What’s in store for us at F5 EMEA Agility 2015?

As we at F5, along with our customers and partners, prepare to don our kilts and relocate to Edinburgh for the annual EMEA Agility conference, we thought we’d preview the main events and happenings as the event draws ever nearer:

Keynotes

Agility’s exciting line-up of presentations kicks off with Manny Rivelo, our incoming CEO, welcoming attendees with a keynote address at 1.25pm (BST). Manny’s talk will start with an overview of our latest financial results, giving an insight into what’s been an extremely strong 12 months for F5.

He’ll look at how we’ve significantly expanded our capabilities in the security, cloud, and SP market segments, and what this means for how we’re transforming the IT infrastructures of our customers to ensure applications delivered over IP networks are fast, secure and available to anyone, anywhere, any time.

Manny will also give his views on the trends shaping the market, and how we’ll continue to develop and deliver the industry’s best solutions - with our strategic partners – to keep our customers’ applications protected and performing the way they should. It’s one not to miss.

Nor is the session immediately following. Dean Darwin takes the stage at 1.40pm to present F5’s vision. Shaped around the event’s key themes – ‘Innovate | Expand | Deliver’. He’ll introduce the next-generation ADC architecture for hybrid clouds and software-defined data centres, discuss new business models such as subscription licensing, cloud services, and service delivery options, and showcase F5’s expanding strategic partnerships with SDN and cloud technology leaders such as Microsoft, Cisco, and VMware.

Productive partnerships

Agility will also provide a great opportunity to hear from some of these partners. Wednesday afternoon will see three partnership presentations take place on the main stage, beginning with a talk from Cisco and F5 at 14.20, and followed by joint F5 presentations with HP (14.35) and VMware (15.30).

The general session will conclude with the annual F5 Partner Awards. The awards recognise F5 partners and resellers from across the EMEA region that have excelled in delivering the benefits of F5 solutions to customers as they seek to redefine application delivery amidst mobility, security, cloud and SDN challenges. We’re looking forward to showcasing some of the truly impressive projects our partners have delivered.

King of the castle

Wednesday’s conference ends with a networking and drinks reception at 5pm, before moving on to the evening (and arguably main) event at Edinburgh Castle. The historic landmark, which dominates the capital’s skyline, will play host to a night of tasty food, drink, entertaining music, knowledgeable guides and more!

Agility attendees will have access to all that the castle has to offer, including some of British history’s most famous objects:

· Mons Meg - the iconic medieval castle cannon. Built in 1449 on the orders of Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy and sent by him as a gift to King James II of Scotland in 1454. The canon was employed in sieges until the middle of the 16th century, after which it was only fired on ceremonial occasions. It was on one such occasion in 1680 that the barrel burst, retiring Mons Meg to decorative duties only. 

· Stone of Scone - also known as the Stone of Destiny was used for centuries in the coronation of the monarchs of Scotland, and later the monarchs of England and the United Kindgdom. The Stone of Scone has played almost as big a role in popular culture as it has in actual history – playing parts in various famous works, ranging from Doctor Who, to The King’s Speech, to Terry Pratchett’s DiscWorld novel The Fifth Elephant!

· The Crown Jewels - The ancient Honours of Scotland (the crown, sceptre and sword of state) are on view to all guests in the Crown Room, as well as details regarding the remarkable story of their rediscovery in 1818.

Like the conference as a whole, this is a party not to be missed!

For further information on Agility and the full agenda, click here. The team will also be writing further posts which focus in on some of the breakout sessions, so watch this space.