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F5 sells technology that keeps customers’ applications available, manages their traffic and protects applications and the interfaces connecting them. Large enterprises, governments and service providers use its products across their own data centers and cloud environments. F5 BIG-IP serves traditional applications, F5 NGINX serves modern applications, and F5 Distributed Cloud Services offers application security and networking through cloud-based services.
Customers buy hardware systems, software licenses and subscriptions, then pay for maintenance and support. F5 also earns subscription and usage-based fees from cloud and managed services. Services, including maintenance, training and consulting, bring in slightly more revenue than product sales. Most product revenue comes from BIG-IP, NGINX and Distributed Cloud Services.
F5 sells mainly through distributors and other channel partners, with two worldwide distributors accounting for a substantial share of revenue. Its hardware supply depends on a single contract manufacturer, Flex, which also handles procurement and fulfillment. Because its products contain encryption technology, U.S. export controls require an export license or an applicable exception, while other countries’ import rules can also restrict sales and deployment.
The risk section is the longest, dullest part of the filing. This keeps only what can really hurt you: where it hits, how hard, when it plays out.
Every company claims an edge. Each one is checked against hard numbers like margins and returns: which hold, and which line gives way first.
Beyond this list, watch Flex, which F5 depends on for hardware manufacturing, and Citrix, a rival in its core BIG-IP application delivery market.
A10 NETWORKS INC competes with F5 for enterprise and service-provider spending on keeping applications running, managing traffic and protecting applications. Its application delivery and application/API security sales are the areas to watch for demand overlapping with F5.
Radware Ltd. competes with F5 to deliver applications and protect them from web attacks and traffic-flooding attacks, or DDoS, through hardware and cloud services. Watch its cloud security subscriptions and on-premises application protection products for competition facing F5's security offerings.
Akamai competes with F5 for customers buying application and API protection and cloud-delivered application services. Its security offerings and cloud traffic-management services are more directly relevant to F5 Distributed Cloud Services than its broader cloud infrastructure investment.
Cloudflare competes with F5 for businesses paying to secure applications and improve their performance across hybrid and cloud environments. Watch how customers add products from Cloudflare's application-services suite, which combines security, performance and reliability.
Fortinet competes with F5 for enterprise application-security budgets by selling network and application protection. Its integrated Security Fabric combines networking and security, making that product portfolio the relevant competition to watch rather than Fortinet's total revenue alone.
Cisco competes with F5 for enterprise spending on application security and connecting networks across multiple clouds. Its networking and security hardware, software and subscription services are the parts of its portfolio to watch against F5 Distributed Cloud Services.
Fastly competes with F5's cloud-delivered security services by selling protection for web applications and APIs against bots and DDoS attacks. Watch Fastly's Security revenue rather than its larger Network Services business for the closest read on this competition.
Netscout Systems Inc competes with F5 for enterprise and service-provider spending on protection from traffic-flooding attacks, or DDoS, through its Arbor products. Watch Arbor's managed-service offering, which service providers can resell to enterprise customers.
Broadcom's infrastructure software competes with F5 BIG-IP in application delivery and F5 Distributed Cloud in multicloud networking. For this rivalry, watch its private-cloud and enterprise-software offerings rather than its semiconductor business.
F5, Inc. earningsThis company
F5's report will show whether customers buying BIG-IP systems are also renewing F5 software and services, or whether growth rests mainly on hardware orders.
Compare systems revenue with subscription software and service revenue, which includes maintenance contracts. If all three grow, enterprise and service-provider customers are buying hardware as well as renewing software and services, broadening F5's sources of revenue. If systems grow while software and services stall, F5's growth depends more on hardware orders.
A10 NETWORKS INC earningsATEN
A10 Networks' report will show whether enterprise and service-provider spending on application delivery and application/API security is holding up in areas where it competes with F5.
Watch A10's application-delivery and application/API-security sales. If both hold up or grow, enterprise and service-provider customers are still spending to keep applications running and protected, supporting demand in areas shared with F5. If both weaken, spending in those overlapping markets is softer for F5 too.
