icontrol
There are 7 entries for the tag icontrol
Back in 2001 (wow – seems like yesterday!), F5 introduced the first-ever, open/Web services API for network devices called iControl. With it, it sparked a major shift in the way companies could look at integrating network devices with applications. Leading software vendors figured it out. And, thousands of companies since then have used iControl to build custom monitoring apps, management solutions that more closely fit their internal processes, and even automate some cool stuff including enabling applications to tell the network how to deliver them. While all fine and dandy (and fun to be a part of personally), the...
As Don mentioned earlier this week, we took the plunge and entered Forrester's Groundswell contest. To me, I believe this is the ultimate testament to what you, the community, are doing on DevCentral everyday (check out this page - it's pretty cool). Back when we started this thing, it was simply to help folks learn how to tap into F5's groundbreaking iControl API. After asking users, we learned that folks needed some assistance getting started. Surprise, surprise - understanding terms like WSDL, SOAP, and related things were a bit new to F5's traditional users! With backgrounds in software, where forums...
Here at Interop, I had an interesting conversation on the show floor about integration. We were talking about how another company can remotely invoke change against infrastructure "via the CLI". When I asked why, the reasoning was that it's just how the infrastructure can be integrated - kind of because, "that's what's available". Sadly - that's pretty true in the networking world. To date, there is no API like iControl that offers a comprehensive API with broad tool support and functionality. So - when writing integration via the CLI, what happens when the hardware versions change? Maybe an upgrade patch?...
No doubt about it, virtualization is hot. It seems that you can't read an IT publication without some mention of it. And, for good reason. For a long time, organizations have been forced to contend with brittle, heterogeneous infrastructure and software that's expensive to acquire and maintain. Aside from the high cost, the gating factor it has placed on dynamic adjustment to changing business needs have made traditional IT design painful for IT departments and frustrating for the business folks. Virtualization provides a nice alternative for more dynamic, cost-effective, and nimble architectures. At F5, we've been "virtualizing" servers from the...
We're here (i.e. the entire DevCentral team) at the F5 annual sales conference. And, one of the best aspects for me is that we have the whole team together for a few days. It was really cool having dinner together tonight. The food was good. The drinks were decent. The wine was a bit young (or, "gamey", using Don's words) If we're lucky, Joe will post some Treo video. Everyday, I feel quite lucky to be graced by the skills, experience, and exuberance of the DevCentral Team. So, spending time face-to-face is just a a treat. The pace of conversations...
I recently had a fascinating conversation with Rob Whiteley of Forrester. We were chatting about how life is changing for the network professional. How more and more automation is driving the frontline network ops folks to look for new areas in which to build skills, offer innovative solutions, etc. I was surprised by the lengths at which companies are going to automate otherwise "human" tasks today to reduce cost and risk and increase efficiency. Since then, I haven't been able to get a term (created by my friend Dave) out of my head: "job-hacking". (courtesy of www.hardwickrecruiting.com) I can't help...
An interesting article has been published on www.devx.com by Ty Anderson, a consultant at Cogent Company. Check it out - he does a great job of pointing out how application developers can take advantage of the network (and specifically - iRules and iControl) when writing apps. Here's a snippet... "The reality is developers can build better, more effective applications by utilizing Application Delivery Controller (ADC). These devices are deployed in your network and track all network traffic. This includes in-coming, out-going, and internal traffic. Once installed and configured, these devices know everything that occurs in your network. This means they also know...
