F5 VELOS: A Next-Generation Fully Automatable Platform
F5 VELOS is a secure, high-performance Application Delivery Controller chassis system that enables organizations to meet the demands of high-growth AI apps and AI network data ingestion with unmatched scalability, flexibility, and resilience.
Table of Contents
What is VELOS?
The F5 VELOS platform is the next generation of F5’s chassis-based systems. VELOS can bridge traditional and modern application architectures by supporting a mix of traditional F5 BIG-IP tenants as well as next-generation BIG-IP Next tenants in the future.
VELOS relies on a Kubernetes-based platform layer (F5OS) that is tightly integrated with F5 TMOS software. Going to a microservice-based platform layer allows VELOS to provide additional functionality that was not possible in previous generations of F5 BIG-IP platforms. Customers do not need to learn Kubernetes but still get the benefits of it. Management of the chassis will still be done via a familiar F5 CLI, webUI, or API.
The additional benefit of automation capabilities can greatly simplify the process of deploying F5 products. A significant amount of time and resources are saved due to automation, which translates to more time to perform critical tasks.
F5OS VELOS UI
Why is VELOS important?
- Get more done in less time by using a highly automatable hardware platform that can deploy software solutions in seconds, not minutes or hours.
- Increased performance improves ROI: The VELOS platform is a high-performance and highly scalable chassis with improved processing power.
- Running multiple versions on the same platform allows for more flexibility than previously possible.
- Significantly reduce the TCO of previous-generation hardware by consolidating multiple platforms into one.
Key VELOS Use-Cases
NetOps Automation
- Shorten time to market by automating network operations and offering cloud-like orchestration with full-stack programmability
- Drive app development and delivery with self-service and faster response time
Business Continuity
- Drive consistent policies across on-prem and public cloud and across hardware and software-based ADCs
- Build resiliency with VELOS’ superior platform redundancy and failover capabilities
- Future-proof investments by running multiple versions of apps side-by-side; migrate applications at your own pace
Cloud Migration On-Ramp
- Accelerate cloud strategy by adopting cloud operating models and on-demand scalability with VELOS and use that as on-ramp to cloud
- Dramatically reduce TCO with VELOS systems; extend commercial models to migrate from hardware to software or as applications move to cloud
Automation Capabilities
Declarative APIs and integration with automation frameworks (Terraform, Ansible) greatly simplifies operations and reduces overhead:
- AS3 (Application Services 3 Extension): A declarative API that simplifies the configuration of application services. With AS3, customers can deploy and manage configurations consistently across environments.
- Ansible Automation: Prebuilt Ansible modules for VELOS enable automated provisioning, configuration, and updates, reducing manual effort and minimizing errors.
- Terraform: Organizations leveraging Infrastructure as Code (IaC) can use Terraform to define and automate the deployment of VELOS appliances and associated configurations.
Example json file:
Example of running the Automation Playbook:
Example of the results:
More information on Automation:
Specialized Hardware Performance
VELOS offers more hardware-accelerated performance capabilities with more FPGA chipsets that are more tightly integrated with TMOS. It also includes the latest Intel processing capabilities. This enhances the following:
- SSL and compression offload
- L4 offload for higher performance and reduced load on software
- Hardware-accelerated SYN flood protection
- Hardware-based protection from more than 100 types of denial-of-service (DoS) attacks
- Support for F5 Intelligence Services
VELOS CX1610 chassis
VELOS BX520 blade
Migration Options (BIG-IP Journeys)
Use BIG-IP Journeys to easily migrate your existing configuration to VELOS. This covers the following:
- Entire L4-L7 configuration can be migrated
- Individual Applications can be migrated
- BIG-IP Tenant configuration can be migrated
- Automatically identify and resolve migration issues
- Convert UCS files into AS3 declarations if needed
- Post-deployment diagnostics and health
- The Journeys Tool, available on DevCentral’s GitHub, facilitates the migration of legacy BIG-IP configurations to VELOS-compatible formats.
- Customers can convert UCS files, validate configurations, and highlight unsupported features during the migration process.
- Multi-tenancy capabilities in VELOS simplify the process of isolating workloads during and after migration.
GitHub repository for F5 Journeys
Conclusion
The F5 VELOS platform addresses the modern enterprise’s need for high-performance, scalable, and efficient application delivery and security solutions. By combining cutting-edge hardware capabilities with robust automation tools and flexible migration options, VELOS empowers organizations to seamlessly transition from legacy platforms while unlocking new levels of performance and operational agility. Whether driven by the need for increased throughput, advanced multi-tenancy, the VELOS platform stands as a future-ready solution for securing and optimizing application delivery in an increasingly complex IT landscape.
Related Content
F5 VELOS Chassic System Datasheet
F5 rSeries: Next-Generation Fully Automatable Hardware
Demo Video:
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