as expected.
Constancy
Implementing an F5 solution in the cloud means that an organization never has to
make compromises—in terms of functionality, availability, security, or scalability.
3
have already built specific policies and configurations for each application based on
their particular needs. They have tested and proven each configuration; they’re
confident that it’s the fastest, most secure, and most highly resilient configuration
for a particular application. As a result, they can be confident that when they drop
WHITE
PAPER
that same
configuration onto a BIG-IP VE in the cloud, it will deliver consistent
®
Reduce
and Simplify the Journey to the Cloud
results asRisk
expected.
Constancy
Implementing an F5 solution in the cloud means that an organization never has to
make compromises—in terms of functionality, availability, security, or scalability.
There is no need for an organization to lower its expectations based on the quality
or availability of services the cloud provider offers, no need to adopt services that
don’t align with an organization’s corporate standards, and no need to devise workarounds.
Familiarity
Ninety-six percent of Fortune 50 companies already use F5 in their data centers, so
expanding operations to the cloud offers distinct advantages for them. Their
learning curve effectively drops to zero because there are no new tools to learn, and
no new configurations and policies to create. Even for organizations that are not
using F5 on premises, the fact that F5 offers a consistent, unified platform and
services can make the prospect of a hybrid cloud deployment model feasible for
them to consider—and far easier for them to implement from the ground up.
Economic Feasibility
Cutting costs is seldom a primary motivator for organizations that are considering a
hybrid cloud deployment model. However, there are definitely cost-saving benefits to
be gained by moving to a hybrid cloud model. Given the ability to deploy fully
functional virtual appliances in the cloud, organizations avoid the vast capital
expense of building out data centers in multiple locations, as well as the expense of
managing multiple physical facilities. F5’s technology “bundles” not only enable
organizations to buy the functionality that’s right for their needs, they also provide
the best value for organizations that want to deploy advanced functionality (such as
advanced security services) across the hybrid cloud environment. And because BIGIP is a unified application delivery platform, organizations are able to consolidate
multiple services onto a single platform, which further strengthens the cost benefits,
whether implemented on physical or virtual appliances.
Conclusion
Organizations are seeking innovative ways to stay competitive and expand their
operations globally without comprising the quality of the applications they provide.
Until recently, embracing a hybrid cloud deployment model was a costly and
potentially risky proposition. It meant an organization had to entrust the delivery of
its applications to the cloud provider’s services, which are an unknown quantity in
terms of features and functionality. Organizations no longer have to make such
compromises. By taking advantage of F5’s unified platform (which includes fullyfunctional virtual editions) and the latest utility and licensing models, organizations
can take their existing services and policies directly to the cloud, significantly
reducing the risk of any cloud-based deployment model.
4
expense of building out data centers in multiple locations, as well as the expense of
managing multiple physical facilities. F5’s technology “bundles” not only enable
organizations to buy the functionality that’s right for their needs, they also provide
the best value for organizations that want to deploy advanced functionality (such as
advanced security services) across the hybrid cloud environment. And because BIGWHITE PAPER
IP is a unified application delivery platform, organizations are able to consolidate
Reduce Risk and Simplify the Journey to the Cloud
multiple services onto a single platform, which further strengthens the cost benefits,
®
whether implemented on physical or virtual appliances.
Conclusion
Organizations are seeking innovative ways to stay competitive and expand their
operations globally without comprising the quality of the applications they provide.
Until recently, embracing a hybrid cloud deployment model was a costly and
potentially risky proposition. It meant an organization had to entrust the delivery of
its applications to the cloud provider’s services, which are an unknown quantity in
terms of features and functionality. Organizations no longer have to make such
compromises. By taking advantage of F5’s unified platform (which includes fullyfunctional virtual editions) and the latest utility and licensing models, organizations
can take their existing services and policies directly to the cloud, significantly
reducing the risk of any cloud-based deployment model.
F5 Networks, Inc.
401 Elliott Avenue West, Seattle, WA 98119
888-882-4447 www.f5.com
Americas
[email protected]
Asia-Pacific
[email protected]
Europe/Middle-East/Africa
[email protected]
Japan
[email protected]
©2016 F5 Networks, Inc. All rights reserved. F5, F5 Networks, and the F5 logo are trademarks of F5 Networks, Inc. in the U.S. and in certain other countries. Other F5
trademarks are identified at f5.com. Any other products, services, or company names referenced herein may be trademarks of their respective owners with no
endorsement or affiliation, express or implied, claimed by F5. WP-36705-Hybrid-Cloud-Consumer 0113
5