F5's Buu Lam discusses NGINX as a Service in Azure, highlighting benefits like simplified infrastructure, auto-scaling, and premium features. The evolution of NGINX technology into a service model on Azure marketplace enhances monitoring tools integration and revenue generation. Managing configurations in a multi-cloud environment, SSL/TLS decryption advantages, and networking services evolution with Nginx and F5 are also explored.
NGINX as a Service on Azure simplifies deployment and scaling for users.
F5's focus on evolving network patterns highlights adaptability and scalability.
NGINX Plus provides advanced security features and efficient cost scalability.
Deep dives
Evolution of F5's Big IP Products and Importance of Regular Patching
F5 has evolved its Big IP product like Big IP for load balancing and TLS offload. Despite the dependable uptime, field engineers noted unpatched systems, highlighting the need for regular updates, especially with changing TLS landscapes. The product has expanded to encompass authentication, authorization, and web application security, urging users to stay updated for new features and security measures.
F5's Engagement with Developers and Acquisition of NGINX
F5's acquisition of NGINX has broadened its user base to include developers and DevOps teams, aligning with the developer persona. NGINX's compatibility with Kubernetes as an ingress controller and focus on multi-cloud deployments offers more flexibility and scalability options. NGINX as a service on Azure provides ease of configuration and allows for seamless deployment and scaling options for users.
Transition to NGINX as a Service and Azure Marketplace Integration
The transition to NGINX as a service on Azure offers users familiar NGINX features within the Azure portal, integrating telemetry and Azure's monitoring tools. Unlike traditional on-prem deployments, NGINX as a service provides convenience by handling patching and scaling considerations, streamlining the deployment process. Users can benefit from simplified configurations, increased security with early patching, and reduced maintenance overhead.
NGINX Plus Features and Service Model Advantages
NGINX Plus offers advanced features like increased security, authentication, dynamic configuration options, and support for additional protocols and file types. The service model provides users with automatic patching, health checks, and support services, addressing concerns about code maintenance and security updates. The cost model based on connections and instances offers scalability and cost efficiency for varying traffic loads, while ensuring efficient operations and security measures.
Future Direction and Flexibility in Service Offerings
F5's focus on expanding services to cater to evolving network patterns like multi-cloud and Kubernetes deployment strategies highlights its commitment to adaptability and scalability. By emphasizing integration with Kubernetes Gateway API and providing web application firewall services and cloud connectivity, F5 aims to offer a comprehensive suite of services for scalable and secure application deployment. The platform's consistency in providing load balancing capabilities with added business logic and SSL/TLS optimization showcases its value proposition for simplifying network operations.
Community Engagement and Resource Accessibility through Dev Central and NGINX.org
The availability of resources like the F5 community site Dev Central and NGINX.org's Slack community enhances user engagement and learning opportunities. Dev Central serves as a global community platform offering insights on F5 products, including NGINX, while NGINX's Slack community functions as a collaborative space for discussing NGINX configuration, certifications, and networking with experts. These platforms empower users, especially developers leveraging NGINX, to explore, configure, and optimize their networking setups with guidance from industry professionals.
More application platform pieces make your life better! While at Build in Seattle, Richard sat down with Buu Lam of F5 to discuss F5's latest offering, NGINX as a Service in Azure. Buu discussed how F5's products have evolved to run in the cloud, not just on their hardware. While you could run them as virtual machines or containers, providing them as services in Azure is better. You purchase the service in the marketplace and as part of your Azure billing. The conversation digs into the advantages of the services model in terms of updating and instrumentation, as well as reducing the complexity of your infrastructure as code.
