F5's File Virtualization Solutions Recognized as the Top Technology in Industry

Virtualization addresses a number of issues surrounding data management in small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) as well as large enterprises.

 

According to Robert Stevenson, managing director of storage research for TheInfoPro (TIP), virtualization of data provides a solution to problems such as managing storage growth and data mobility while controlling costs.

 

TheInfoPro, an independent research network for the Information Technology (IT) industry, released the result of a study “TheInfoPro Storage Study, Wave 11, Fall 2008”. The TIP report found that 55 percent of the firms interviewed in the research increased their spending on virtualization throughout 2008.

 

F5 Networks, a provider of application delivery networking, said it has been positioned as the number one in-use file virtualization vendor for Fortune 1000 companies in the TheInfoPro report.

 

F5 ARX intelligent file virtualization decouples file access from physical file location to simplify and automate the way file data is accessed, moved and managed.

 

The ARX solution offers a powerful suite of storage management policies that eliminate the business and applications disruptions associated with data migration, storage tiering, data replication, and storage load balancing.

 

“Organizations are using F5’s ARX file virtualization solutions to more efficiently manage their data, which is especially important during economically unstable times,” said Nigel Burmeister, director of product marketing, F5 Data Solutions, in a statement. 

 

ARX enables companies to quickly implement critically important storage initiatives, like de-duplication, backup optimization, and information lifecycle management that cut storage-related costs and make more efficient use of existing assets, Burmeister said.

 

F5 also said it received the highest promise and fulfillment scores in the Virtualization Market Window of Customer Ratings. The promise score, according to TIP, measures the strength of a vendor’s marketing promises based on customer ratings in the areas of competitive positioning, technical innovation, management’s strategic vision, and brand/reputation.

 

The fulfillment score measures the degree to which the promises were met. This number is based on customer ratings in the areas of value for the money, product quality, delivery as promised and technical support.