F5's TrafficShield® Named Finalist for ''Best of Interop'' Awards 2006

Business Wire, May 1, 2006

LAS VEGAS -- F5 Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ: FFIV), the global leader in Application Delivery Networking, today announced that Interop and Network Computing have named TrafficShield(R) v9.2 as a finalist for the Annual Best of Interop Awards in Las Vegas. TrafficShield, F5's web application firewall, was chosen as a finalist in the security category for its comprehensive network and application-layer protection from generalized and targeted attacks.

"We are very pleased with CMP's validation of TrafficShield," said Jason Needham, Director of Product Management at F5 Networks. "No other Web application firewall combines enterprise-class hardware with the flexibility of a holistic application security policy engine and the network underpinnings of TMOS."

TrafficShield's flexible security policy structure utilizes F5's unique TMOS platform--a revolutionary architecture for inspecting, controlling, transforming, programming, and scaling the various services that are needed to secure, optimize, and deliver today's diverse applications, including IP applications. By integrating with the TMOS platform, TrafficShield can leverage many pre-existing features of TMOS including Packet Filtering, Client Authentication, and more.

Finalists were chosen after the technology editors from Network Computing and three IT industry veterans reviewed the nominations, all of which must have been announced after January 1 and made available by August 15, 2006. "The finalists stand out from the competition because they push the state of distributed computing and networking to the next level," explained Ron Anderson, lab director for Network Computing and head of the joint editorial judging for the Best of Interop Awards.

The judges will meet with the finalists at Interop for one last look at the products before selecting a winner in each of the seven categories, as well as two special honors--Best Startup and the coveted "Best of Interop" Award. The prizes will be given at an awards ceremony on May 2 in the Interop Theater.

About Interop

Interop, now part of the CMP Media family of global brands, has led the revolution and evolution in IP networking for the past twenty years, and is dedicated to promoting and demonstrating the interoperability of the converged network, applications and devices to seamlessly exchange and use information to address the full range of business challenges facing IT organizations today and tomorrow. As the leading destination for technology buyers and sellers, Interop has fostered the growth and evolution of the IT industry for the past two decades, and remains the most anticipated and only comprehensive IT event. Through in-depth educational programs, workshops, real-world demonstrations and live technology implementations in its unique InteropNet and InteropLabs programs, Interop provides the forum for the most powerful innovations and solutions the industry has to offer. Interop Las Vegas will take place at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center, April 30-May 5, 2006, and Interop New York 2006 will take place at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, September 18-22, 2006. For more information about these events, visit www.interop.com.

About F5 Networks

F5 Networks is the global leader in Application Delivery Networking. F5 provides solutions that make applications secure, fast and available for everyone, helping organizations get the most out of their investment. By adding intelligence and manageability into the network to offload applications, F5 optimizes applications and allows them to work faster and consume fewer resources. F5's extensible architecture intelligently integrates application optimization, protects the application and the network, and delivers application reliability - all on one universal platform. Over 10,000 organizations and service providers worldwide trust F5 to keep their applications running. The company is headquartered in Seattle, Washington with offices worldwide. For more information, go to www.f5.com.

About CMP Media

CMP Media is a marketing solutions company serving the technology, healthcare and lifestyles industries. Through its market-leading portfolio of trusted information brands, CMP Media has earned the confidence of more professionals and enthusiasts in these fields than any other media company. As a result, CMP is the premier provider of access, insight and actionable programs designed to connect sellers and buyers in each of these industries in ways that yield superior return on investment. CMP Media is a subsidiary of United Business Media, a global provider of news distribution and specialist information services with a market capitalization of more than $3 billion.

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