- F5 remains Leader in Gartner’s Application Delivery Controller Magic Quadrant space for the eighth consecutive year
- F5 consistently beats its own past performances
- Concerns around F5 focus on price and complexity of technology
- It’s important to evaluate the strength of an F5 Partner when considering F5 for your environment
F5’s Greatest Strengths
After eight consecutive years of dominating Gartner’s Application Delivery Controller Magic Quadrant, calling F5 a market leader is somewhat of an understatement. F5 is king, and we are living in the age of its ADC reign. But what makes F5 so dominant? What specifically about this technology keeps it one step ahead of the competition, year after year?
It’s important to point out that Gartner’s ADC quadrant has consistently moved up and to the right each year, meaning that, in order to maintain its spot as the leader, F5 has also consistently beaten itself over the course of eight years. That’s impressive, but not surprising, considering Gartner’s assessment of F5’s greatest strengths:
- A broad, comprehensive vision that includes physical and virtual deployments in enterprise and cloud environments
- A top choice for complex environments, given its extensive internal knowledge base and end-user community
- A feature-rich platform with a highly customizable and flexible interface
- A clear execution on its cloud strategy with acquisitions and feature developments
- Very deep financial and technical resources
What Makes a Quadrant Leader?
Gartner describes a quadrant leader as a vendor that “exhibits the ability to shape the market by introducing additional capabilities in its product offerings and by raising awareness of the importance of these features.” Gartner expects that a quadrant leader has a “strong or growing market share and has solutions that resonate with an increasing number of enterprises.” F5 and Citrix were the only two ADC vendors that attained the “leader” status, with F5 beating Citrix out for the top spot.
Nine additional ADC vendors were acknowledged in the magic quadrant:
- Citrix (Leader, below F5)
- A10 Networks (Challenger)
- Radware (Visionary)
- Riverbed (Visionary)
- Barracuda Networks (Niche Player)
- Array Networks (Niche Player)
- Kemp Technologies (Niche Player)
- Piolink (Niche Player)
- Sangfor (Niche Player)
You Need F5 Experts.
While it’s clear from the study that F5 is strong in every area, Gartner did indicate some areas of caution to consider when evaluating F5 for your environment. They can be whittled down to two main ideas:
- F5 is expensive. It’s the king for a reason, and the king commands a price premium—but you absolutely get what you pay for in the ADC space.
- F5 is complex—you need technical knowledge and engineering resources to ensure that you’re attaining the most value for your money.
If you’re considering F5 for your enterprise environment, we like your style. However, the criticisms are valid—you need a partner to ensure you are getting the most for your money when you decide on F5. You need F5 experts on speed dial.
F5 technology is complex, but it doesn’t have to be complicated. As an F5 Gold UNITY Partner, and the 2013 F5 UNITY Growth Partner of the year, ADAPTURE boasts a highly trained staff of visionary F5 engineers and architects. Furthermore, we have one of the most sought-after F5 security specialists in the country ready to answer all your questions.
Take it from all our satisfied F5 customers—it’s nice to know the king.
