How to get a F5 BIG-IP VE Developer Lab License

UPDATE:

Good evening.

My F5 Sales Engineer responded even though he is on vacation. He handed off to the Engineer. The Engineer engaged the F5 Public sector sales group. Someone from that group sent me and e-mail and we had a phone conversation moments ago. Wow! Talk about good customer service!

Okay - so here's the bad part. While F5 is great at many things, handing their Lab licenses and sales of those licenses to the general public (apparently called the Private sector, not "public" as seems logical to me) is Not one of those things.

To be clear, it was the F5 Public sector sales group that reached out to me. They handle sales to government entities, not companies or private citizens.

I explained the situation to this person. He understands the situation. He said he would reach back to F5 and see what they can come up with.

If you work for a government entity (are military, Civilian, or Contractor) and would like assistance, there's no guarantee this group that reached out to me tonight will be able to assist, but if you choose to send me your name and e-mail address, I will pass that information along and request that they reach out to you. The individual I spoke with tonight did not want to post anything here himself at this time and did not want to make promises he couldn't keep.

I did receive a quite tonight however and can verify that this is the current listing for the current lab license:

Part No.: F5-BIG-VE-LAB-V18

Description: BIG-IP Virtual Edition: Lab License (LTM, DNS,

AFM, ASM, AWF, APM, CGN, SSLO, Routing,

SDN, Crypto Offload, Ext-HSM, Adv, Protocols,

10 Mbps, v12.1.x - v18.x)

F5 Networks, Inc. - F5-BIG-VE-LAB-V18

The price quoted to me (for Public sector and from this specific company) was less than $95. When I purchased my lab licenses four years ago, the price was $115 or so. I would expect to pay about $120 or more if a private citizen.

And the Service Agreement is:

Part No.: F5-SVC-BIG-PRESW218

Description: BIG-IP Service: Premium CAT SW218

F5 Networks, Inc. - F5-SVC-BIG-PRE-SW218

The price quoted to me (for Public sector and from this specific company) was less than $17 for 1 Year.

At least I kicked the ball over to F5 and they acknowledged the concern.

Best Wishes,

John K. Weaver

CISSP, CISM, CISA, CCNP, CCNA-Security, F5-CA, MCSE-Security, MCITP-EA/SA/VA (2008), VCP-DCV 2019 (v6.5), VCP6-NV (v6.2), VCP5-DCV (v5.5), Security+CE