F5 brings traffic management to blades - Company pulls security, packet inspection into BIG-IP Blade Controller software.

F5 Networks is extending its presence in the emerging blade-server management market with new security and packet-inspection enhancements to its BIG-IP Blade Controller software.

Not typically considered a network-management software player, the Seattle-based networking equipment maker announced on Monday that it has added the security features from its traffic-management software to its blade-server management software to stop DoS (Denial of Service) attacks. F5 has also included an inspection engine to enable the examination of incoming IP packets.

"Some blade-server vendors have load-balancing software, but none have traffic management," said Mark Harris, …