F5 BIG-IP Cloud Edition
Dedicated App Services and Protection for Every App, Anywhere

Overview:

Many organizations have embraced digital transformation initiatives to increase automation and speed up Internet-based interactions. This digital transformation is driving an explosion of internally developed web-based applications. But it has also complicated IT operations and—in many cases—exposed applications to inconsistent or inadequate protection against attacks. As a result, previous processes and the application of consistent policies have fallen by the wayside. In some cases, these initiatives have even created new manual processes that inhibit the ability to scale up operations to meet business needs.

F5 BIG-IP Cloud Edition: Automatically deploy pre-built app services dedicated to each application

To embed consistent processes and adherence to business standards into the digital transformation process, F5 created BIG-IP Cloud Edition. This solution shifts app services to a per-app model with automated application services and security deployments. BIG-IP Cloud Edition bridges the gap between corporate polices, processes and compliance, and fast-moving digital transformations—and includes self-service automated deployment and visibility for each application team. These innovations help reduce risk and improve overall performance and security.

BIG-IP Cloud Edition enables digital transformation by providing right-sized, dedicated application services and security via automated workflows and comprehensive analytics. Application services and security are enabled by BIG-IP Per-App virtual editions (VEs). BIG-IP Per-App VEs provide every application with Application Delivery Controllers (ADCs) and F5 Advanced Web Application Firewall (Advanced WAF) for consistent delivery of services and security for existing—as well as new—applications. BIG-IP Per-App VEs deliver the same scalable, secure, and customizable market-leading services provided by traditional F5 physical and virtual ADCs—at a price and in a form factor appropriate for supporting every application.

BIG-IP Cloud Edition delivers deployment automation, management, and visibility via the F5 BIG-IQ Centralized Management platform. BIG-IP Cloud Edition enables self-service automated provisioning through pre-built app templates for each app owner, including simpleto-view dashboards for managing and troubleshooting their applications. This simplification removes reliance on network and security operations—and eliminates the need for deep network domain expertise—all while ensuring consistent usage of approved templates and policies in the development and deployment of applications into production.

BIG-IP Cloud Edition provides full lifecycle management including automated spin-up/spin-down of BIG-IP Per-App VE instances and scaling out of additional VE instances based on capacity thresholds. This also means that migrating to new BIG-IP software versions is seamless because a new VE instance running the latest release can be spun up, and the old instance spun down, as connections are directed to the new instance. The traditional in-place upgrade process is no longer required.

F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM): ADC services to ensure your apps are fast, available, and scalable

F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) helps you deliver your application to your users in a reliable, safe, and optimized way. You get the extensibility and flexibility of intelligent traffic management with the programmability needed to manage your virtual and cloud infrastructure. With BIG-IP Per-App LTM, you have the power to simplify, automate, and customize applications faster and more predictably.

F5 Advanced Web Application Firewall (WAF): A comprehensive WAF that helps you secure your apps—and your data

F5 Per-App Advanced WAF—with enhanced firewall capabilities—secures applications against layer 7 distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, malicious bot traffic, and application vulnerabilities where other WAFs fail. Additionally, it provides protection against credential theft and stuffing through F5 BIG-IP DataSafe™ technology. Built on F5’s industry-leading application protection technology, Per-App Advanced WAF delivers flexible and comprehensive protections for each app with auto-tuning policies and without compromising compliance.

F5 BIG-IQ Centralized Management: Application-centric management from a single pane of glass

F5 BIG-IQ Centralized Management provides a central point of control for BIG-IP Per-App VEs and the application services that run on them. It simplifies management through application and device templates, helps ensure compliance, and provides the tools you need to deliver applications securely and effectively.

F5 BIG-IP Cloud Edition App Dashboard

Features:

Dedicated Per-App Services
Provide dedicated intelligent traffic management and Advanced WAF protection for all your apps.

Self-Service Management
Application-centric management lets you empower your app teams to manage their own applications with catalog of pre-built and customizable templates for automated provisioning, configurations, and upgrades.

On-Demand Autoscale
No need to overprovision resources. Automatically scale out additional Per-App VE instances based on policy.

Faster Troubleshooting
An application-specific dashboard delivers actionable analytics and deep visibility into app performance, security, and end-user experience, which enables quick self-diagnosis and issue resolution.

Simplified Licensing
Choose the model that’s right for your business. BIG-IP Cloud Edition is available with subscription, ELA, or perpetual licensing.

Benefits:

BIG-IP Cloud Edition benefits include:

• Template-based app services deployment that enables self-service provisioning, consistent policies, and configurations that provide agility while ensuring compliance.
• Automatic spin-up and -down of Per-App VE instances including autoscaling and rolling upgrades.
• Full automation with published key workflow REST API.

The F5 BIG-IP Cloud Edition combination of Per-App VEs and BIG-IQ Centralized Management enables agile application protection and deployment while supporting digital transformation and driving business results.

Deployment:

F5 BIG-IP Cloud Edition simplifies management with application and device templates, automatic spin-up and -down of Per-App VE instances, and comprehensive security capabilities.

Purchase Options:

After you have established your needs, the next step is working out the commercial model that suits you best. F5 offers BIG-IP Cloud Edition with three purchase options:

• Subscription
• Perpetual licensing
• Enterprise License Agreement (ELA)

In all purchase models, F5 BIG-IQ License Manager (LM) allows you on-demand, self-service licensing of BIG-IP instances, enabling you to build, scale, and destroy application delivery services dynamically without contacting F5 for licensing of BIG-IP instances.

Subscription licensing

Subscription Licensing Offer for BIG-IP VE is an auto-renewal agreement for BIG-IP VE licenses, available in one-year, two-year, and three-year periods. Within the agreement, organizations choose local BIG-IP VE licenses at subscription initiation. The initial order of subscription licenses is populated in BIG-IQ LM and is available for immediate deployment. Subscription Licensing Offer for BIG-IP VE enables IT departments to self-manage their lifecycles. License instantiation or revocation can be done via BIG-IQ LM, either directly or via REST API. Net-new licenses from the BIG-IP VE subscription list can be instantiated at any time. Activity reports are provided monthly to F5 via BIG-IQ API upload or email. F5 Premium (24x7) support and software updates are included in the subscription.

Subscription Licensing Offer for BIG-IP VE is an auto-renewal agreement for BIG-IP VE licenses, available in one-year, two-year, and three-year periods.

Enterprise Licensing Agreement

The F5 ELA is an annual spend commitment that allows you to deploy services from the F5 catalog wherever and whenever you need. This helps you dynamically create or scale IT infrastructure to meet business needs. With the three-year license subscription, you can commit to a minimum annual spend, over a three-year period, for application and security services—with room to grow. The annual fee is adjusted for subsequent years based on the prior year’s usage. If you exceed your yearly budget, you won’t be penalized with a retroactive charge-back.

Perpetual Licenses

Perpetual pool licenses are also available for BIG-IP Cloud Edition. Pool licenses are purchased for a fixed number of devices but are not permanently tied to a specific device. Pool licenses are managed by BIG-IQ so can be used for scaling via the service scaling groups and can be used and recovered in the same manner as other licenses. The significant difference is that pool license numbers are fixed and cannot be scaled dynamically without the purchase of further pool license packs. Support is not automatically included but is available to purchase as an additional item.

Documentation:

Download the F5 BIG-IP Cloud Edition Datasheet (.PDF)