Blog · Application Delivery | Load Balancing
F5 Public Sector Symposium
Discover new strategies to ensure your mission-critical apps are always secure, available, andfast — wherever they are.
F5’s annual Public Sector Symposium is back, and it is coming to the Ritz-Carlton Tysons Corner on April 19-21, 2022! You can join in-person or virtually to discover new strategies that can help keep your apps secure, available, and fast, wherever they are. This year’s event will feature day-long technical boot camps, self-paced labs, and workshops to help you master F5 technology. Make sure you register for F5’s Public Sector Symposium today, so you don’t miss out!
| 04/19/2022 Agenda | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7:30-8:15 AM | Registration & Breakfast | |||
| 8:15-8:30 AM | Welcome | |||
| 8:30-10:45 AM | Industry Experts & F5 Executives | |||
| 11:00-12:30 PM | Tracks 1-6 In Session | |||
| 12:30-1:15 PM | Lunch | |||
| 1:15-2:15 PM | Tracks 1-6 Continued | |||
| 2:15-2:30 PM | Break | |||
| 2:30-3:30 PM | Tracks 1-6 Continued | |||
| 3:30-6:30 PM | Happy Hour (In-Person Only) |
| 04/19/2022 Track Session Descriptions | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11:00 – 3:30 PM | Track 1- Boot Camp 101 This track is designed for customers who are relatively new to the F5 product portfolio and are looking to take the first step on the path to F5 Certified BIG-IP Administrator. This training will encompass networking basics, discuss where application calls are made in the TCP/IP stack and help the end user prepare for the F5 Certified Professional 101 exam on Application Delivery Fundamentals. Attendees are highly encouraged to check out further information regarding this preparation course, by downloading and reading the 101 – Application Delivery Fundamentals. | |||
| 11:00 – 3:30 PM | Track 2 – Boot Camp 201 The 200-level education track is for F5 administrators who have had some hands-on experience with the BIG-IP Platform and who wish to finish getting their Certified BIG-IP Administrator certification by taking the 201 exam. This track will focus on TMOS (Traffic Management Operating System) Administration and LTM (Local Traffic Manager) Fundamentals. As a prerequisite, attendees should have either successfully passed the 101 exam, and/or have a minimum of 6 months of hands-on experience with the BIG-IP Platform. Attendees are highly encouraged to check out further information regarding this preparation course, by downloading and reading the 201 – TMOS Administration. | |||
| 11:00 – 3:30 PM | Track 3 – Boot Camp 301 The 300-level education track will focus on an understanding of underlying principles–from SSL-based VPN implementation to symmetric and asymmetric acceleration and custom monitors. As a prerequisite, attendees should have their F5 Certified BIG-IP Administrator (F5-CA) certification. Attendees are highly encouraged to check out further information regarding this preparation course, by downloading and reading the 301 – BIG-IP LTM Specialist: Architect, Setup and Deploy. | |||
| 11:00 – 3:30 PM | Track 4 – NGINX Accredit As government and education organizations continue to embrace modern application development processes, we are seeing an increased demand for NGINX expertise and experience in new job openings. As a result, we are offering a new NGINX 100-level accreditation series. NGINX Plus: We will cover various NGINX Plus concepts with a focus on load balancing functionality. In this course you will learn the following: – How to install NGINX Plus – NGINX basics and fundamentals – How to navigate and utilize the NGINX Plus dashboard and API NGINX App Protect: NGINX App Protect delivers the best-in-class WAF capabilities you have come to expect from BIG-IP products while being agile enough to be leveraged in modern application architectures. F5 will cover various NGINX Plus concepts with a focus on NGINX App Protect functionality. In this course, attendees will learn how to: – Deploy modern applications with modern tools – Install NGINX Plus – Install and configure NGINX App Protect (NAP) – Protect an application with NAP and in a Docker container – Protect an application with NAP and in a Kubernetes Ingress Controller – Send sample malicious traffic to simulate web attacks NGINX Kubernetes Controller: NGINX Kubernetes Ingress Controller (KIC) is the most widely deployed ingress controller for Kubernetes and can reduce the complexity of clusters by consolidating traffic routing, security services, authentication, encryption, and API gateway functions. In this course, you will learn the following: – How to deploy modern applications with modern tools – How to deploy NGINX+ Kubernetes Ingress Controller (KIC) – How to expose an application service in Kubernetes – Deploy L4 and L7 application services | |||
| 11:00 – 3:30 PM | Track 5 – Solution Sessions/Virtual Option To allow as many Symposium attendees as possible access to Track 5 content, it will be made available in both virtual and in-person formats. The sessions included in this track are specially curated content meant for senior IT leaders, project managers, C-level executives, cybersecurity professionals, and engineers that aren’t interested in certification boot camps. This quick hitting, diverse content will touch on relevant topics ranging from Zero Trust, securing applications across all your cloud environments with one WAF, what does a modern application architecture look like, cybersecurity threat research torn right out of current headlines, an overview of F5’s next gen platforms and finally a look at our portfolio offerings that integrate with SUSE Rancher and Red Hat OpenShift. 11:00am – 11:30am Fireside Chat with F5 Public Sector CTO’s: Join F5 Public Sector CTO’s in an informal venue discussing industry trends along with the various challenges SLED and Federal customers face in today’s complex IT landscape. Topics will also include current and future product roadmap insights on F5 technologies and services. Attendees will be able to ask questions during the session. 11:30am – 12:30pm F5 One WAF: It’s an evolving arms race to protect your apps and mitigate the threats against them. Every time the “good guys” step up our game, attackers try, and sometimes succeed, to leapfrog the enhancements. How can you ensure that your applications remain protected with a baseline of security—including a web application firewall (WAF), denial-of-service (DoS) attack protection, and now API protection—that will serve as a sturdy, dependable foundation for your application layer security defense? Learn how F5’s application layer security portfolio provides the sturdy, formidable foundation required to address today’s ever-growing, sophisticated application threat landscape. See how F5’s powerful one WAF engine enables the robust, innovative application protection you need in the consumption and deployment modes you want, addressing the application models you use—whenever and wherever you need it. 1:15pm – 2:15pm Zero Trust, Making Sense Today / Tomorrow: The zero trust approach of “never trust, always verify” is critical as the threat landscape is more targeted and advanced. But what’s really necessary in today’s zero trust architecture, and how can it best be implemented? While many vendors are bringing zero trust network access solutions to market focused on securing users and devices, is that enough? Join us to discuss what it means to have a holistic zero trust approach and the gaps in security that must be overcome to be successful. Learn more about F5’s vision for extending zero trust access to users and devices (including ZTNA products) and how we can go beyond that to embed zero trust within the very fabric of the business ecosystem (workload, service, server, network, and API). 2:30pm – 3:30pm Mitigating Attack Vectors with Insights from F5 Labs: Once upon a time, cybercriminals focused on a single targeted vector when launching an attack. Now, they’ve stolen a page from the “good guys”: if security can be layered, why can’t attacks? This will include the latest threat research from the recent State of Application Security report. More attacks on agencies today incorporate attacks across multiple vectors to deliver one, consolidated attack stream. It isn’t uncommon for a company to be hit by a phishing campaign that spreads credential thieving malware along with a ransomware attack coupled with a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack. The nefarious thinking is to overwhelm the agency, so it’ll be more willing to pay a ransom to stop all the attacks. It’s a shrewd but despicable way to stress an organization to its breaking point. To help you mitigate attacks of this nature, F5’s portfolio of market-leading security and application delivery controller (ADC) products can be deployed in a mode to stop each attack while continuing to deliver strong, continuous protection for your organization, data, and users. | |||
| 11:00 – 3:30 PM | Track 6 – Partner Engagement This track will be primarily geared for F5 partners, and any government employees that are interested, in taking a deeper dive into some of the common use cases that our customers are demanding of technology professionals. We will cover multiple Public Sector use cases throughout the day with time to network with your F5 Account team and allowing time at the end to discuss how this applies to Public Sector agencies. This will be a 1-day session. |
| 04/20/2022 Agenda | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8:00-8:30 AM | Networking & Breakfast | |||
| 8:30-10:30 AM | Tracks 1-5 In Session | |||
| 10:30-10:45 AM | Coffee Break | |||
| 10:45-11:45 AM | Tracks 1-5 Continued | |||
| 11:45-12:30 PM | Lunch | |||
| 12:30-2:00 PM | Tracks 1-5 Continued |
| 04/20/2022 Track Session Description | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8:30-2:00 PM | Track 1 – Boot Camp 101 8:30am – 11:45am This track is designed for customers who are relatively new to the F5 product portfolio and are looking to take the first step on the path to F5 Certified BIG-IP Administrator. This training will encompass networking basics, discuss where application calls are made in the TCP/IP stack, and help the end user prepare for the F5 Certified Professional 101 exam on Application Delivery Fundamentals. Attendees are highly encouraged to check out further information regarding this preparation course, by downloading and reading the 101 – Application Delivery Fundamentals. 12:30pm – 2:00pm: Track 1 can choose from the following 3 elective sessions. Selections will be made on-site during registration. 1. Upgrade to the Future With Journey: Staying current with F5 software code is an important element in keeping your BIG-IP infrastructure secure and optimized for top performance. However, upgrading can be a time-consuming and sometimes complex process. Project Journeys is re-imagining and enabling the next generation upgrade and migration experience for F5. It provides guidance, best practices and tools to streamline your BIG-IP upgrades and migrations. 2. Automate and Accelerate Your Application Services: This session will cover automating BIG-IP deployments in Azure with Terraform, Azure DevOps, and F5’s AS3, DO, and TS. We will cover the basics of building out a pipeline to manage the overall process in addition to learning about each component in greater detail. A demonstration will be used to highlight the steps and provide a means to test the completed process. 3. Deliver SaaS With New Distributed Cloud Platform: Many agencies are seriously challenged by deploying apps across distributed locations, cloud providers, and environments. These implementations trigger operational complexity and introduce security concerns, compliance requirements, and lack of visibility across environments. The newly launched F5 Distributed Cloud Services are a suite of SaaS-based security, networking, and application management services designed to address – and overcome – all these challenges. This session will discuss in detail this new offering and provide a product walk-thru and demo. | |||
| 8:30-2:00 PM | Track 2 – Boot Camp 201 8:30am – 11:45am The 200-level education track is for F5 administrators who have had some hands-on experience with the BIG-IP Platform and who wish to finish getting their Certified BIG-IP Administrator certification by taking the 201 exam. This track will focus on TMOS (Traffic Management Operating System) Administration and LTM (Local Traffic Manager) Fundamentals. As a prerequisite, attendees should have either successfully passed the 101 exam, and/or have a minimum of 6 months of hands-on experience with the BIG-IP Platform. Attendees are highly encouraged to check out further information regarding this preparation course, by downloading and reading the 201 – TMOS Administration. 12:30pm – 2:00pm: Track 2 can choose from the following 3 elective sessions. Selections will be made on-site during registration. 1. Upgrade to the Future With Journey: Staying current with F5 software code is an important element in keeping your BIG-IP infrastructure secure and optimized for top performance. However, upgrading can be a time-consuming and sometimes complex process. Project Journeys is re-imagining and enabling the next generation upgrade and migration experience for F5. It provides guidance, best practices and tools to streamline your BIG-IP upgrades and migrations. 2. Automate and Accelerate Your Application Services: This session will cover automating BIG-IP deployments in Azure with Terraform, Azure DevOps, and F5’s AS3, DO, and TS. We will cover the basics of building out a pipeline to manage the overall process in addition to learning about each component in greater detail. A demonstration will be used to highlight the steps and provide a means to test the completed process. 3. Deliver SaaS With New Distributed Cloud Platform: Many agencies are seriously challenged by deploying apps across distributed locations, cloud providers, and environments. These implementations trigger operational complexity and introduce security concerns, compliance requirements, and lack of visibility across environments. The newly launched F5 Distributed Cloud Services are a suite of SaaS-based security, networking, and application management services designed to address – and overcome – all these challenges. This session will discuss in detail this new offering and provide a product walk-thru and demo. | |||
| 8:30-2:00 PM | Track 3 – Boot Camp 301 8:30am – 11:45am The 300-level education track will focus on an understanding of underlying principles–from SSL-based VPN implementation to symmetric and asymmetric acceleration and custom monitors. As a prerequisite, attendees should have their F5 Certified BIG-IP Administrator (F5-CA) certification. Attendees are highly encouraged to check out further information regarding this preparation course, by downloading and reading the 301 – BIG-IP LTM Specialist: Architect, Setup and Deploy. 12:30pm – 2:00pm: Track 3 can choose from the following 3 elective sessions. Selections will be made on-site during registration. 1. Upgrade to the Future With Journey: Staying current with F5 software code is an important element in keeping your BIG-IP infrastructure secure and optimized for top performance. However, upgrading can be a time-consuming and sometimes complex process. Project Journeys is re-imagining and enabling the next generation upgrade and migration experience for F5. It provides guidance, best practices and tools to streamline your BIG-IP upgrades and migrations. 2. Automate and Accelerate Your Application Services: This session will cover automating BIG-IP deployments in Azure with Terraform, Azure DevOps, and F5’s AS3, DO, and TS. We will cover the basics of building out a pipeline to manage the overall process in addition to learning about each component in greater detail. A demonstration will be used to highlight the steps and provide a means to test the completed process. 3. Deliver SaaS With New Distributed Cloud Platform: Many agencies are seriously challenged by deploying apps across distributed locations, cloud providers, and environments. These implementations trigger operational complexity and introduce security concerns, compliance requirements, and lack of visibility across environments. The newly launched F5 Distributed Cloud Services are a suite of SaaS-based security, networking, and application management services designed to address – and overcome – all these challenges. This session will discuss in detail this new offering and provide a product walk-thru and demo. | |||
| 8:30-2:00 PM | Track 4 – NGINX Accreditation 8:30am – 2:00pm As government and education organizations continue to embrace modern application development processes, we are seeing an increased demand for NGINX expertise and experience in new job openings. As a result, we are offering a new NGINX 200-level accreditation series. OpenShift + CIS and BIG-IP Ingress-Link with Ingress Controller: Users gain access to applications in an OpenShift K8s cluster via F5 BiG-IP Container Ingress Services, as well as gain access to a native K8s cluster via BiG-IP Ingress Link with NGINX Ingress Controller. NGINX Ingress Controller is the industry leading Ingress for Kubernetes and BIG-IP is the industry leading ADC. In this class, you’ll learn about the OpenShift Kubernetes platform and how F5-BIG-IP integrates into the OpenShift platform. You will also learn how F5-BIP-IP and NGINX Ingress Controller integrates into native Kubernetes. We’ll show deployment techniques and best practices for managing the Ingress lifecycle in OpenShift and native K8s environments. NGINX App Protect Advanced Topics: NGINX App Protect delivers the best-in-class WAF capabilities you have come to expect from BIG-IP products while being agile enough to be leveraged in modern application architectures. Through the power of machine learning, App Protect DoS provides behavioral DoS detection and mitigation. This class will walk you through installing this module and going through some examples to show the effectiveness. Rancher Specific with NGINX Plus: Users gain access to applications in a K8S cluster through an Ingress. In this class, you’ll learn about the Rancher Kubernetes Engine (RKE) and how NGINX Ingress Controller integrates into the Rancher platform. We’ll show deployment techniques and best practices for managing the Ingress lifecycle in Rancher. | |||
| 8:30-2:00 PM | Track 5 – Solution Sessions/Virtual Option To allow as many Symposium attendees as possible access to Track 5 content, it will be made available in both virtual and in-person formats. The sessions included in this track are specially curated content meant for senior IT leaders, project managers, C-level executives, cybersecurity professionals, and engineers that aren’t interested in certification boot camps. This quick hitting, diverse content will touch on relevant topics ranging from Zero Trust, securing applications across all your cloud environments with one WAF, what a modern application architecture looks like, cybersecurity threat research torn right out of current headlines, an overview of F5’s next gen platforms and finally a look at our portfolio offerings that integrate with SUSE Rancher and Red Hat OpenShift. 8:30am – 9:30am A Practical Guide to Modern Reference Architectures: There are many reference architectures out in the world, but how many can actually be deployed? We will explore how modern apps are deployed and what architectures exist to help transition traditional apps to modern apps. F5 has created an easy-to-deploy modern application architecture built to production-level specifications. Hear what architectures F5 has created and will create in the future. 9:30am – 10:30am Learn How to Talk Like You Understand Kubernetes: With the invention of Kubernetes came a host of new concepts and tools, particularly around networking and traffic management. In particular, Ingress controllers and service meshes did not exist prior to the Kubernetes era. Nor were Layer 4 and Layer 7 protocols and traffic typically managed from the same control plane. In this session, we’ll provide a “translation guide” for these new concepts and tools so you can have meaningful discussions with your leaders and teams. 10:45am – 11:45am BIG-IP Next Generation Overview: It’s no secret that application portfolios, the environments they’re deployed in, and the tools and processes surrounding them are evolving at an unprecedented pace; becoming increasingly complex, multi-faceted and autonomous in nature. Naturally, to continue meeting your application delivery and security requirements, F5 BIG-IP must adapt too. In this session, we’ll introduce the next generation BIG-IP software—BIG-IP Next Gen —which will offer greater automatability, scalability, and ease of use. With a modern, API-first and lighter weight software architecture, BIG-IP Next Gen is designed to exceed the needs of teams operating large, complex, and highly orchestrated application portfolios spanning distributed environments. It’s the same BIG-IP you know and trust, simply designed and rearchitected for the future. 12:30pm – 2:00pm Using the F5 Portfolio with Rancher and Red Hat. |
