F5 Networks is introducing the F5 ACI ServiceCenter app to seamlessly combine L2-3 network connectivity with L4-7 application services within Cisco ACI environments. Available through Cisco’s ACI App Center, this integration app enhances visibility and control throughout the network and application stack to help customers accelerate application deployment within flexible, software-defined IT infrastructures.
Further integration efforts are anticipated to yield the additional advantage of deploying F5’s expansive portfolio of application and security services within Cisco’s extensible ACI framework.
“Technology collaboration between F5 and Cisco is a clear win for joint customers,” said Calvin Rowland, SVP of Business Development at F5. “Building on previous partnership efforts, the F5 ACI ServiceCenter app gives organizations the ability to elegantly develop and enhance application and network deployments with a software-defined approach. More broadly, joint efforts like this are emblematic of the ways the two companies integrate capabilities for advanced automation and orchestration throughout the L2-7 stack.”
The F5 ACI ServiceCenter app takes advantage of F5’s simple and powerful Automation Toolchain capabilities to enable joint customers to deploy, configure, and customize application services in ACI environments quickly via declarative APIs. Together, F5 and Cisco engineering teams have built a number of use cases that utilize F5’s broad range of availability, networking and security services.
Cisco’s ACI App Center is an innovative platform enabling Cisco’s technology partners to build ACI applications that simplify and enhance use cases using an open, extensible, and programmable ACI toolkit. The new downloadable app provides a direct, easy, and efficient way for mutual customers to consume application services across a variety of modern deployment scenarios.
“Open APIs have never been more important – they help customers utilize data, build partnerships, and forge new paths to innovation. The ACI App Center has been designed to foster collaboration and source innovation from user and development communities throughout our partner ecosystem,” said Thomas Scheibe, VP, Product Management, Data Center Networking, at Cisco. “Essentially, it provides an open path to add additional capabilities and services that maximize the value of software-defined networking, with the F5 ACI ServiceCenter app as a prime example. We look forward to additional integration opportunities with F5 to promote quicker application and service deployments, along with heightened visibility and versatile network performance.”