F5 launches carrier-class firewall to protect service provider networks
F5 Networks, an American cloud security solutions provider has announced the availability of a scalable carrier-class firewall solution at Mobile World Congress Shanghai focused on delivering end-to-end security across service provider networks. With this launch, F5 aims to expand its portfolio of dedicated security offerings.
The company claims that its new carrier-class firewall supports up to 1.2 billion concurrent connections and over 20 million connections per second. It is designed to address security issues concerning the growth of the Internet of Things (IoT), migration to 5G and NFV networks, as well as increased security vulnerabilities affecting devices, networks, and applications.
“Service providers today are responding to the exponential growth of subscribers, data, devices, and the Internet of Things by re-architecting their networks and making sure they can scale. There are significant challenges when it comes to protecting the security of these networks,” said Mallik Tatipamula, Vice-President, Service Provider Solutions, F5 Networks.
“F5 security solutions protect service provider networks from attacks, enabling the security of subscribers, devices, and core network elements such as the Gi LAN and data centre,” he added.A recent study done by independent research firm ACG revealed F5’s Carrier-Class Firewall (based on VIPRION 4800) achieved up to 80 percent lower TCO than alternative offerings while providing 216 percent higher ROI. “The relentless, rapid growth in number of users, devices, and applications on mobile networks creates a need for operators’ security solutions to scale efficiently on a similar trajectory. This is true on every plane of operation and in all application areas. A central element in achieving these goals is the carrier class firewall in the Gi LAN. Firewall scaling on multiple dimensions—number of concurrent sessions, connection setups per second, and throughput—is critical,” said Paul Parker-Johnson, Principal Analyst, ACG Research.
“F5 has skilfully achieved a balance of capabilities in its carrier-class firewall that delivers superior performance on each of these important dimensions for the Gi LAN with a compelling economic return,” he added.F5’s carrier-class Firewall will be available in the third quarter of calendar year 2016.