(FFIV) 2023 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Good afternoon, and welcome to the F5, Inc. Fourth Quarter Fiscal 2023 Financial Results Conference Call. (Operator Instructions) Also, today's conference is being recorded. If anyone has any objections, please disconnect at this time.

下午好，歡迎參加 F5, Inc. 2023 財年第四季財務業績電話會議。 （操作員指示）另外，今天的會議正在錄製中。如果有人有異議，請此時斷開連接。

I'll now turn the call over to Ms. Suzanne DuLong. Ma'am, you may begin.

我現在將電話轉給 Suzanne DuLong 女士。女士，您可以開始了。

Hello, and welcome. I'm Suzanne DuLong, F5's Vice President of Investor Relations.

你好，歡迎光臨。我是 Suzanne DuLong，F5 投資人關係副總裁。

Francois Locoh-Donou, F5's President and CEO; and Frank Pelzer, F5's Executive Vice President and CFO, will be making prepared remarks on today's call. Other members of the F5 executive team are also on hand to answer questions during the Q&A session. A copy of today's press release is available on our website at f5.com, where an archived version of today's audio will be available through January 28, 2024.

Francois Locoh-Donou，F5 總裁兼執行長； F5 執行副總裁兼財務長 Frank Pelzer 將在今天的電話會議上發表事先準備好的演講。 F5 執行團隊的其他成員也在問答環節現場回答問題。今天新聞稿的副本可在我們的網站 f5.com 上獲取，今天音頻的存檔版本將在 2024 年 1 月 28 日之前提供。

The slide deck accompanying today's discussion is viewable on the webcast and will be posted to our IR site at the conclusion of our call. To access the replay of today's webcast by phone, dial (877) 660-6853 or (201) 612-7415 and use meeting ID 13741762. The telephonic replay will be available through midnight Pacific Time, October 25, 2023. For additional information or follow-up questions, please reach out to me directly at s.dulong@f5.com.

今天的討論附帶的幻燈片可在網路廣播中觀看，並將在我們的電話會議結束時發佈到我們的 IR 網站。要透過電話觀看今天網路廣播的重播，請撥打(877) 660-6853 或(201) 612-7415 並使用會議ID 13741762。電話重播將在太平洋時間2023 年10 月25 日午夜之前提供。如需了解更多信息，或後續問題，請直接聯繫我：s.dulong@f5.com。

Our discussion today will contain forward-looking statements, which include words such as believe, anticipate, expect and target. These forward-looking statements involve uncertainties and risks that may cause our actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by these statements. We have summarized factors that may affect our results in the press release announcing our financial results and in detail in our SEC filings. In addition, we will reference non-GAAP metrics during today's discussion. Please see our full GAAP to non-GAAP reconciliation in today's press release and in the appendix of our earnings slide deck. Please note that F5 has no duty to update any information presented in this call.

我們今天的討論將包含前瞻性陳述，其中包括相信、預期、期望和目標等詞語。這些前瞻性陳述涉及不確定性和風險，可能導致我們的實際結果與這些陳述明示或暗示的結果有重大差異。我們在宣布財務表現的新聞稿中總結了可能影響我們業績的因素，並在向 SEC 提交的文件中詳細介紹了這些因素。此外，我們將在今天的討論中參考非公認會計準則指標。請參閱今天的新聞稿和收益幻燈片附錄中完整的 GAAP 與非 GAAP 調整表。請注意，F5 沒有義務更新本次電話會議中提供的任何資訊。

With that, I will turn the call over to Francois.

這樣，我就把電話轉給弗朗索瓦。

Thank you, Suzanne, and hello, everyone. Thank you for joining us.

謝謝你，蘇珊娜，大家好。感謝您加入我們。

In my remarks today, I will speak to our Q4 and FY '23 highlights as well as our expectations for FY '24. Frank will then review the details of our Q4 and FY '23 results and provide some additional color about our outlook.

在今天的演講中，我將談到我們第四季和 23 財年的亮點以及我們對 24 財年的期望。然後，弗蘭克將回顧我們第四季度和 23 財年業績的詳細信息，並就我們的前景提供一些額外的信息。

We delivered a solid Q4 in an environment that showed some additional signs of stabilization. We saw strength from our enterprise vertical, including technology and financial services customers, offset by softness from service providers. The result was Q4 revenue near the high end of our guidance range. Our continued operating discipline helped us deliver earnings per share well above the high end of our range. Our global services team delivered robust 9% revenue growth driven by strong maintenance renewals and reflecting the benefit of price increases announced last year.

我們在顯示出一些額外穩定跡象的環境中實現了穩健的第四季度業績。我們看到了包括科技和金融服務客戶在內的垂直企業的優勢，但卻被服務提供者的疲軟所抵消。結果是第四季的收入接近我們指導範圍的高端。我們持續的經營紀律幫助我們實現了遠高於我們範圍上限的每股盈餘。在強勁的維護續訂的推動下，我們的全球服務團隊實現了 9% 的強勁收入成長，並反映了去年宣布的價格上漲的好處。

In addition, software revenue grew 11%, aided by 27% growth in subscription software. Software revenue from renewals, which have performed well all year, picked up in Q4 over Q3. And while new subscriptions remained down year-over-year, we saw some improvement compared to the first half. Strength in global services and software offset a systems decline of 25%, which reflects a lower level of backlog-related shipments than we had for the first 3 quarters of the year.

此外，由於訂閱軟體 27% 的成長，軟體收入成長了 11%。來自續訂的軟體收入全年表現良好，第四季較第三季有所回升。儘管新訂閱量同比仍然下降，但與上半年相比，我們看到了一些改善。全球服務和軟體的實力抵消了系統 25% 的下降，這反映出積壓相關的出貨量低於今年前 3 季的水平。

Stepping back and looking at fiscal year 2023, we adjusted to the environmental challenges we faced, resolving supply chain pressures and largely returning to normalized delivery times. We took decisive actions to adjust our operating model to the realities of the demand environment, driving meaningful improvements to our operating margins and delivering 15% EPS growth. We also returned 58% of our annual free cash flow to shareholders via share repurchases.

回顧 2023 財年，我們針對所面臨的環境挑戰進行了調整，解決了供應鏈壓力，並在很大程度上恢復了正常的交貨時間。我們採取果斷行動，根據需求環境的現實調整我們的營運模式，推動我們的營運利潤率得到有意義的改善，並實現 15% 的每股收益成長。我們也透過股票回購將 58% 的年度自由現金流返還給股東。

Highlights from FY '23 include: first, subscription renewals performed largely to plan for the year. In today's tough IT spend environment, this is a strong signal that customers are getting the value and return they expect from our software solutions.

23 財年的亮點包括：首先，訂閱續約主要是按照年度計畫進行的。在當今嚴峻的 IT 支出環境中，這是一個強烈的信號，表明客戶正在從我們的軟體解決方案中獲得他們期望的價值和回報。

Second, F5's distributed cloud services, SaaS offerings are gaining traction with both new and existing customers. In fact, 29% of distributed cloud SaaS customers are new to F5. In total, we now have more than 500 customers for our SaaS services on distributed cloud, an increase of more than 200% since Q4 of last year. Third, we are having very good success displacing a traditional ADC competitor in both software and hardware form factors. And finally, we delivered meaningful operating improvements, driving our non-GAAP operating margin up 130 basis points from FY '22.

其次，F5 的分散式雲端服務、SaaS 產品正在吸引新舊客戶。事實上，29% 的分散式雲端 SaaS 客戶是 F5 的新客戶。目前，我們分散式雲端上 SaaS 服務客戶的總數已超過 500 家，自去年第四季以來成長超過 200%。第三，我們在軟體和硬體外形尺寸方面都取得了巨大成功，取代了傳統 ADC 競爭對手。最後，我們實現了有意義的營運改進，使我們的非 GAAP 營運利潤率比 22 財年提高了 130 個基點。

As we look ahead, we enter FY '24 in an environment that seems to be stabilizing. In fact, from a demand perspective, we saw encouraging early signs with enterprise customers in Q4, though it is too soon to say if what we are seeing is a durable trend. As we contemplate our outlook for FY '24, we consider a number of factors.

展望未來，進入 24 財年的環境似乎趨於穩定。事實上，從需求角度來看，我們在第四季度看到了企業客戶令人鼓舞的早期跡象，儘管現在判斷我們所看到的是否是持久趨勢還為時過早。當我們思考 24 財年的前景時，我們考慮了許多因素。

At the macro level, we expect continued application and API growth fueled by automation efforts and new use cases, including generative AI. We also expect customer spending caution persist into FY '24, but it's stable. And finally, we believe the tension between application and API growth and customers' ability to sweat assets will reach a tipping point, causing them to reinvest in their application infrastructure likely beginning sometime in FY '24.

在宏觀層面上，我們預期自動化工作和新用例（包括生成式人工智慧）將推動應用程式和 API 的持續成長。我們也預期客戶支出謹慎態度將持續到 24 財年，但情況穩定。最後，我們認為應用程式和 API 的成長以及客戶消耗資產的能力之間的緊張關係將達到一個臨界點，導致他們可能從 24 財年的某個時候開始對其應用程式基礎設施進行再投資。

At the F5 level, we also consider, first, we have an approximately $180 million revenue headwind from FY '23's backlog fulfillment, primarily in systems. Second, we expect flat to modest total software revenue growth in FY '24 as a result of a number of dynamics, including continued subscription renewal strength and steady distributed cloud SaaS revenue growth. These positive trends will be offset by a series of transitions we are executing in our SaaS and managed services offerings. And third, we expect our global services revenue will return to low single-digit growth as we lap price increases.

在 F5 層面，我們也考慮，首先，23 財年的積壓訂單履行（主要是系統方面）為我們帶來了約 1.8 億美元的收入阻力。其次，我們預計 24 財年的軟體總收入將持平或適度成長，這是由於一系列因素的影響，包括持續的訂閱續約力度和穩定的分散式雲端 SaaS 收入成長。這些積極的趨勢將被我們在 SaaS 和託管服務產品中執行的一系列轉型所抵消。第三，隨著價格上漲，我們預期我們的全球服務收入將恢復到低個位數成長。

As a result of these factors, we expect our FY '24 revenue will be flat to down low single digits from FY '23, inclusive of the 6% headwind related to FY '23 backlog shipments. We also expect to return to mid-single-digit revenue growth in FY '25. Whether we achieve the low or high end of our revenue range, we are committed to driving continued strong profitability, and we will continue to manage our operating model with discipline.

由於這些因素，我們預計 24 財年的收入將與 23 財年持平或下降個位數，其中包括與 23 財年積壓出貨量相關的 6% 阻力。我們也預計 25 財年收入將恢復到中個位數成長。無論我們實現收入範圍的低端還是高端，我們都致力於推動持續強勁的獲利能力，並且我們將繼續嚴格管理我們的營運模式。

We expect to deliver FY '24 non-GAAP operating margin in a range of 33% to 34%. We are also targeting FY '24 non-GAAP EPS growth of 5% to 7% reflecting growth of at least 10% on a tax-neutral basis compared to FY '23.

我們預計 24 財年非 GAAP 營業利潤率將介於 33% 至 34% 之間。我們的目標還包括 24 財年非公認會計準則每股收益成長 5% 至 7%，這反映出與 23 財年相比在稅收中立基礎上至少成長 10%。

Our growth opportunity is fundamentally linked to the continued growth of applications and APIs and the need to secure, deliver and optimize those apps and APIs. F5 is the only company that can deliver, secure and optimize any app and API anywhere. Our security and delivery solutions offer a custom fit for each app and API. Modern apps and APIs require different solutions than legacy apps. We have the right solutions for both. In addition to delivering the right tools for the right app or API, our combination of deployable software and hardware and SaaS and managed service offerings means we are the only vendor that can serve every app and API across all environments, in a data center, public cloud and at the edge.

我們的成長機會從根本上與應用程式和 API 的持續成長以及保護、交付和優化這些應用程式和 API 的需求相關。 F5 是唯一一家能夠在任何地方交付、保護和優化任何應用程式和 API 的公司。我們的安全性和交付解決方案為每個應用程式和 API 提供客製化服務。現代應用程式和 API 需要與傳統應用程式不同的解決方案。我們對兩者都有合適的解決方案。除了為正確的應用程式或API 提供正確的工具之外，我們將可部署的軟體和硬體以及SaaS 和託管服務產品相結合，這意味著我們是唯一能夠在資料中心、公共場所等所有環境中為每個應用程式和API 提供服務的供應商。雲端和邊緣。

We are the only company who can do this today. And going forward, further integration and convergence of our solutions will make it much easier for our customers to secure and deliver their apps across all infrastructure environments. The power of our converged portfolio is resonating with customers who are able to deploy the solutions they need today with the knowledge that F5 will be with them on every step of their multi-cloud journey.

我們是今天唯一能夠做到這一點的公司。展望未來，我們解決方案的進一步整合和整合將使我們的客戶更輕鬆地在所有基礎設施環境中保護和交付他們的應用程式。我們融合產品組合的力量引起了客戶的共鳴，他們能夠部署他們當前所需的解決方案，並且知道 F5 將在他們多雲之旅的每一步中與他們同在。

Before I pass the call to Frank, I will speak to some customer highlights from each of our product families. Our F5 BIG-IP family serves traditional applications either on-premises, co-located or in cloud environments. BIG-IP's data plane performance, automation capabilities and seamless integration into public cloud environments continues to differentiate the platform, and we continue to win against competitors. From a hardware perspective, the value proposition with our next-generation platforms is resonating with customers with our rSeries and VELOS platforms, representing more than 80% of Q4 systems bookings.

在打電話給 Frank 之前，我將談談我們每個產品系列的一些客戶亮點。我們的 F5 BIG-IP 系列為本地、主機或雲端環境中的傳統應用程式提供服務。 BIG-IP 的資料平面效能、自動化功能以及與公有雲環境的無縫整合繼續使該平台脫穎而出，我們繼續戰勝競爭對手。從硬體角度來看，我們下一代平台的價值主張正在與我們的 rSeries 和 VELOS 平台客戶產生共鳴，這兩個平台佔第四季度系統預訂量的 80% 以上。

In one example of a BIG-IP win from Q4, we displaced a competitor at a North American health care customer. The opportunity arose as a result of the incumbent provider's inability to handle a mission-critical upgrade to the customer's physician portal. The customer selected F5 BIG-IP based on its advanced application delivery capabilities, secure access management, our partnership with their health care records platform and confidence in our road map. In addition to providing the mission-critical functionality the customer needed urgently, we replaced all of the competitors use cases with the customer, simplifying their application environment and future-proofing their data centers.

在第四季度 BIG-IP 獲勝的一個例子中，我們取代了北美醫療保健客戶的競爭對手。由於現有提供者無法處理客戶醫生入口網站的關鍵任務升級，因此出現了這個機會。客戶選擇 F5 BIG-IP 是因為其先進的應用程式交付能力、安全存取管理、我們與他們的醫療保健記錄平台的合作夥伴關係以及對我們路線圖的信心。除了提供客戶迫切需要的關鍵任務功能之外，我們還為客戶替換了所有競爭對手的用例，簡化了他們的應用程式環境並使其資料中心面向未來。

F5 NGINX delivered a very strong Q4. NGINX serves modern container native and microservices-based applications and APIs. We continue to see large enterprises adopt NGINX for their cloud and Kubernetes workloads, and as those applications scale, we are seeing our NGINX opportunity scale as well. In addition, customers are also leveraging NGINX for app layer security for containers. As an example, in Q4, when the e-commerce division of a global technology customer needed to comply with new data security standards, they selected NGINX App Protect to implement app layer security to the containers processing consumers' credit card data.

F5 NGINX 在第四季的表現非常強勁。 NGINX 為現代容器原生和基於微服務的應用程式和 API 提供服務。我們繼續看到大型企業採用 NGINX 來處理其雲端和 Kubernetes 工作負載，並且隨著這些應用程式的擴展，我們也看到了 NGINX 機會的規模。此外，客戶也利用 NGINX 來實現容器的應用層安全。例如，在第四季度，當一家全球技術客戶的電子商務部門需要遵守新的資料安全標準時，他們選擇了 NGINX App Protect 來為處理消費者信用卡資料的容器實現應用層安全。

We have invested both organically and inorganically to build our F5 distributed cloud services, a portfolio of SaaS and managed services. Apart from the offering transitions I mentioned, we are really excited about the future for distributed cloud. We are intercepting 2 exciting emerging growth categories, web app and API protection or WAP and secure multi-cloud networking or secure MCN that will drive future growth for distributed cloud services.

我們透過有機和無機投資來建立 F5 分散式雲端服務、SaaS 和託管服務組合。除了我提到的產品轉型之外，我們對分散式雲端的未來感到非常興奮。我們正在攔截 2 個令人興奮的新興成長類別，即 Web 應用程式和 API 保護或 WAP 以及安全多雲網路或安全 MCN，這將推動分散式雲端服務的未來成長。

In one WAP win for the quarter, we are helping an EMEA-based banking customer evolve from its traditional WAF security posture to a more comprehensive WAP solution that encompasses web application firewall as well as API protection, bot defense and Layer 7 DDoS protection. This customer approached us when they came under attack by a malicious foreign actor that their existing WAF could not handle. Against multiple competitors, we successfully demonstrated the superiority of our WAP offering, including our ability to protect major payment companies' APIs.

在本季的一項WAP 勝利中，我們正在幫助一家EMEA 銀行客戶從傳統的WAF 安全態勢發展為更全面的WAP 解決方案，其中包括Web 應用程式防火牆以及API 保護、機器人防禦和第7 層DDoS 保護。當該客戶受到其現有 WAF 無法處理的惡意外國攻擊者攻擊時，他們聯繫了我們。與眾多競爭對手相比，我們成功地展示了我們的 WAP 產品的優勢，包括我們保護主要支付公司 API 的能力。

Early traction for our secure multi-cloud networking offerings includes a Q4 win with a large retailer in Latin America that also offers a range of financial services to its customers. As part of its digital transformation efforts, the customer needed a solution to enable them to grow and manage their expanding body of cloud-native applications. They also plan to migrate their large, existing footprint of virtual machines and on-premises appliances to the cloud. After a thorough proof of concept, the customer selected our secure multi-cloud networking solution because of our ability to use the customer edge to make the move 100% transparent to both internal users and consumers.

我們安全的多雲網路產品的早期吸引力包括第四季度贏得拉丁美洲一家大型零售商的勝利，該零售商也為其客戶提供一系列金融服務。作為數位轉型工作的一部分，客戶需要一個解決方案來幫助他們發展和管理不斷擴大的雲端原生應用程式。他們還計劃將現有的大量虛擬機器和本地設備遷移到雲端。經過徹底的概念驗證後，客戶選擇了我們的安全多雲網路解決方案，因為我們能夠利用客戶優勢使這項措施對內部用戶和消費者都 100% 透明。

We are also seeing cross-portfolio traction with customers who are operating in hybrid environments, choosing to deploy F5 across multiple form factors. In a win that highlights the synergies of our product families, during Q4, we secured a win with an APAC-based financial services provider. The customer launched a multifaceted modernization project designed to add and consolidate applications and enable scalability to handle exponential traffic growth. They also needed help stopping a barrage of constant automated attacks.

我們也看到在混合環境中營運的客戶對跨產品組合的吸引力，他們選擇跨多種外形規格部署 F5。在第四季度，我們與一家亞太地區的金融服務提供者取得了勝利，這凸顯了我們產品系列的協同效應。該客戶啟動了一個多方面的現代化項目，旨在添加和整合應用程式並實現可擴展性以應對指數級流量增長。他們還需要幫助阻止一系列持續的自動攻擊。

In a competitive bid, our combination of BIG-IP and F5 Distributed Cloud Bot Defense won out. The combination enables the customer to manage unpredictable traffic growth, customize services for each application and enhance their security posture with our ML-based AI engine. These real life use cases offer a view to how we are enabling customers to secure, deliver, optimize and manage their applications and APIs and how we simplify the challenges of operating in a complex hybrid multi-cloud world.

在競標中，我們的 BIG-IP 和 F5 分散式雲機器人防禦組合獲勝。該組合使客戶能夠管理不可預測的流量成長，為每個應用程式量身定制服務，並利用我們基於機器學習的人工智慧引擎來增強其安全狀況。這些現實生活中的用例讓我們了解了我們如何幫助客戶保護、交付、優化和管理他們的應用程式和 API，以及我們如何簡化在複雜的混合多雲世界中運作的挑戰。

Now I will turn the call to Frank. Frank?

現在我將把電話轉給弗蘭克。坦率？

Thank you, Francois, and good afternoon, everyone. I will review our Q4 and FY '23 results before I elaborate on the outlook Francois shared.

謝謝弗朗索瓦，大家下午好。在詳細闡述弗朗索瓦分享的前景之前，我將回顧我們的第四季和 23 財年業績。

We delivered Q4 revenue of $707 million, reflecting 1% growth year-over-year with a mix of 54% global services and 46% product revenue. Global services revenue of $382 million grew a strong 9% due to continued high maintenance renewals as well as the price increases we introduced last year. Product revenue totaled $325 million, down 7% year-on-year.

我們第四季的營收為 7.07 億美元，年增 1%，其中全球服務收入佔 54%，產品營收佔 46%。由於持續的高維護續約以及我們去年推出的價格上漲，全球服務收入達到 3.82 億美元，強勁成長 9%。產品收入總計3.25億美元，較去年同期下降7%。

Systems revenue of $134 million declined 25% year-over-year, reflecting a lower level of backlog-related shipments than we had in prior quarters and demand that showed some signs of stabilization albeit at lower levels than we have seen historically. In contrast, software revenue grew 11% over the year ago period to a new high of $191 million. Subscription-based revenue grew 27% year-over-year to $166 million, another record high, representing 87% of Q4's total software revenue. Perpetual software license sales of $25 million represented 13% of Q4 software revenue.

系統收入為 1.34 億美元，年減 25%，反映出積壓相關出貨量低於前幾季度，需求顯示出一些穩定的跡象，儘管低於歷史水平。相比之下，軟體營收年增 11%，達到 1.91 億美元的新高。基於訂閱的營收年增 27%，達到 1.66 億美元，再創歷史新高，佔第四季軟體總收入的 87%。永久軟體授權銷售額為 2,500 萬美元，佔第四季軟體收入的 13%。

Revenue from recurring sources contributed 76% of Q4's revenue, another all-time high. Recurring revenue includes subscription-based revenue as well as the maintenance portion of our services revenue. On a regional basis, revenue from Americas was down 6% year-over-year, representing 57% of total revenue. EMEA grew 16%, representing 26% of revenue, and APAC grew 4%, representing 17% of revenue.

經常性來源的營收佔第四季營收的 76%，再創歷史新高。經常性收入包括訂閱制的收入以及我們服務收入的維護部分。從地區來看，美洲地區的營收年減 6%，佔總收入的 57%。歐洲、中東和非洲地區成長 16%，佔營收的 26%，亞太地區成長 4%，佔營收的 17%。

Looking at our major verticals. During Q4, enterprise customers represented 72% of product bookings. Service providers represented 9% and government customers represented 19%, including 7% from U.S. Federal. Our Q4 operating results were strong, reflecting operating discipline and a full quarter benefit from the cost reductions announced in April. GAAP gross margin was 80.1%, non-GAAP gross margin was 82.7%, an improvement of 125 basis points from Q4 of FY '22.

看看我們的主要垂直領域。第四季度，企業客戶佔產品預訂的 72%。服務提供者佔 9%，政府客戶佔 19%，其中 7% 來自美國聯邦政府。我們第四季的營運業績強勁，反映出營運紀律以及四月宣布的成本削減令整個季度受益。 GAAP 毛利率為 80.1%，非 GAAP 毛利率為 82.7%，比 22 財年第四季提高了 125 個基點。

GAAP operating expenses were $394 million, non-GAAP operating expenses were $345 million. Q4 non-GAAP operating expenses as a percent of revenue was below 49%, resuming pre-2019 acquisition levels. Our GAAP operating margin was 24.3%. Our non-GAAP operating margin was 33.9%, representing an improvement of more than 600 basis points from Q4 of FY '22.

GAAP 營運費用為 3.94 億美元，非 GAAP 營運費用為 3.45 億美元。第四季非 GAAP 營運費用佔收入的百分比低於 49%，恢復到 2019 年收購前的水平。我們的 GAAP 營業利潤率為 24.3%。我們的非 GAAP 營業利潤率為 33.9%，比 22 財年第四季提高了 600 個基點以上。

Our GAAP effective tax rate for the quarter was 13%. Our non-GAAP effective tax rate was 14% below our initial expectations for the year as a result of IRS guidance issued during the quarter relating to foreign tax credits. Our GAAP net income for the quarter was $152 million or $2.55 per share. Our non-GAAP net income was $209 million or $3.50 per share well above the top end of our guidance range of $3.15 to $3.27 per share. This reflects the combined impact of our gross margin improvements and operating expense discipline as well as the Q4 tax benefit.

我們本季的 GAAP 有效稅率為 13%。由於美國國稅局在本季發布了有關外國稅收抵免的指導意見，我們的非公認會計原則有效稅率比我們今年的最初預期低了 14%。我們本季的 GAAP 淨利潤為 1.52 億美元，即每股 2.55 美元。我們的非 GAAP 淨利潤為 2.09 億美元，即每股 3.50 美元，遠高於我們每股 3.15 美元至 3.27 美元的指導範圍上限。這反映了我們的毛利率改善和營運費用紀律以及第四季度稅收優惠的綜合影響。

I will now turn to cash flow and the balance sheet, which also remained very strong.

我現在將談談現金流和資產負債表，它們也仍然非常強勁。

We generated $190 million in cash flow from operations in Q4, driven by our improved profitability. Capital expenditures for the quarter were $15 million. DSO for the quarter was 58 days. Cash and investments totaled approximately $808 million at quarter end. Deferred revenue increased 5% year-over-year to $1.78 billion. We repurchased $60 million worth of shares in Q4. For the year, we used 58% of our approximately $600 million of free cash flow for share repurchases. I note that in each of the past 3 years, we have met or exceeded our share repurchase commitments. Finally, we ended the quarter with approximately 6,500 employees.

在獲利能力提高的推動下，我們第四季的營運產生了 1.9 億美元的現金流。該季度的資本支出為 1500 萬美元。本季的 DSO 為 58 天。截至季末，現金和投資總額約為 8.08 億美元。遞延營收年增 5%，達到 17.8 億美元。我們在第四季回購了價值 6,000 萬美元的股票。今年，我們將約 6 億美元自由現金流中的 58% 用於股票回購。我注意到，在過去三年中，我們每年都達到或超越了我們的股票回購承諾。最後，本季結束時，我們的員工數量約為 6,500 名。

I will now recap our FY '23 results.

我現在將回顧我們 23 財年的表現。

For the year, revenue grew 4% to $2.8 billion. Global Services revenue grew 7% to $1.5 billion, representing 53% of total revenue for the year. Product revenue grew 1% to $1.3 billion, representing 47% of total revenue. For the second year in a row, software represented roughly 50% of product revenue. Software revenue was flat compared to last year at $664 million. This was down from our initial expectation of 15% to 20% growth as a result of customers delaying large transformational projects. As Francois noted, software renewals performed largely as planned. We delivered $671 million in systems revenue during the year, representing 3% growth.

全年營收成長 4%，達到 28 億美元。全球服務收入成長 7%，達到 15 億美元，佔全年總收入的 53%。產品營收成長 1%，達到 13 億美元，佔總營收的 47%。軟體連續第二年約佔產品收入的 50%。軟體營收與去年持平，為 6.64 億美元。由於客戶推遲了大型轉型項目，這低於我們最初預期的 15% 至 20% 的成長。正如弗朗索瓦指出的那樣，軟體更新基​​本上按計劃進行。我們在這一年中實現了 6.71 億美元的系統收入，成長了 3%。

I would now like to provide some additional information regarding software revenue.

我現在想提供一些有關軟體收入的附加資訊。

We've said we intended to provide additional software revenue details as the SaaS business scaled. As we said last October, we had several SaaS and managed service transitions planned. We started these transitions in FY '23, and they will continue through FY '24 and FY '25, leading to some short-term revenue variability that is not necessarily indicative of potential future performance. We believe that providing visibility to our SaaS and managed service revenue and to the transitions that are underway provides greater clarity on both our FY '24 revenue expectations and our expectation of returning to mid-single-digit revenue growth in FY '25.

我們說過，隨著 SaaS 業務的擴展，我們打算提供更多軟體收入詳細資訊。正如我們去年 10 月所說，我們計劃了多項 SaaS 和託管服務轉型。我們在 23 財年開始了這些轉型，並將持續到 24 財年和 25 財年，導致一些短期收入變化，這並不一定表明未來的潛在表現。我們相信，提供對 SaaS 和託管服務收入以及正在進行的轉型的可見性，可以使我們對 24 財年的收入預期和 25 財年恢復到中個位數收入增長的預期更加清晰。

Today, I will speak to 3 components of our FY '23 software revenue. The first, term subscriptions; the second, SaaS and managed services; and the third, perpetual licenses. We intend to continue to report the SaaS and managed service portion of our revenue on an annual basis going forward.

今天，我將討論 23 財年軟體收入的 3 個組成部分。第一，定期訂閱；第二，SaaS 和託管服務；第三，永久許可證。我們打算繼續每年報告我們收入中的 SaaS 和託管服務部分。

In FY '23, revenue from term-based subscriptions comprised of BIG-IP and NGINX subscriptions contributed $353 million to software revenue, up 9% year-over-year. Under ASC 606, sales of term-based subscriptions are recognized largely upfront as software revenue. The remainder is deferred and recognized as service revenue over the term of the subscription. The majority of our term-based subscriptions are contracted for 3 years. Term subscriptions include both new, renewal and true forward or expansion revenue for both annual and multiyear subscriptions of deployable software. New revenue includes new customers as well as new use cases or offerings sold to existing customers.

23 財年，由 BIG-IP 和 NGINX 訂閱組成的基於期限的訂閱收入為軟體收入貢獻了 3.53 億美元，年增 9%。根據 ASC 606，基於期限的訂閱銷售大部分預先確認為軟體收入。剩餘部分將遞延並在訂閱期間內確認為服務收入。我們大部分的定期訂閱合約期限為 3 年。定期訂閱包括可部署軟體的年度和多年訂閱的新收入、續訂收入和真正的遠期或擴展收入。新收入包括新客戶以及銷售給現有客戶的新用例或產品。

In FY '23, renewal and true forward or expansion revenue experienced healthy year-over-year growth, offsetting the weakness in new term subscription software projects. Renewals performing largely to plan in FY '23 is encouraging for several reasons. First, given the current levels of customer spending scrutiny, strong renewals are a signal that customers are getting the value they demand. Second, our renewals motion is still relatively new and it's great to see confirmation that it is working as intended.

在 23 財年，續訂和真正的遠期或擴展收入經歷了健康的同比增長，抵消了新期限訂閱軟體專案的疲軟。基於多種原因，23 財年的續約工作基本上符合計劃，令人鼓舞。首先，考慮到當前客戶支出審查的水平，強勁的續訂表明客戶正在獲得他們所需的價值。其次，我們的續約動議仍然相對較新，很高興看到它正在按預期工作。

The second component of our software revenue, SaaS and managed services, contributed $203 million in revenue in FY '23, up 2% year-over-year. SaaS and managed service is comprised of our F5 distributed cloud SaaS offerings. Revenue from managed services, including our legacy F5 Silverline offering and our anti-bot and anti-fraud offerings as well as revenue from legacy SaaS offerings. SaaS and managed service sales are recognized ratably as product revenue over the term of the subscription.

我們軟體收入的第二個組成部分，即 SaaS 和託管服務，在 2023 財年貢獻了 2.03 億美元的收入，年增 2%。 SaaS 和託管服務由我們的 F5 分散式雲端 SaaS 產品組成。來自託管服務的收入，包括我們傳統的 F5 Silverline 產品、反機器人和反詐騙產品以及來自傳統 SaaS 產品的收入。 SaaS 和託管服務銷售在訂閱期間內按比例確認為產品收入。

At the end of FY '23, our SaaS and managed services ARR was $198 million, down approximately 2% year-over-year. There were 4 primary contributors to this performance. First, we are seeing solid early momentum from our F5 Distributed Cloud Service SaaS offerings. Second, in FY '23, our most advanced anti-bot and anti-fraud managed service solutions underperformed relative to our plan as a result of customer spending caution and budget scrutiny. Third, in FY '23, we began migrating customers from our legacy Silverline managed service offerings to our F5 Distributed Cloud SaaS offering. And fourth, we began executing the planned retirement of legacy SaaS offerings from companies we acquired. Both the Silverline customer migrations and the retirement of legacy SaaS offerings resulted in planned revenue churn.

截至 23 財年末，我們的 SaaS 和託管服務 ARR 為 1.98 億美元，年減約 2%。這一表現有 4 個主要貢獻者。首先，我們從 F5 分散式雲端服務 SaaS 產品中看到了強勁的早期動能。其次，在 23 財年，由於客戶支出謹慎和預算審查，我們最先進的反機器人和反詐騙託管服務解決方案相對於我們的計劃表現不佳。第三，在 23 財年，我們開始將客戶從傳統的 Silverline 託管服務產品遷移到我們的 F5 分散式雲端 SaaS 產品。第四，我們開始執行收購公司遺留 SaaS 產品的淘汰計畫。 Silverline 客戶遷移和傳統 SaaS 產品的退役都導致了計劃中的收入流失。

The third component of our software revenue is perpetual licenses, which contributed $108 million in software revenue, down year-over-year after unusually strong FY '22.

我們軟體收入的第三個組成部分是永久許可證，它貢獻了 1.08 億美元的軟體收入，在 22 財年異常強勁之後同比下降。

In FY '23, 71% of our revenue was recurring, up from 69% in FY '22. Several years ago, we began breaking out our security-related revenue annually. This year, our total security revenue, which includes stand-alone security, attached security and security related to maintenance revenue was approximately $1.1 billion or 40% of total revenue. Our stand-alone security product revenue grew 5% to approximately $475 million. We are seeing good traction with the lower-end anti-bot offering delivered through Distributed Cloud Services as well as from security on NGINX.

23 財年，我們 71% 的收入是經常性收入，高於 22 財年的 69%。幾年前，我們開始每年公佈與安全相關的收入。今年，我們的總安全收入（包括獨立安全、附加安全和與維護相關的安全收入）約為 11 億美元，佔總收入的 40%。我們的獨立安全產品收入成長了 5%，達到約 4.75 億美元。我們看到透過分散式雲端服務提供的低端反機器人產品以及 NGINX 的安全性具有良好的吸引力。

Our FY '23 security revenue growth was affected by customer spending caution, including stalled transformational projects and the underperformance of advanced anti-bot, anti-fraud solutions, as I mentioned previously. During the year, we overcame supply chain challenges and successfully returned our lead times to normal levels. As a result, our FY '23 product backlog returned to pre supply chain challenge levels and we closed the year with approximately $53 million in product backlog.

正如我之前提到的，我們 23 財年的安全收入成長受到客戶支出謹慎的影響，包括轉型專案停滯以及先進的反機器人、反詐騙解決方案表現不佳。這一年裡，我們克服了供應鏈挑戰，成功地將交貨時間恢復到正常水準。因此，我們 23 財年的產品積壓量恢復到了供應鏈挑戰之前的水平，全年結束時我們的產品積壓量約為 5,300 萬美元。

I will now turn to our FY '23 operating performance.

我現在將談談我們 23 財年的經營業績。

GAAP gross margin in FY '23 was 78.9%. Non-GAAP gross margin was 81.5%, down 110 basis points from FY '22 as a result of higher supply chain costs in FY '23. Our GAAP operating margin for FY '23 was 16.8%, and our non-GAAP operating margin was 30.2%, up 130 basis points from FY '22 as a result of our previously announced cost reductions.

23 財年的 GAAP 毛利率為 78.9%。由於 23 財年供應鏈成本上升，非 GAAP 毛利率為 81.5%，較 22 財年下降 110 個基點。我們 23 財年的 GAAP 營業利潤率為 16.8%，非 GAAP 營業利潤率為 30.2%，由於我們先前宣布的成本削減，比 22 財年增長了 130 個基點。

Our GAAP effective tax rate for the year was 18.7%. Our non-GAAP effective tax rate for the year was 18.3%. Our FY '23 annual tax rate was lower than expected primarily due to IRS guidance issued during the fourth quarter related to foreign tax credits. GAAP net income for FY '23 was $395 million or $6.55 per share. Non-GAAP net income was $705 million or $11.70 per share representing growth of 14.8% over FY '22.

我們當年的 GAAP 有效稅率為 18.7%。我們今年的非 GAAP 有效稅率為 18.3%。我們 23 財年的年度稅率低於預期，主要是由於國稅局在第四季度發布的有關外國稅收抵免的指導。 23 財年 GAAP 淨利為 3.95 億美元，即每股 6.55 美元。非 GAAP 淨利潤為 7.05 億美元，即每股 11.70 美元，比 2022 財年增長 14.8%。

Francois outlined our annual and longer-term outlook at the start of the call. I will recap it with some additional color. I will also provide our outlook for Q1. With the exception of revenue, my guidance comments reference non-GAAP metrics.

弗朗索瓦在電話會議開始時概述了我們的年度和長期展望。我將用一些額外的顏色來回顧一下。我還將提供我們對第一季的展望。除收入外，我的指導意見參考了非公認會計準則指標。

In our FY '24 outlook, we've made the following assumptions. We expect customer spending caution will continue into FY '24, but we also expect customers will begin to reinvest at some point in the year. We expect our Global Services revenue will return to low single-digit growth as we lap price increases. We have approximately $180 million revenue headwind in systems from FY '23's backlog fulfillment. We expect to continue to take share in the traditional ADC space with BIG-IP in both hardware and software form factors.

在我們的 24 財年展望中，我們做出了以下假設。我們預計客戶支出的謹慎態度將持續到 24 財年，但我們也預期客戶將在今年的某個時間點開始再投資。我們預計，隨著價格上漲，我們的全球服務收入將恢復到低個位數成長。由於 23 財年的積壓訂單履行，我們的系統收入面臨約 1.8 億美元的阻力。我們預計將繼續透過 BIG-IP 在硬體和軟體外形尺寸方面佔據傳統 ADC 領域的份額。

Within our software revenue, we expect continued strength from our term subscription renewals and continued growth from our F5 Distributed Cloud SaaS offerings. As I discussed previously, we will have some planned revenue churn as we work through the SaaS and managed service transitions I discussed. We expect these transitions will be largely complete in FY '25. In FY '23, any ARR associated with the transitions is approximately $65 million, a little more than half of which is associated with the offerings we intend to transition on to distributed cloud over the next 2 years.

在我們的軟體收入中，我們預計我們的定期訂閱續約將帶來持續強勁的收入，並且我們的 F5 分散式雲端 SaaS 產品將持續成長。正如我之前所討論的，當我們進行我所討論的 SaaS 和託管服務轉型時，我們將會有一些計劃中的收入流失。我們預計這些轉變將在 25 財年基本完成。在 23 財年，與過渡相關的任何 ARR 約為 6,500 萬美元，其中一半多一點與我們打算在未來 2 年內過渡到分散式雲端的產品相關。

The net of these assumptions combined with the current demand levels leads us to expect FY '24 revenue in the range of flat to down low single digits from FY '23. Excluding the $180 million or 6% headwind from our FY '23 backlog reduction, our guidance range would reflect low to mid-single-digit revenue growth in FY '24. Whether we achieve the bottom or top end of this range largely depends on when customers resume more normal levels of spending. We expect some continued quarter-to-quarter variability as a result of upfront revenue recognition related to our term subscription offerings.

這些假設加上目前的需求水平，使我們預期 24 財年的營收將與 23 財年持平或下降個位數。排除 23 財年積壓訂單減少帶來的 1.8 億美元或 6% 的阻力，我們的指導範圍將反映 24 財年低至中個位數的收入成長。我們是否達到該範圍的底部或頂部很大程度上取決於客戶何時恢復更正常的支出水準。由於與我們的定期訂閱產品相關的預收收入確認，我們預計季度與季度之間會出現一些持續的變化。

Regardless of our revenue performance, we remain committed to driving strong profitability. From an operating perspective, we expect gross margin will improve in fiscal year '24 to the range of 82% to 83%. This is primarily the result of supply chain-related cost pressures working their way out of our model. We expect our continued operating expense discipline will result in FY '24 non-GAAP operating margin in the range of 33% to 34% for the year. On a percent of revenue basis, this would put our operating expenses roughly in line with 2018 levels at roughly 49% of revenue. We expect our FY '24 effective tax rate will be 21% to 23%. In FY '24, we expect to deliver 5% to 7% non-GAAP earnings growth, which translates to at least 10% year-over-year growth on a tax-neutral basis.

無論我們的營收表現如何，我們仍然致力於推動強勁的獲利能力。從營運角度來看，我們預計 24 財年的毛利率將改善至 82% 至 83% 的範圍。這主要是我們模型中供應鏈相關成本壓力的結果。我們預計，我們持續的營運費用紀律將使 24 財年非 GAAP 營運利潤率達到 33% 至 34%。以收入百分比計算，這將使我們的營運支出與 2018 年的水平大致持平，約為收入的 49%。我們預計 24 財年的有效稅率將為 21% 至 23%。 24 財年，我們預計非 GAAP 利潤將實現 5% 至 7% 的成長，這意味著在稅收中立的基礎上至少實現 10% 的同比增長。

Finally, we expect to use at least 50% of our annual free cash flow for share repurchases consistent with the approach we have discussed previously. As of the end of FY '23, we had $922 million remaining on our previously announced authorized share repurchase program.

最後，我們預計將至少 50% 的年度自由現金流用於股票回購，這與我們之前討論的方法一致。截至 23 財年末，我們先前宣布的授權股票回購計畫還剩 9.22 億美元。

We also want to take the opportunity to speak to our expectations beyond FY '24 as we believe it will help signal how we intend to run the business longer term. As Francois noted, we expect mid-single-digit revenue growth in FY '25. We expect to drive additional gross margin improvements and to deliver gross margins between 83% and 84%. We expect to grow our operating expenses slower than revenue, resulting in an operating margin of at least 35%. We will continue to prioritize profitability, adjusting our operating model, if needed, to enable us to deliver at least 10% compounded annual non-GAAP EPS growth. Finally, we intend to continue to use at least 50% of our annual free cash flow towards share repurchases.

我們也想藉此機會談談我們對 24 財年後的期望，因為我們相信這將有助於表明我們打算如何長期經營業務。正如 Francois 指出的那樣，我們預計 25 財年的收入將實現中個位數成長。我們預計毛利率將進一步提高，毛利率達到 83% 至 84%。我們預計營運支出的成長速度將慢於收入的成長，從而實現至少 35% 的營運利潤率。我們將繼續優先考慮獲利能力，並在需要時調整我們的營運模式，以使我們能夠實現至少 10% 的非公認會計原則每股收益複合年增長率。最後，我們打算繼續將至少 50% 的年度自由現金流用於股票回購。

I'll conclude with our expectations for Q1 of FY '24. We expect Q1 revenue in the range of $675 million to $695 million. We expect gross margins in the range of 82% to 83%. We estimate Q1 operating expenses of $332 million to $344 million. We are targeting Q1 non-GAAP EPS in the range of $2.97 to $3.09 per share. We expect Q1 share-based compensation expense of approximately $58 million to $60 million.

最後我將介紹我們對 24 財年第一季的預期。我們預計第一季營收在 6.75 億美元至 6.95 億美元之間。我們預計毛利率在 82% 至 83% 之間。我們預計第一季營運費用為 3.32 億美元至 3.44 億美元。我們的目標是第一季非 GAAP 每股收益在 2.97 美元至 3.09 美元之間。我們預計第一季的股權激勵費用約為 5,800 萬至 6,000 萬美元。

I will now turn the call back over to Francois. Francois?

我現在將把電話轉回給弗朗索瓦。弗朗索瓦？

Thank you, Frank.

謝謝你，弗蘭克。

Before we open the call to questions, I want to address our view on F5's AI opportunity. At the highest level, we believe customers' use of AI will accelerate the growth of applications and APIs and the corresponding need to deploy, manage and secure them, which is what we do best. We also believe AI inference, the process of using a trained model to make predictions on never-seen-before data will become increasingly distributed. Organizations will need to support it anywhere from data centers, to manufacturing floors, to public clouds. We believe every application and API will soon require inference just as they require security and traffic management.

在我們開始提問之前，我想先談談我們對 F5 的人工智慧機會的看法。在最高層面上，我們相信客戶對人工智慧的使用將加速應用程式和 API 的成長，以及相應的部署、管理和保護它們的需求，這是我們最擅長的。我們也相信人工智慧推理，即使用經過訓練的模型對從未見過的資料進行預測的過程將變得越來越分散式。組織需要在從資料中心到製造車間再到公有雲的任何地方提供支援。我們相信每個應用程式和 API 很快都需要推理，就像它們需要安全性和流量管理一樣。

With our rich history of delivering innovative ML-based security solutions, including bot defense, protection against denial of service attacks and anti-fraud and our role in the flow of application traffic, we are uniquely positioned to secure AI workloads wherever they reside and to empower our customers to run AI wherever they need it.

憑藉我們提供基於機器學習的創新安全解決方案（包括機器人防禦、拒絕服務攻擊防護和反欺詐）的豐富歷史，以及我們在應用程式流量中的作用，我們具有獨特的優勢，可以保護人工智慧工作負載（無論其位於何處），並使我們的客戶能夠在任何需要的地方運行人工智慧。

In conclusion, we are leveraging our incumbency and our position in the flow of 40% of the world's Internet traffic to deliver hybrid multi-cloud solutions that dramatically simplify application and API deployment, security and management for our customers. We are also significantly reducing our customers' total cost of ownership. We are uniting and automating all of our customers' apps and APIs across their data centers, cloud and edge environment. We are encouraged both by the early signs of stability we saw in the second half of '23, and with the resonance our converging portfolio is having with customers. We have an installed base of 20,000 customers, all of whom have an acute and significant multi-cloud challenge. Other than F5, there is no one company that can address this challenge. With F5 Distributed Cloud Services, we have created a platform to drive SaaS growth in the future.

總而言之，我們正在利用我們的優勢以及我們在全球 40% 互聯網流量中的地位來提供混合多雲解決方案，從而極大地簡化客戶的應用程式和 API 部署、安全性和管理。我們也顯著降低了客戶的總擁有成本。我們正在跨資料中心、雲端和邊緣環境統一和自動化客戶的所有應用程式和 API。我們對 23 年下半年看到的穩定的早期跡像以及我們的融合產品組合與客戶產生的共鳴感到鼓舞。我們擁有 20,000 名客戶，他們都面臨嚴峻而重大的多雲挑戰。除了 F5 之外，沒有一家公司能夠應對這項挑戰。透過 F5 分散式雲端服務，我們創建了一個推動 SaaS 未來成長的平台。

In closing, I will reiterate the 3 pillars of our long-term operating model, which will enable us to drive double-digit earnings on a compound annual growth rate. Number one, delivering sustained mid-single-digit revenue growth supported by our differentiated positioning in attractive end markets, along with our durable, high-margin global services business. Number two, driving non-GAAP operating margin expansion, which we will achieve through gross margin improvement and operating discipline; and number three, returning cash to shareholders via share repurchases using at least 50% of our annual free cash flow.

最後，我將重申我們長期營運模式的三大支柱，這將使我們能夠以複合年增長率推動兩位數的獲利。第一，在我們在有吸引力的終端市場中的差異化定位以及我們持久的高利潤全球服務業務的支持下，實現了持續的中個位數收入成長。第二，推動非公認會計準則營業利潤率的擴張，我們將透過毛利率改善和經營紀律來實現這一目標；第三，使用至少 50% 的年度自由現金流透過股票回購向股東返還現金。

Operator, please open the call to questions.

接線員，請打開電話提問。

(Operator Instructions)

（操作員說明）

Our first question comes from the line of Amit Daryanani with Evercore.

我們的第一個問題來自 Amit Daryanani 和 Evercore 的關係。

I guess, Francois, maybe to start with, you talked about software growth being flat to, I think, up modestly, but that included some of the headwinds around the business transition you're taking place on the managed services side. I didn't appreciate this, but is the headwind from this transition $65 million? Or is it half that number? And maybe just flesh out how much that is and what are the transitions that you're doing?

我想，弗朗索瓦，也許首先，您談到軟體成長持平，我認為是適度成長，但這包括您在託管服務方面正在進行的業務轉型的一些阻力。我不明白這一點，但是這種轉變帶來的阻力是 6500 萬美元嗎？還是這個數字的一半？也許只是具體說明這有多少以及您正在做的轉變是什麼？

Amit, so in total, so we talked about roughly $200 million SaaS and managed services. In that $200 million, there's about $65 million of revenue streams that essentially are going to go away. Now about more than half of that is revenue streams coming from a legacy manager of this platform, Silverline, that we are retiring. But we intend to migrate the customers over to distributed cloud. So we would expect a portion, if not -- well, a significant portion of that revenue stream to go on to distributed cloud over time.

阿米特，我們總共討論了大約 2 億美元的 SaaS 和託管服務。在這 2 億美元中，大約有 6,500 萬美元的收入流基本上將會消失。現在，其中大約一半以上的收入來自該平台的遺留經理 Silverline，我們即將退休。但我們打算將客戶遷移到分散式雲端。因此，我們預計，隨著時間的推移，收入流的一部分（如果不是的話）將有很大一部分進入分散式雲端。

The other, a little less than half of that $65 million are offerings that we are retiring completely, that -- when we looked at our portfolio and looked at the offerings we wanted to rationalize that we felt were underperforming, we decided to retire these offerings completely to focus on the products that are going forward and successful, rationalize our cost and improve our efficiency.

另一方面，這 6500 萬美元中不到一半是我們完全退役的產品，當我們審視我們的投資組合併審視我們認為表現不佳的產品時，我們決定退役這些產品完全專注於正在發展和成功的產品，合理化我們的成本並提高我們的效率。

Got it. That is really helpful to get -- understand the split on the $65 million. And then I think, Francois, in your comments, you sort of talked about you're seeing encouraging signs from enterprise customers in September quarter. Can you just perhaps talk about what are these signs? Is it just the assets are running at high utilization, you can't flip them anymore? And is there any sort of geo vertical where you're starting to see these initial positive signs that you made from customer demand?

知道了。了解 6500 萬美元的分配確實很有幫助。然後我想，弗朗索瓦，在您的評論中，您談到您在九月季度看到了來自企業客戶的令人鼓舞的跡象。您能否談談這些跡像是什麼？難道只是資產利用率高，就不能再翻轉了嗎？是否有任何類型的地理垂直領域，您開始看到這些由客戶需求帶來的初步正面跡象？

I mean, I wouldn't say there is a particular geography where we're -- that's really different than others. I would say North America has been probably more solid and stable than our Asia and European markets. If we look at verticals in terms of where we're seeing stabilization, I think the enterprise market, we're seeing more stabilization. The service provider market has been soft. That's for a number of factors, service providers continue to sweat assets and be really ruthless in their prioritization. The 4G to 5G transition is a little slower than anticipated. So service providers in general have been soft, and we're kind of expecting that to continue.

我的意思是，我不會說我們所處的地理環境與其他地區確實不同。我想說，北美市場可能比我們的亞洲和歐洲市場更堅實和穩定。如果我們從穩定的角度來看垂直市場，我認為在企業市場，我們會看到更多的穩定。服務提供商市場一直疲軟。由於多種因素的影響，服務提供者繼續消耗資產，並且在確定優先順序時非常無情。 4G 到 5G 的過渡比預期慢一些。因此，服務提供者總體上表現疲軟，我們預計這種情況將持續下去。

What we were encouraged by, especially in the second half of the year, but specifically in Q4 is in the enterprise space, specifically, we saw some customers that had been sweating their assets and got to kind of at the end of that cycle that started demanding hardware again or ordering hardware again. And so we did see a rebound in hardware orders in the fourth fiscal quarter, coming from, a, we think some customers having swallowed their assets, but also it took a long time for us to ship equipment to a number of our customers in 2023. And in Q4, we saw some of these customers that finally had received their hardware and had been able to deploy that to start ordering again. So we were encouraged by those trends.

我們感到鼓舞的是，特別是在今年下半年，但特別是在第四季度，是在企業領域，具體來說，我們看到一些客戶一直在耗盡他們的資產，並在開始的周期結束時有所行動再次要求硬體或再次訂購硬體。因此，我們確實看到第四財季硬體訂單出現反彈，原因是，我們認為一些客戶吞掉了他們的資產，而且我們花了很長時間才在 2023 年向一些客戶運送設備。在第四季度，我們看到其中一些客戶終於收到了他們的硬件，並能夠部署它以再次開始訂購。因此，我們對這些趨勢感到鼓舞。

Our next question comes from the line of Alex Henderson with Needham.

我們的下一個問題來自亞歷克斯·亨德森和李約瑟的對話。

Looking back at your prior longer-term expectations, I think you had talked about growth rate in software in excess of 20% and high to mid-single declines in systems. Can you give us an update on what you think those percentages might look like longer term once you get through the wobble in FY '24?

回顧一下您之前的長期預期，我認為您曾談到軟體的成長率超過 20%，而係統的中高單下降。您能否告訴我們，一旦您度過了 24 財年的波動，您認為從長遠來看這些百分比可能會是什麼樣子？

Yes. So Alex, we're -- so today, we're -- so I don't want to talk about what's beyond FY '25. I'm going to talk about FY '24 and '25. Beyond FY '25, I think our view of our end markets haven't really changed. And so in the future, that opportunity to return to 20%-plus growth in software, if they're based on the end markets that we are targeting. But let's talk about FY '24 and FY '25.

是的。所以亞歷克斯，我們 - 所以今天，我們 - 所以我不想談論 25 財年之後的事情。我要談 24 財年和 25 財年。 25 財年之後，我認為我們對終端市場的看法並沒有真正改變。因此，如果軟體是基於我們瞄準的終端市場，未來就有機會恢復 20% 以上的成長。但我們來談談 24 財年和 25 財年。

So FY '24, we've talked about growth in software being flat to modest. And that's -- if you think the 3 components of software that we've just talked about, we expect the perpetual base of the business to be roughly flattish. We have a similar view on the SaaS and managed services part of the business based on the transitions we're going through. And potentially, in term subscription part of the business is where potentially we would see some modest growth.

因此，24 財年，我們談到軟體的成長持平至適度。那就是——如果你認為我們剛才討論的軟體的三個組成部分，我們預計業務的永久基礎將大致持平。根據我們正在經歷的轉型，我們對業務的 SaaS 和託管服務部分也有類似的看法。就期限訂閱業務而言，我們可能會看到一些溫和的成長。

Going into 2025, from a revenue perspective, we don't necessarily expect growth from perpetual or the SaaS and managed services business because of the transitions that we're going through. But we have strong visibility into our -- the renewals and expansions in our term subscription business. The expansions are very strong from what we're seeing, and we expect that to continue and be amplified in 2025. So in 2025, we would expect software growth to return to double digit really powered by our term subscription business.

進入 2025 年，從收入角度來看，由於我們正在經歷轉型，我們不一定期望永久業務或 SaaS 和託管服務業務會成長。但我們對我們的定期訂閱業務的更新和擴展有很強的了解。從我們所看到的情況來看，擴張非常強勁，我們預計這種擴張將在2025 年持續並擴大。因此，到2025 年，我們預計軟體成長將恢復到兩位數，真正由我們的定期訂閱業務推動。

I see. And just if I could follow up, you talked about your backlog having been normalized. You've also had orders out for components that were driven off of the tight supply environment. When do you expect the full normalization of the component costs in your cost of goods sold? Is that already achieved? Or is that going to be something that's going to feather in over the next year, maybe 1.5 years?

我懂了。如果我能跟進的話，您談到您的積壓工作已經正常化。您還收到了因供應緊張而被迫訂購的組件訂單。您預計銷售成本中的零件成本何時完全正常化？這已經實現了嗎？或者說這會在明年（也許 1.5 年）逐漸顯現出來？

Alex, it's Frank. So largely, most of that has been achieved, but there is still some of the purchase price variances that are coming through in FY '24. By FY '25, we expect that to be fully out in a normalized level.

亞歷克斯，這是弗蘭克。基本上，大部分目標已經實現，但 24 財年仍存在一些購買價格差異。到 25 財年，我們預計這一情況將完全恢復到正常水準。

Can you give some sense of what the '24 variance would be?

您能解釋一下 24 日的差異是什麼嗎？

Alex, I think it's probably in the range of 25 to 50 basis points where we'll see improvement just based off of that in comparison to expectations for gross margins in FY '25.

亞歷克斯，我認為它可能在 25 到 50 個基點的範圍內，與 25 財年的毛利率預期相比，我們將看到基於此的改善。

Our next question comes from the line of Samik Chatterjee with JPMorgan.

我們的下一個問題來自 Samik Chatterjee 與摩根大通的對話。

I guess, Francois, just related to your fiscal '25 outlook for mid-single digit, I'm just curious if you've changed your view about what the long-term trajectory in systems demand looks like, particularly as you mentioned, you've seen orders pick up a bit. And maybe you can also talk about -- when you talked about AI demand, do you expect -- how do you expect it to play out between systems related to sort of software within your portfolio? And I have a quick follow-up.

我想，弗朗索瓦，這與您對 25 年中個位數的財政前景的預測有關，我只是好奇您是否改變了對系統需求長期軌蹟的看法，特別是正如您提到的，您看到訂單有所增加。也許你還可以談論——當你談論人工智慧需求時，你期望——你期望它如何在與你的產品組合中的某種軟體相關的系統之間發揮作用？我有一個快速的跟進。

Samik, thank you. So over a long period of time, I think we think the hardware business would be more of a low single-digit decline over time. However, that is a statement that is based on, first, a normalization of the hardware business. And we're not there today, right? There's been -- as you know, the demand was much softer in 2023. And so we actually expect our hardware business to rebound in 2024, and we saw some signs of that already in this fourth quarter. And I'm giving you more of a long-term trend kind of beyond 2025. But I think at least for 2024, we expect a rebound in the hardware business.

薩米克，謝謝你。因此，在很長一段時間內，我認為我們認為硬體業務將隨著時間的推移而出現較低的個位數下降。然而，這項聲明首先基於硬體業務的正常化。我們今天不在那兒，對嗎？如您所知，2023 年的需求要疲軟得多。因此，我們實際上預計我們的硬體業務將在 2024 年反彈，我們在第四季度已經看到了一些跡象。我為您提供了 2025 年之後的更多長期趨勢。但我認為至少在 2024 年，我們預計硬體業務會反彈。

In terms of where AI will play in our business. So the way to think about it, Samik, is we -- the portfolio that we're putting together, which is hardware, software and SaaS, we expect that will enable our customers to secure and deliver their API and their applications in any environment.

就人工智慧將在我們的業務中發揮的作用而言。 Samik，我們的思考方式是，我們正在整合的產品組合，包括硬體、軟體和 SaaS，我們希望這將使我們的客戶能夠在任何環境中保護和交付他們的 API 和應用程式。

AI workloads are going to be modern applications some of which may run on prem, but we think a lot of them will run in software environments. And so it's likely that supporting AI workloads will accrue more to our software business over time. And in addition to that, we think we have a very unique position in that with our distributed cloud capabilities, we are able to run inferences really in any cloud environment and beyond. So we can run inferences in any public cloud. We can run it at the edge, we can run it in our own cloud. And increasingly, we're hearing from customers that they will want to run these inferences on manufacturing floors or in retail branches for retail customers or in vehicles for some far edge use cases. And we have the ability to run and secure and deliver these inferences in any environment, whether it's in the cloud or in any one of these far edge environments and that makes F5 very unique in its position for running AI inferences in the future. All of that, of course, will accrue to our software business.

人工智慧工作負載將成為現代應用程序，其中一些可能在本地運行，但我們認為其中許多將在軟體環境中運行。因此，隨著時間的推移，支援人工智慧工作負載可能會為我們的軟體業務帶來更多收益。除此之外，我們認為我們擁有非常獨特的地位，憑藉我們的分散式雲端功能，我們能夠在任何雲端環境及其他環境中真正運作推理。因此我們可以在任何公有雲中進行推理。我們可以在邊緣運行它，也可以在我們自己的雲端中運行它。我們越來越多地從客戶那裡聽到，他們希望在製造車間或零售客戶的零售分支機構或在某些邊緣用例的車輛中運行這些推理。我們有能力在任何環境中運作、保護和交付這些推理，無論是在雲端還是在任何一種遠端環境中，這使得 F5 在未來運作人工智慧推理方面具有非常獨特的地位。當然，所有這些都將惠及我們的軟體業務。

Got it. Before I follow-up, Francois, you mentioned the green shoots you're seeing in terms of enterprise spending and the recovery there. I think one of the pushbacks we've seen from investors on that front has largely been the expectation that there might be a pickup here in the back end of the year just from a budget flush perspective from the enterprises and you might sort of see you pull back again as we enter into next year and more sort of budget cuts. Any insight that you're already getting from your customers about how budgets look for next year or in relation to whether this sort of pickup has anything to do with the more temporary flush of budgets before the year-end?

知道了。弗朗索瓦，在我跟進之前，您提到了企業支出和復甦方面看到的萌芽。我認為，我們在這方面看到的投資者的阻力之一很大程度上是預期，僅從企業預算充足的角度來看，今年年底可能會出現回升，你可能會看到你當我們進入明年和更多類型的預算削減時，我們會再次撤回。您已經從客戶那裡獲得了有關明年預算如何的見解，或者這種增加是否與年底前臨時預算充裕有關的見解？

Thank you, Samik. I don't think it was related to budget flush for the end of the year because the comments we made in resumption were really things we observed in the quarter that ended in September for us. When we look at next year, no, we do not have visibility into exactly what budgets our customers will have in FY '24. We do have a strong pipeline entering the fiscal year on hardware. And now it will come down to what are the close rates on that pipeline. .

謝謝你，薩米克。我不認為這與年底的預算充裕有關，因為我們在恢復時所做的評論確實是我們在 9 月結束的季度中觀察到的事情。當我們展望明年時，不，我們無法準確了解客戶在 24 財年的預算。我們確實在進入本財年的硬體方面擁有強大的管道。現在，問題將歸結為該管道的收盤率是多少。 。

In Q4, the close rates that we saw on our pipeline entering the quarter were better than in the prior 3 quarters of the year. That's also part of why we talked about stabilization and green shoots in Q4 is because of what we saw in the close rate. So we're going into the fiscal year with a stronger hardware pipeline, recent data points are on close rates that are positive. But of course, we are cautious because there's still a lot of uncertainty out there around the macro as you noted. We continue to see customers in certain occasions delaying deals or having continued budget scrutiny and more approvals. We are seeing that phenomenon continue. And so overall, we're still cautious going into the year.

在第四季度，我們在進入本季的管道中看到的成交率比今年前三個季度好。這也是我們在第四季度談論穩定和復甦的部分原因是因為我們在接近率中看到了這一點。因此，我們將以更強大的硬體管道進入本財年，最近的數據點接近正值。但當然，我們持謹慎態度，因為正如您所指出的，宏觀經濟仍然存在許多不確定性。我們繼續看到客戶在某些情況下推遲交易或持續進行預算審查和更多批准。我們看到這種現象仍在繼續。總的來說，我們對今年仍然持謹慎態度。

Our next question comes from the line of Meta Marshall with Morgan Stanley.

我們的下一個問題來自梅塔·馬歇爾與摩根士丹利的對話。

Maybe building on Samik's question to start. As you look at your pipeline, is your view that a lot of this is, okay, we've sweated assets as much as we can or the utilization of the appliances is too high? Or are we starting to see kind of growth in multi-cloud projects again? Just trying to get a sense of as you look at your pipeline, is it kind of traditional applications are expanding use cases?

也許可以從 Samik 的問題開始。當您查看您的管道時，您是否認為其中許多是，好吧，我們已經盡可能地消耗了資產，或者設備的利用率太高了？或者我們再次開始看到多雲項目的成長？只是想在查看管道時了解傳統應用程式是否正在擴展用例？

And then maybe as a second question, you mentioned kind of having plays as AI and inference cases grow, is that going to require productization of any kind of suite of products today or just kind of tailoring to kind of have AI-ready solution?

然後，也許作為第二個問題，您提到隨著人工智慧和推理案例的增長，這是否需要今天任何類型的產品套件的產品化，或者只是進行某種定制以擁有人工智能就緒的解決方案？

Thank you, Meta. So let me start with the first question. And my comments on pipeline, they are more related to what we're seeing on the hardware side of things where we had a number of customers that number one, have been sweating their assets and they're getting sometimes the utilization levels where we know that at some point in '24, they will have to do something. Or number two, customers who have placed orders in FY '22 have not been able to receive equipment for these orders who now have and have started to deploy that capacity and are starting to be ready to order again. So that is accruing to a stronger hardware pipeline.

謝謝你，梅塔。那麼讓我從第一個問題開始。我對管道的評論，它們與我們在硬體方面看到的情況更相關，我們有許多排名第一的客戶，一直在消耗他們的資產，他們有時會達到我們所知道的利用率水平在24 年的某個時候，他們將不得不做一些事情。第二，在 22 財年下訂單的客戶無法收到這些訂單的設備，但他們現在已經開始部署該產能，並開始準備再次訂購。因此，這需要更強大的硬體管道。

In terms of big kind of multi-cloud software, what we call this transformational software project, we are not yet seeing a substantial resumption of these kinds of projects. And that's what I was saying earlier, customers are still very cautious on undertaking big projects like that. And we're not seeing a different pattern going into the year on those aspects.

就大型多雲軟體（我們稱之為變革性軟體專案）而言，我們尚未看到此類專案的實質恢復。這就是我之前所說的，客戶對於開展這樣的大型專案仍然非常謹慎。我們在今年這些方面沒有看到不同的模式。

As it relates to AI and whether it will require productization, we have, essentially -- so on the aspect of being able to run inferences in any environment, we have these capabilities in distributed cloud. I think we need to ensure that we harden these capabilities, and there's a strong go-to-market effort to be made around that to make customers aware of that in the future as they start deploying AI workloads. As it relates to being able to secure and deliver AI workloads, those capabilities exist today, and we are ready to go with that already.

由於它與人工智慧以及是否需要產品化有關，因此我們本質上已經——因此，在能夠在任何環境中運行推理方面，我們在分散式雲端中擁有這些功能。我認為我們需要確保強化這些功能，並且圍繞這一點做出強有力的市場推廣努力，讓客戶在未來開始部署人工智慧工作負載時意識到這一點。由於它涉及到能夠保護和交付人工智慧工作負載，這些功能現在已經存在，而且我們已經準備好使用它。

Meta, I just wanted to add that last year we talked about in our outlook, particularly in software that we were a little less than 50% of our outlook at the time was coming from the renewals and the true forward portion of our term subscription agreements and that -- and our SaaS-based of revenue. And that's a little more than half is going to come from new this year as we take a look at that same formula and we look out, over 60% of what we expect in that flat-to-modest software growth is coming from both the renewal pieces of the SaaS and managed service business plus the renewals of true forwards of our term subscription business. So we try to take into account the fact that we don't see these transformational projects on the horizon as we thought about the guidance.

Meta，我只是想補充一點，去年我們在展望中談到了這一點，特別是在軟體領域，當時我們的展望中不到 50% 的部分來自續訂和我們定期訂閱協議的真正遠期部分還有我們基於SaaS 的收入。其中一半多一點將來自今年的新成長，當我們查看相同的公式時，我們會發現，我們預期的軟體成長持平到適度的成長中，超過 60% 來自於SaaS 和託管服務業務的續約以及我們定期訂閱業務的真實遠期的續訂。因此，我們試圖考慮到這樣一個事實：在考慮指導意見時，我們並沒有看到這些轉型項目即將出現。

Our next question comes from the line of Michael Ng with Goldman Sachs.

我們的下一個問題來自高盛的 Michael Ng。

Thank you for all the comments on the outlook. I just had 2, both on software. First, I was just wondering if you could talk a little bit about your visibility into the term business. You called out term as something that would help drive the double-digit software revenue growth in fiscal '25 as well as potential growth in fiscal '24.

感謝您對展望的所有評論。我剛剛有 2 個，都是在軟體上。首先，我想知道您是否可以談談您對“商業”一詞的了解。您稱該術語將有助於推動 25 財年兩位數的軟體收入成長以及 24 財年的潛在成長。

And then second, I was just wondering if you could talk a little bit more about this migration from Silverline to DCS. It sounds like it's a multiyear headwind, something that contributed to the weakness in ARR in fiscal '23. But it also seems to be a headwind in fiscal '24 and fiscal '25. So maybe you could just talk about that and how that transition is rolling off and over how many years?

其次，我想知道您是否可以多談談從 Silverline 到 DCS 的遷移。聽起來這是一個多年的逆風，也是導致 23 財年 ARR 疲軟的原因之一。但這似乎也是 24 財年和 25 財年的逆風。所以也許你可以談談這一點以及這種轉變是如何進行的以及需要多少年？

Sure, Michael. I'm going to start with the first question, and I'll let Francois jump in on the second on the Silverline side. So on the first, on the term subscription, particularly the true forwards and the expansions that we have seen with the second terms coming on, and we've had probably about 7 or 8 quarters now of run rate and are getting much more comfortable with the early signs that where massive expansions continue. And so getting very, very strong utilization from the -- from that base of deployed, flexible consumption programs. And this specifically covers right now, BIG-IP and the NGINX portfolio within our business, as I mentioned in the prepared remarks. And that's giving us a lot of comfort, both in FY '24 and more importantly, in FY '25. FY '25, we've got a bigger pool of expansion revenue than we do in FY '24 and '24 is growing on top of '23. So all of these continue to compile upon themselves.

當然，邁克爾。我將從第一個問題開始，然後我將讓弗朗索瓦插話銀線方面的第二個問題。因此，在第一個方面，在訂閱期限上，特別是真正的遠期和我們在第二個期限即將到來時看到的擴張，我們現在可能已經有大約7 或8 個季度的運行率，並且越來越適應大規模擴張仍在繼續的早期跡象。因此，從已部署的靈活消費計劃的基礎上獲得非常非常強大的利用率。正如我在準備好的演講中提到的，這具體涵蓋了我們業務中的 BIG-IP 和 NGINX 產品組合。這給我們帶來了很大的安慰，無論是在 24 財年，還是更重要的是在 25 財年。 25 財年，我們的擴張收入池比 24 財年更大，而且 24 財年在 23 財年的基礎上不斷增長。所以所有這些都繼續自行編譯。

As I just mentioned to Meta that more than 60% of the outlook that we've got within our software revenue is coming from that cohort that we feel pretty good about seeing, which is the term renewals as well as true forwards plus the SaaS managed service renewal piece that we've got in the revenue stream. So both of those, we feel very confident about, and it's probably the highest visibility that we've got within the revenue stream.

正如我剛剛向 Meta 提到的，我們軟體收入中超過 60% 的前景來自我們感覺非常滿意的群體，即術語續訂、真實轉發以及 SaaS 管理我們在收入流中獲得的服務更新部分。因此，我們對這兩者都非常有信心，這可能是我們在收入流中獲得的最高可見度。

Thank you, Frank. And to your second question, Michael, on SaaS and managed services. So if we talk about FY '22 to FY '23, you saw that the ARR there was flat to slightly down. There are 2 reasons for that. One is, yes, the transitions we talked about started in '23, and there was about, call it, roughly $12 million of ARR that we've transitioned out of the business in 2023.

謝謝你，弗蘭克。 Michael，關於你的第二個問題，關於 SaaS 和託管服務。因此，如果我們談論 22 財年至 23 財年，您會發現 ARR 持平或略有下降。原因有兩個。一是，是的，我們談論的轉型始於 23 年，我們在 2023 年從該業務中轉型了大約 1200 萬美元的 ARR。

The other reason is -- at the high end of the bot business, we saw quite a bit of softness, especially in the second half of the year as customers had significant budget scrutiny and were reluctant unless they were under immediate attack to really implement our more sophisticated solutions. We think, over time, that will change. But specifically this year with the macro pressures and budget scrutiny, we saw a lot of softness there, both in new bookings and in some churn in some cases. So that is the FY '22 to FY '23 view.

另一個原因是 - 在機器人業務的高端，我們看到了相當多的疲軟，特別是在今年下半年，因為客戶進行了嚴格的預算審查，並且不願意，除非他們立即受到攻擊才能真正實施我們的更複雜的解決方案。我們認為，隨著時間的推移，這種情況將會改變。但特別是今年，由於宏觀壓力和預算審查，我們看到了許多疲軟的情況，無論是新預訂還是某些情況下的流失。這是 22 財年至 23 財年的看法。

From -- going into 2024, you asked about is this transition is a multiyear transition? Yes, we expect that the $65 million of revenue stream that we are transitioning will work themselves out over the next couple of years. So over FY '24 and FY '25, they are a headwind to total growth. However, we are quite excited by what's happening with the SaaS portion of our offerings, specifically SaaS on F5 Distributed Cloud. We have launched a WAP offering, a security offering, about 18 months ago, we are seeing extraordinary traction on that. As I said earlier, we've won over 500 customers in that period, all of whom are enterprise customers. And we are seeing very rapid traction on that.

從 - 進入 2024 年，您問過這個過渡是一個多年過渡嗎？是的，我們預計我們正在轉型的 6,500 萬美元收入流將在未來幾年內自行解決。因此，在 24 財年和 25 財年，它們是整體成長的阻力。然而，我們對我們產品的 SaaS 部分所發生的事情感到非常興奮，特別是 F5 分散式雲端上的 SaaS。大約 18 個月前，我們推出了 WAP 產品，即安全產品，我們看到了它的巨大吸引力。正如我剛才所說，我們在這段時間內贏得了超過500家客戶，這些客戶都是企業客戶。我們看到這方面的進展非常迅速。

We're also seeing rapid traction on the multi-cloud networking market, where we bring both networking and security capabilities, and we're quite differentiated to anybody in the market. So that has grown fast, and we expect that portion of the business to continue to grow fast and over time become a majority of this SaaS and managed services portfolio.

我們也看到多雲網路市場的快速發展，我們帶來了網路和安全功能，並且我們與市場上的任何人都具有很大的差異化。因此，該業務成長很快，我們預計這部分業務將繼續快速成長，並隨著時間的推移成為 SaaS 和託管服務組合的主要部分。

Our next question comes from the line of Tim Long with Barclays.

我們的下一個問題來自巴克萊銀行的 Tim Long。

Two from my side as well. First, Francois, I think you talked about replacing a competitor with ADC, both hardware and software domain. Could you dig into that a little bit more? Is that something that you think was kind of some one-off? Or do you think there's a sustainable move there? And how is that happening? .

我這邊也有兩個。首先，Francois，我認為您談到了用 ADC 取代競爭對手，包括硬體和軟體領域。能再深入一點嗎？您認為這是一次性的事嗎？或者您認為那裡有可持續的舉措嗎？這是怎麼發生的？ 。

And then second, just on the changes in the transitions in software. It sounds like moving to distributed cloud services makes a lot of sense. Having looked at some of those businesses and kind of moving on from them, does that change your view of kind of synergies across product offerings? Or is it a sign that maybe those businesses didn't have the same synergy and that's why you're not going forward with them?

其次，關於軟體轉換的變化。聽起來遷移到分散式雲端服務很有意義。在研究了其中一些業務並擺脫它們之後，這是否會改變您對產品之間的協同效應的看法？或者這是否表明這些企業可能沒有相同的協同作用，這就是您不與他們合作的原因？

Thanks, Tim. Maybe let me start with the second part. No, it's not about synergies. So there are 2 aspects of that, Tim, in terms of the transitions, we're talking about the $65 million of transition. One is a legacy platform that we have that -- on which we have built managed services offerings. We have now built with F5 Distributed Cloud, a much more modern platform with an architecture that's differentiated. And that's getting rapid traction, and we want to transition our customers to this modern platform. And that was always the plan. That was always the plan to do that. However, we had to, first of all, build the platform and build all the security capabilities on the platform to be able to start this transition. So we're very excited that we were able to do all this work on the Volterra platform over the last couple of years, and we're able to start this transition in 2023.

謝謝，蒂姆。也許讓我從第二部分開始。不，這與協同效應無關。 Tim，就過渡而言，有兩個方面，我們正在談論 6500 萬美元的過渡。一個是我們擁有的遺留平台，我們在該平台上建立了託管服務產品。我們現在已經使用 F5 分散式雲端建構了一個更現代化的平台，其架構與眾不同。這正在迅速受到關注，我們希望將我們的客戶轉移到這個現代化的平台。這始終是我們的計劃。這一直是這樣做的計劃。然而，我們首先必須建立平台並在平台上建立所有安全功能，才能開始這項轉變。因此，我們非常高興過去幾年能夠在 Volterra 平台上完成所有這些工作，並且我們能夠在 2023 年開始這項過渡。

The second part of the revenue stream that is being retired, it's not about synergies. It's new offerings that we have launched recently that we hoped would do well in the market. But given the macro environment, and what we've seen of the early traction of these offerings, we made some decisions, as you know, in April to rationalize our portfolio and focus on the most attractive investment, and we decided to not go forward with these products. So that's the second part of your question.

即將退休的收入流的第二部分與協同效應無關。這是我們最近推出的新產品，我們希望在市場上表現良好。但考慮到宏觀環境以及我們所看到的這些產品的早期吸引力，如您所知，我們在4 月份做出了一些決定，以合理化我們的投資組合併專注於最具吸引力的投資，但我們決定不再繼續推進與這些產品。這是你問題的第二部分。

On the, I should say, the last thing I would say about that is in terms of the synergies between elements of the portfolio, no, we are actually very encouraged on what we're seeing. We're seeing actually a number of customers who already have BIG-IP adopt Distributed Cloud also for a set of applications. They have BIG-IP on-prem or in the cloud, so hardware or software. And then they want to have Software-as-a-Service for other applications in their estate, and they really want to have the consistency of security engine, security policies across all these environments. And we're able to do that with BIG-IP as well as our SaaS and managed services.

關於，我應該說，我要說的最後一件事是投資組合要素之間的協同作用，不，我們實際上對我們所看到的感到非常鼓舞。實際上，我們看到許多已經擁有 BIG-IP 的客戶也為一組應用程式採用分散式雲端。他們在本地或雲端擁有 BIG-IP，包括硬體或軟體。然後他們希望為自己的資產中的其他應用程式提供軟體即服務，並且他們確實希望在所有這些環境中具有安全引擎和安全策略的一致性。我們能夠透過 BIG-IP 以及我們的 SaaS 和託管服務來做到這一點。

NGINX also had a very strong quarter in Q4, and that was driven in part by the security capabilities that we ported from BIG-IP onto NGINX, and that same security stack is now in use in Distributed Cloud. So the synergies, especially in terms of security across our portfolio are playing out. And we expect that they will accelerate actually over the next couple of years as we do more and more convergence between the SaaS and deployable products.

NGINX 在第四季度也有一個非常強勁的季度，這在一定程度上是由我們從 BIG-IP 移植到 NGINX 的安全功能所推動的，而相同的安全堆疊現在正在分散式雲端中使用。因此，協同效應，特別是在我們整個產品組合的安全性方面，正在發揮作用。我們預計，隨著我們在 SaaS 和可部署產品之間進行越來越多的融合，它們將在未來幾年內真正加速。

Now to the first part of your question. In terms of the ADC competitors. Look, Tim, here it's -- we have, over the last 4 years, we made a decision to continue to invest in the future of the ADC franchise and specifically building the next-generation hardware form factors for our ADC franchise and the next-generation software form factors that together bring to on-prem deployments, the benefit of the cloud, such as multi-tenancy, rapid upgrades, seamless upgrades and make it way easier for customers to operationalize ADCs and have a better total cost of ownership. Those investments are paying out in the market in terms of us gaining share and being able to displace our traditional competitors in -- even in situations where they are incumbent and take share from them.

現在回答你問題的第一部分。就ADC競爭對手而言。看，蒂姆，這裡 - 在過去 4 年裡，我們決定繼續投資 ADC 特許經營權的未來，並專門為我們的 ADC 特許經營權和下一代構建下一代硬體外形規格 -一代軟體外形因素共同帶來了本地部署和雲端的優勢，例如多租戶、快速升級、無縫升級，並使客戶更容易操作ADC 並獲得更好的總擁有成本。這些投資在市場上得到了回報，因為我們獲得了市場份額，並能夠取代我們的傳統競爭對手——即使是在傳統競爭對手佔據主導地位並從他們那裡奪取份額的情況下。

And we think that that's not a one-off. Our expectation is that will continue, and we're pretty excited because this year, we're introducing the next-generation software platform on BIG-IP that we think is also even more differentiated than what we've had in the market. So I expect that that will continue, and it's hopefully a payoff for the investments we've made over the last 4 years.

我們認為這不是一次性的。我們的期望是這種情況將會持續下去，我們非常興奮，因為今年我們將在 BIG-IP 上推出下一代軟體平台，我們認為該平台比我們在市場上擁有的平台更具差異化。因此，我預計這種情況將會持續下去，並希望這能為我們過去 4 年的投資帶來回報。

Our next question comes from the line of Ray McDonough with Guggenheim.

我們的下一個問題來自雷·麥克唐納與古根漢的關係。

Francois, given some of the changes you're making to your software portfolio, it seems like in a way, you're simplifying or even converging some of your solutions. So as we think about the road map for Distributed Cloud in particular, what can you do to accelerate adoption and make sure you capture the potential voluntary churn that you've talked about? Or even how should we think about the priorities around Distributed Cloud next year?

Francois，考慮到您對軟體組合所做的一些更改，在某種程度上，您似乎正在簡化甚至融合一些解決方案。因此，當我們特別考慮分散式雲端的路線圖時，您可以採取哪些措施來加速採用並確保捕獲您所討論的潛在的自願流失？或者甚至我們應該如何考慮明年分散式雲端的優先事項？

Thank you. The -- look, our goal is to make it ridiculously easy for our customers to secure and deliver their applications, and Distributed Cloud is getting a lot of traction because it does that for our customers. So when you look at the priorities next year, of course, it's scaling the platform so it's available in more markets, in more environments and continue to add services to the platform. We have 2, I would say, first 2 sets of services, WAP and multi-cloud networking, we have a backlog of other services that we want to add to the platform that our customers will want to add.

謝謝。看起來，我們的目標是讓我們的客戶能夠非常輕鬆地保護和交付他們的應用程序，而分散式雲端正在獲得很大的吸引力，因為它為我們的客戶做到了這一點。因此，當你考慮明年的優先事項時，當然，它正在擴展平台，以便它可以在更多市場、更多環境中使用，並繼續為平台添加服務。我想說，我們有 2 套服務，即 WAP 和多雲網絡，我們還積壓了其他服務，我們希望將這些服務添加到我們的客戶想要添加的平台中。

We've recently added CDN capabilities on the platform after the acquihire of Lilac a few months back, and we're starting to get customers adopting our CDN because it's convenient for them to attach that to low balancing and security in some cases. So the first priorities are scaling the platform and adding services. As far as go-to-market, frankly, the priority is going into customers that are already F5 customers that have our hardware or software, but want a SaaS solution to make it easier to use F5 to front a bunch of applications for which they don't want to manage the life cycle of deployable products.

在幾個月前收購Lilac 後，我們最近在平台上添加了CDN 功能，並且我們開始讓客戶採用我們的CDN，因為在某些情況下，他們可以輕鬆地將其附加到低平衡性和安全性上。因此，首要任務是擴展平台並添加服務。坦白說，就進入市場而言，首要任務是進入已經是F5 客戶的客戶，這些客戶擁有我們的硬體或軟體，但需要SaaS 解決方案，以便更輕鬆地使用F5 來處理他們需要的大量應用程式。不想管理可部署產品的生命週期。

And if you look at the 500 customers or so that are on Distributed Cloud today, over 2/3 of them are actually existing BIG-IP customers. So about 1/3 of them are net new customers that have never bought anything from F5 and 2/3 of them are existing BIG-IP customers. And we think actually with both net new and with existing customers, there is a lot of growth, and that's where the focus is. And the focus is going to continue to be with large enterprise customers, where F5 has a strong presence.

如果您查看當今分散式雲端上的 500 多個客戶，您會發現其中超過 2/3 實際上是現有的 BIG-IP 客戶。因此，其中約 1/3 是從未從 F5 購買過任何產品的淨新客戶，其中 2/3 是現有的 BIG-IP 客戶。我們認為實際上無論是新客戶還是現有客戶，都有很大的成長，這就是重點所在。重點將繼續放在大型企業客戶上，F5 在這些客戶中擁有強大的影響力。

I appreciate that. And if I could sneak one more in maybe for Frank. Certainly, appreciate the continued focus on operating margins and EPS growth. But can you help us think through how we should think about cash flow margins in fiscal '24? I know you typically don't guide cash flow, but should we think of cash flow growing in line with operating income ex some of the tax headwinds you had in fiscal '23? Any even directional thoughts would be helpful.

我很感激。如果我能為弗蘭克再偷偷帶一粒的話。當然，我們對營運利潤率和每股收益成長的持續關注表示讚賞。但您能否幫助我們思考一下我們該如何考慮 24 財年的現金流利潤率？我知道您通常不會指導現金流量，但我們是否應該考慮現金流量的成長與營業收入（排除您在 23 財年遇到的一些稅收不利因素）一致？任何有方向性的想法都會有幫助。

Yes. Ray, as you described, I think that's roughly correct. Cash flow is one of the harder things for us to predict, but those dynamics, it should mirror a bit that net income growth with some exceptions to the true tax impacts, some of the restructuring expense we have last year that we don't have this year that are real cash but split out for non-GAAP purposes. So there's a few ins and outs, but it should be roughly close to that.

是的。雷，正如你所描述的，我認為這大致是正確的。現金流是我們更難預測的事情之一，但這些動態應該在一定程度上反映了淨收入增長，但真正的稅收影響除外，我們去年有一些重組費用，但我們沒有今年這些都是真正的現金，但出於非公認會計準則目的而分開。所以有一些細節，但應該大致接近。

Our next question comes from the line of James Fish with Piper Sandler.

我們的下一個問題來自詹姆斯·菲什和派珀·桑德勒的台詞。

I'll just like to get simple here. You guys talked about in the prepared remarks, about subscription renewals performing well. Any more color into specifically what products are seeing those better renewals. Is the cross-sell that you're seeing? Or any qualitative or quantitative color around net retention rates, understanding you have this headwind around specifically the SaaS and MSP business of about $65 million. How should we think about that net retention rate within the term business or the aggregate overall when you kind of exclude even the impact of that SaaS piece?

我只想在這裡變得簡單。你們在準備好的評論中談到了訂閱續訂表現良好。更具體地了解哪些產品得到了更好的更新。您看到的是交叉銷售嗎？或關於淨留存率的任何定性或定量顏色，以了解您在 SaaS 和 MSP 業務（約 6500 萬美元）方面面臨的阻力。當您排除 SaaS 部分的影響時，我們應該如何考慮業務術語或總體總體中的淨保留率？

Sure. Fish, why don't I start and if Francois wants to add anything, that would be great. So within our term subscription business, it's generally our BIG-IP software as well as NGINX, and that's the expansion rates that we have seen. It's not the easiest task in the world to convert that term into an ARR type of business because of all the moving parts. But when we try to do that and try to convert and look at what would an expansion rate be or net revenue retention rate, it's north of what you would think of as the industry norm of 120%, let me just put it that way. And that combination of where it is plus our SaaS managed service, our net revenue retention rate is still north of that 120%. So that combination is what gives us a lot of visibility and firmness in our expectation of those pieces of the business that will continue to do well.

當然。 Fish，我為什麼不開始，如果弗朗索瓦想添加任何內容，那就太好了。因此，在我們的訂閱業務中，通常是我們的 BIG-IP 軟體以及 NGINX，這就是我們所看到的擴張速度。由於所有的活動部件，將該術語轉換為 ARR 類型的業務並不是世界上最簡單的任務。但是，當我們嘗試這樣做並嘗試轉換並查看擴張率或淨收入保留率時，它超出了您所認為的 120% 的行業標準，讓我這麼說。再加上我們的 SaaS 託管服務，我們的淨收入保留率仍然高於 120%。因此，這種結合使我們對這些業務將繼續表現良好的期望有了很大的可見性和堅定性。

Makes sense. And just on the go-to-market side, any changes in terms of incentives or approach as we turn the page into this next fiscal year and as we have transitions now within the overall software transition?

說得通。就進入市場而言，當我們進入下一個財年並且我們現在在整體軟體轉型中進行轉型時，激勵措施或方法方面有什麼變化嗎？

It's -- the incentive plans between the 2 years are largely the same, Fish. There's always going to be a couple of tweaks here and there as we're looking and seeing what was successful the year before and not, but nothing major.

菲什，這兩年的激勵計畫基本上是一樣的。當我們觀察前一年的成功和失敗時，總是會不時地進行一些調整，但沒有什麼重大的。

Our last question comes from the line of Simon Leopold with Raymond James.

我們的最後一個問題來自西蒙·利奧波德和雷蒙德·詹姆斯。

Great. I just wanted to get a better sense of where the systems business is stabilizing in that I assume the September quarter did not have much, if any, backlog drawdown in it? And so other than maybe some seasonal movement, I'm just trying to get a sense of sort of is this $120 million to $130 million per quarter level, sort of the new normal for systems? And then just quickly on how the software is trending. With the Silverline exit, does that manifest itself gradually throughout the year? Or is that something that shows up in a particular quarter?

偉大的。我只是想更好地了解系統業務的穩定情況，因為我認為 9 月季度沒有太多積壓（如果有的話）？因此，除了一些季節性變動之外，我只是想了解一下，每季 1.2 億美元到 1.3 億美元的水平是否屬於系統的新常態？然後快速了解該軟體的趨勢。隨著銀線的退出，這種情況會在一年中逐漸顯現出來嗎？還是這是在特定季度出現的情況？

I'll start for the first one and then, Francois, I don't know if you want to take the second. But in terms of what we have said, I think, in both the prepared remarks and some of the answers, we do believe that we hit a trough in FY '23 in terms of systems bookings. And we're equating that to the term demand. Now the offset or the balance of that is that there was FY '22 bookings that they were delivered in FY '23. And so the shipments that they actually received, which is the revenue that we recognized that came in, in FY '23 and started to be utilized. Now as that utilization started to increase and more capacity was needed, we started to see that come through in Q4, which was our best systems bookings quarter of the year. It looks like on a revenue basis, that wasn't necessarily the case. But from a demand perspective or a bookings perspective, that was the case.

我將從第一個開始，然後，弗朗索瓦，我不知道你是否想接受第二個。但就我們所說的而言，我認為，在準備好的評論和一些答案中，我們確實相信我們在 23 財年的系統預訂方面遇到了低谷。我們將其等同於需求一詞。現在的抵銷或平衡是，22 財年的預訂是在 23 財年交付的。因此，他們實際收到的出貨量，也就是我們在 23 財年確認的收入並開始使用。現在，隨著利用率開始增加並且需要更多容量，我們開始在第四季度看到這一點，這是我們今年系統預訂最好的季度。從收入的角度來看，情況似乎並非如此。但從需求角度或預訂角度來看，情況確實如此。

There will still continue to be fluctuations. There's probably a bit of leveling or even improvement that we've seen in the enterprise side. On the SP, as Francois mentioned, service providers have been hesitant, and we expect that to continue on. And in Q1, in particular, we've got a federal government that isn't necessarily functional right now, and we'll see what that means is an impact to bookings for systems in Q1, and we're trying to take that into account as we looked at the guidance and the expectations.

仍將持續波動。我們在企業方面可能看到了一些平衡甚至改進。在 SP 上，正如 Francois 所提到的，服務提供者一直猶豫不決，我們預計這種情況會繼續下去。特別是在第一季度，我們的聯邦政府現在不一定能發揮作用，我們將看到這對第一季度系統預訂的影響，我們正在努力將其納入考慮範圍當我們查看指導和期望時，我們會考慮這一點。

We do expect, as we've talked about many times in the past, there is that 4- to 6-quarter low. And the dynamics that I just talked about explains why sometimes that takes 4 to 6 quarters, particularly in a supply chain or same environment. So we do expect at some point we're in a year that we will pick up in bookings from that Q4 level and return back to a higher level. I can't say normalized level because it's tough to know when exactly that will take place. But our outlook and our expectation is not that we are going to do $180 million less in systems bookings -- our systems revenue. Our bookings will improve, but the revenue will be down from last year because of that $180 million of headwind.

正如我們過去多次談到的那樣，我們確實預計會出現 4 至 6 個季度的低點。我剛才談到的動態解釋了為什麼有時需要 4 到 6 個季度，特別是在供應鏈或相同的環境中。因此，我們確實預計，在這一年的某個時候，我們的預訂量將從第四季度的水平開始回升，然後回到更高的水平。我不能說標準化水平，因為很難知道具體什麼時候會發生。但我們的前景和期望並不是我們將在系統預訂（我們的系統收入）方面減少 1.8 億美元。我們的預訂量將會增加，但由於 1.8 億美元的逆風，收入將比去年有所下降。

And to the second part of your question. In terms of Silverline, no, it's not going to be all in one quarter. It's going to bleed off over the next couple of years, kind of every quarter. And it's going to be timed with when customers are at a point where they have to renew or migrate their subscription that there will be a decision point, and so you're going to see it, I think, over the next 6 to 8 quarters.

關於你問題的第二部分。就 Silverline 而言，不，這不會在一個季度內完成。在接下來的幾年裡，它會逐漸消失，幾乎每季都會消失。當客戶必須續訂或遷移訂閱時，就會出現一個決策點，所以我認為，在接下來的 6 到 8 個季度中，您將會看到這一點。

Ladies and gentlemen, this does conclude today's teleconference. Thank you for your participation. You may disconnect your lines at this time, and have a wonderful day.

女士們、先生們，今天的電話會議到此結束。感謝您的參與。此時您可以斷開線路，度過美好的一天。