F5 Networks boosts profits

F5 Networks, based in Seattle, will close the books on another profitable fiscal year at the end of September. As the accountants click their heels celebrating 40 percent year-over-year revenue growth for the fast-growing high-tech firm, F5’s executives are sure of one thing: their Liberty Lake hardware development group is humming and will continue to grow.

Started in spring 2000, the Liberty Lake group began with about 10 hardware engineers.

Today the engineering contingent there is 37 and growing. Another seven specialized network support engineers also work in Liberty Lake to answer questions from customers using the company’s equipment.

“Those seven don’t even fall in our engineering group,” said Greg Davis, the hardware development group’s senior director.

Those seven actually belong organizationally to F5’s Seattle headquarters, said Davis. “And they’ll be adding another three before long,” he said.

The company, which originally devoted its brainpower to the task of moving Internet traffic quickly, has developed into a leading provider of traffic-management and application-security hardware and software. Davis, who joined the company in 2000, said customers include Microsoft, eBay and Fidelity Investments.

The major growth has come as big companies continue looking for ways to speed data to and from customers worldwide, said Davis. The added emphasis now on protecting data from hackers and thieves has meant increased emphasis on using Liberty Lake’s hardware engineers to devise specialized chips and boards that build in added security, he said.

“That’s the requirement when you’re playing with the big boys. We have to meet that barrier,” said Davis.

“When we started, F5 was selling its products to the dot-coms,” he said.

Davis moved to Spokane in 1996 to work for Bernard Daines’ firm, Packet Engines. Eight others now at F5 also worked for that company, before Daines sold it to Alcatel in 1998.

“We all left and eventually came back to work here,” said Davis.

Hiring engineers now is simpler in Eastern Washington than on the West side of the state, said Davis. “It’s become a very competitive area there for hardware engineers.”

When Spokane Valley wireless telecom company Vivato folded in December 2005, Davis was quick to seek out their roster of engineers. Four laid-off engineers from Vivato joined F5, he said.

The quality of life factor still is a strong magnet, he added.

“People who graduated from WSU and worked in California are now looking around and looking for ways to get back here,” he said.

Being separated from its head office across the state has pros and cons, Davis said. The strong benefit is being isolated enough to have a self-contained group that can work closely and stay focused on projects. “The distance gives us a buffer (from Seattle) and helps us get a lot of work done,” he said.

The distance can complicate office dynamics and team projects, but he’s found that the head office has grown more comfortable paying for travel when the need arises.

“We also rely on videoconferencing. We’ve all consciously worked on bridging the distance and making it a good arrangement,” he said.