Did Big-IQ just split into two separate products in version 4.6?

This is a BIG change! Thanks for the article, it was a really big help.

This is seriously going to surprise any user who uses cloud though, so I hope they find out about this before trying to upgrade so they aren't caught unaware! According to the article, cloud options like Amazon EC2 can't move forward, and there is no cloud upgrade path no matter what you use, though you can start with a clean install on cloud product if you use NSX or Cisco ACI.

The Big-IQ I was working on upgraded very straightforwardly to the management product, so at least that works well if you are only using it for management today. And actually, if you are only using it for management, I definitely recommend 4.6 based on my experience, because it's fixed a bunch of frustrating bugs, especially the one where SMTP didn't work if your SMTP server didn't require authentication, which is very common. So I like 4.6, but I am a bit confused about the strategy, because I thought F5 was aiming for one centralized management platform, and now it seems like there are two. I'm sure there's a good reason though so I'm hoping someone who knows more can explain the vision.