MANUFACTURING

F5 Networks has announced an integrated solution supporting VMware View 4.5 that optimizes user experience, delivers critical security, and enhances the performance, scalability, and availability of back-end VMware services. F5's new Application Ready Solution for VMware View 4.5 offers desktop virtualization users convenient single sign-on (SSO), secure access, and high-performance PC-over-IP (PCoIP) protocol handling through the BIG-IP Edge Gateway solution; high availability and scalability through the BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) solution; and documented expertise with deployment guidance based on thorough testing between F5 products and VMware View 4.5.

"Organizations are very interested in desktop virtualization with its promise of cost savings and simplified management, however security and user experience have been two key issues IT teams needed to address in taking on these projects," said Erik Giesa, VP of Product Management and Product Marketing at F5 Networks. "These are two core areas of expertise for F5's Application Ready Solutions, which are designed to expedite implementation of emerging technologies like desktop virtualization."

Details

F5's Application Ready Solution for VMware View 4.5 is a validated, documented solution, complete with deployment guidance that is specifically tailored to enhance the security, availability, and scalability of VMware View without compromising performance. Highlights include:

-- Superior User Experience with SSO -- Streamlining the authentication process for mobile/remote workers not only enhances user experience, but also minimizes security risk and reduces password lockout calls to the helpdesk. BIG-IP Edge Gateway caches sign-on credentials and enables authentication passthrough during the logon process. If the connection drops, the user will automatically be re-authenticated.

-- Secure Access with Broad Range of Authentication Mechanisms -- Providing stringent access control is vital to secure corporate desktops and protect critical business assets. BIG-IP Edge Gateway provides powerful authentication and access control with pre-logon checks on the endpoint device before the logon sequence begins. In addition, it provides a broad range of authentication mechanisms, including two-factor schemes and various back-end directory services. After authentication, BIG-IP Edge Gateway guarantees the encryption of all VMware View transport protocols, including PCoIP, to enable external users to securely connect to virtual desktops in the enterprise.

-- Unique Support for the PCoIP Display Protocol -- BIG-IP Edge Gateway, with its Datagram Transport Layer Security (DTLS) feature, is uniquely capable of providing security for transporting PCoIP communications--with no degradation in performance. In addition, BIG-IP Edge Gateway supports automatic fallback to TCP if a high-performance UDP tunnel cannot be established.

-- Reduced Infrastructure/Power/Space Requirements for the Data Center -- As part of the Application Ready Solution for VMware View 4.5, BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager provides valuable server offload functions to optimize availability and scalability for VMware View deployments. These include load balancing, health monitoring, session persistence, and SSL server offload for the VMware View connection brokers. In addition to reducing CapEx and OpEx costs, the solution helps IT departments enhance user experience.

Supporting Quotes

"VMware is committed to providing our customers with the best user experience. With F5's Application Ready Solution, organizations implementing VMware View 4.5 benefit from a high-performance desktop environment that simplifies authentication and connectivity for users, while enabling rich management features to help drive down desktop management costs," said Vittorio Viarengo, VP, End-User Computing Products, VMware.

"When it comes to addressing our customers' needs, Softchoice takes a holistic approach to storage, networking, and virtualization in order to deliver increased efficiencies while laying the groundwork for a more dynamic and more scalable IT environment," said Frank Ball, Director of Networking at Softchoice. "F5's solutions align well with ours, adding clear value to VMware View deployments by ensuring end-to-end security, performance, and scale. By working with F5 on VMware View deployments, we can offer greater value to our customers by helping them achieve a superior user experience and fully optimize their desktop virtualization projects."

"Extending the value of desktop virtualization beyond the corporate network is becoming a primary use case as companies target offshore developers, regional offices, and contract workers," said Mark Bowker, Senior Analyst at Enterprise Strategy Group. "Architecting F5 solutions into VMware View deployments helps ensure feature-rich and reliable user experience, secure connections, and simplified single sign-on access to centralized virtual desktops."

Availability

F5's Application Ready Solution for VMware View 4.5 is available today. The integrated solution comprises several F5 technologies, including BIG-IP Edge Gateway and BIG-IP LTM.

Additional Resources

-- F5 Solutions for VMware View

-- Deploying F5 Solutions with VMware View 4.5

-- F5 and VMware Solution Guide

F5 Networks at the VMworld 2010 Conference