F5 Inc (FFIV) 2024 Q2 法說會逐字稿

Good afternoon, and welcome to the F5, Inc. Second Quarter Fiscal 2024 Financial Results Conference Call. (Operator Instructions) Also, today's conference is being recorded. (Operator Instructions)

下午好，歡迎參加 F5, Inc. 2024 財年第二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。 （操作員說明）

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 am Suzanne DuLong, F5's Vice President of Investor Relations. Francois Locoh-Donou, F5's President and CEO; and Francis 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 here to answer questions during the Q&A session.

你好，歡迎光臨。我是 Suzanne DuLong，F5 投資人關係副總裁。 Francois Locoh-Donou，F5 總裁兼執行長； F5 執行副總裁兼財務長 Francis 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回答問題。

A copy of today's press release is available on our website at f5.com, where an archived version of today's audio will be available through July 28, 2024. We will post the slide deck accompanying today's webcast 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 13745541. The telephonic replay will be available through midnight Pacific Time, April 30, 2024. For additional information or follow-up questions, please reach out to me directly at s.dulong@f5.com.

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7 月28 日之前提供。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 13745541。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 includes 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.

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。

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.

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. In my remarks today, I will speak to our Q2 highlights as well as our expectations for Q3 in FY '24. Frank will then review the details of our Q2 results and provide additional color on our outlook.

謝謝你，蘇珊娜，大家好。感謝您加入我們。在今天的演講中，我將談到我們第二季的亮點以及我們對 24 財年第三季的期望。然後，弗蘭克將審查我們第二季業績的詳細信息，並為我們的前景提供更多資訊。

Overall, customers remain cautious as a result of lingering macroeconomic concerns and what currently looks like generally flat IT budgets for calendar 2024. Against this backdrop, we delivered a solid Q2 with revenue near the midpoint of our guidance range. Our software subscription renewals continued to perform well, driving 20% total software revenue growth compared to a year ago, including 28% subscription revenue growth.

總體而言，由於揮之不去的宏觀經濟擔憂以及目前看來2024 年IT 預算總體持平，客戶仍保持謹慎態度。穩健。我們的軟體訂閱續訂持續表現良好，推動軟體總收入較去年同期成長 20%，其中訂閱收入成長 28%。

We also delivered non-GAAP earnings per share growth of 15% with EPS of $2.91 per share at the high end of our guidance range. As we look into our second half, we remain on track to deliver on our FY '24 revenue outlook. We expect continued strong performance from our software subscription renewals, and our renewals base provides good visibility into the back half of FY '24. We also remain committed to continued operating discipline, and we are raising our FY '24 non-GAAP EPS outlook to a range of 7% to 9% growth from our prior range of 6% to 8% growth. Frank will discuss our outlook in greater detail in a few minutes.

我們還實現了非 GAAP 每股收益成長 15%，每股收益 2.91 美元，處於我們指導範圍的高端。當我們展望下半年時，我們仍有望實現 24 財年的營收前景。我們預計我們的軟體訂閱續訂將繼續表現強勁，我們的續訂基礎為 24 財年後半段提供了良好的可見性。我們也持續致力於持續的營運紀律，並將 24 財年非 GAAP 每股盈餘預期從先前的 6% 至 8% 成長範圍提高至 7% 至 9% 成長範圍。弗蘭克將在幾分鐘內更詳細地討論我們的前景。

Before he does that, I will spend a few minutes speaking to the hybrid multi-cloud ball of fire our customers' IT teams are living in, explaining F5's differentiation in addressing this ball of fire and highlighting some notable customer wins from Q2. The current state of application security and delivery for large enterprises has IT teams in crisis. The increasing complexity and the associated cost and risk they are battling is not incremental. It is untenable, and it is growing even more so by the day.

在他這樣做之前，我將花幾分鐘時間談談我們客戶的IT 團隊所處的混合多雲火球，解釋F5 在解決這一火球方面的差異化，並重點介紹第二季度中一些值得注意的客戶勝利。大型企業應用程式安全和交付的當前狀況使 IT 團隊陷入危機。他們所面臨的日益增加的複雜性以及相關的成本和風險並不是增量的。這是站不住腳的，而且越來越站不住腳。

Just a few years ago, customer believed that by now, their applications would be consolidated in the public cloud. Instead, today, they are grappling with a more complex and costly set of challenges than ever before. 88% of our customers report they are currently operating applications across a combination of on-premises and cloud environments. On average, organizations are operating across 4.5 different types of environments. Most organizations have hundreds of applications, each with a set of associated APIs distributed across these multiple environments.

就在幾年前，客戶還相信現在他們的應用程式將整合到公有雲中。相反，今天，他們正在應對比以往任何時候都更加複雜和代價高昂的挑戰。我們 88% 的客戶表示，他們目前正在跨本地和雲端環境組合運行應用程式。平均而言，組織在 4.5 種不同類型的環境中運作。大多數組織擁有數百個應用程序，每個應用程式都有一組分佈在多個環境中的關聯 API。

And because modern applications have decomposed monolithic applications into smaller components, those components are more fragmented and distributed. As a result, APIs and data also are more distributed. The result of this expansion and distribution is amplified security risks across a larger attack surface area. These challenges will be further intensified by the inevitable widespread adoption and proliferation of AI.

由於現代應用程式已將整體應用程式分解為較小的元件，因此這些元件更加分散和分佈。因此，API 和資料也更加分散。這種擴展和分佈的結果是在更大的攻擊面區域放大了安全風險。人工智慧不可避免的廣泛採用和擴散將進一步加劇這些挑戰。

This complexity is preventing organizations from operating at the speed their businesses demand. Manual tasks, inconsistent security controls, operational silos, lack of available talent, escalating cloud costs and inefficient traffic routing are slowing them down. We have affectionately named this set of escalating challenges the ball of fire.

這種複雜性阻礙了組織按照其業務要求的速度運作。手動任務、不一致的安全控制、營運孤島、缺乏可用人才、不斷上升的雲端成本和低效率的流量路由正在減慢它們的速度。我們親切地將這一系列不斷升級的挑戰稱為「火球」。

During Q2, we spoke with more than 1,600 customers and partners about the ball of fire at our global AppWorld events. These events gave us the opportunity to explain how our distributed app security and delivery platform can mitigate customers' ball of fire challenges. We have significantly expanded and evolved our solutions portfolio over the last several years. Today, only F5 can truly support the demands of today's hybrid multi-cloud application infrastructures. More specifically, we are the only solution provider that secures, delivers and optimizes any app, any API anywhere.

在第二季度，我們與 1,600 多家客戶和合作夥伴討論了我們全球 AppWorld 活動的火球。這些活動讓我們有機會解釋我們的分散式應用程式安全和交付平台如何減輕客戶的火球挑戰。在過去幾年中，我們顯著擴展和發展了我們的解決方案組合。如今，只有 F5 能夠真正支援當今混合多雲應用基礎架構的需求。更具體地說，我們是唯一一家能夠在任何地方保護、交付和優化任何應用程式、任何 API 的解決方案提供者。

F5 is highly differentiated in addressing customers' pain points in this ball of fire in several ways. First, app security. F5 offers the most effective and comprehensive app and API security platform in the industry. While several providers offer point products for specific threat vectors, F5 has built an integrated and comprehensive suite of best-in-class capabilities, all delivered through a single platform. Why does this matter to our customers? Because our customers can consolidate solutions addressing all of their app security needs with a single platform and without making trade-offs on efficacy.

F5 在透過多種方式解決客戶痛點方面具有高度差異化。首先，應用程式安全。 F5 提供業界最有效、最全面的應用程式和 API 安全平台。雖然多家供應商針對特定威脅向量提供單點產品，但 F5 建構了一套整合且全面的一流功能，所有這些功能均透過單一平台提供。為什麼這對我們的客戶很重要？因為我們的客戶可以透過單一平台整合解決方案來滿足其所有應用程式安全需求，而無需在功效上進行權衡。

Second, simplification. We make hybrid multi-cloud ridiculously easy. Only F5 has a solution footprint that extends to all environments in the ball of fire, including public clouds, at the edge and customers' on-prem environments. F5 radically simplifies the work of connecting these disparate infrastructure environments as well as the applications deployed in and across them. Why do customers care about this? Because we enable the hybrid multi-cloud flexibility their businesses demand with the simplicity their IT operations require.

第二，簡化。我們讓混合多雲變得異常簡單。只有 F5 擁有可擴展到火球中所有環境的解決方案，包括邊緣的公有雲和客戶的本地環境。 F5 從根本上簡化了連接這些不同基礎設施環境以及在其中和跨這些環境部署的應用程式的工作。為什麼客戶會關心這個？因為我們能夠實現他們的業務所需的混合多雲靈活性以及 IT 營運所需的簡單性。

And third, standardization and automation. F5 uniquely streamlines customers' operations with consistent policies, comprehensive automation and rich analytics. This enables customers to consolidate vendors and tool sets, rationalize operational silos and automate life cycle management of their on-premises deployments. The result is far less toil for NetOps, SecOps and DevOps teams. Why does this matter to customers? Because it results in more cost-effective and scalable IT operations.

第三，標準化和自動化。 F5 透過一致的政策、全面的自動化和豐富的分析來獨特地簡化客戶的營運。這使客戶能夠整合供應商和工具集，合理化營運孤島並自動化其本地部署的生命週期管理。結果是 NetOps、SecOps 和 DevOps 團隊的工作量大大減少。為什麼這對客戶很重要？因為它可以帶來更具成本效益和可擴展的 IT 營運。

It is the combination of these 3 points of strong differentiation along with the role that F5 plays embedded in the flow of application traffic that create F5's unique position and enable us to extinguish the ball of fire for our customers. We empower our customers to run at the speed their businesses demand. Let me offer a few customer examples from Q2 to illustrate how these capabilities are manifesting today in our customers' real-world use cases.

正是這 3 點強大的差異化優勢以及 F5 在應用程式流量中所扮演的角色相結合，創造了 F5 的獨特地位，並使我們能夠為客戶撲滅火球。我們使客戶能夠按照其業務需求的速度運作。讓我提供第二季的一些客戶範例，以說明這些功能如何在當今客戶的實際用例中體現。

The first 2 customer examples I will speak to highlight our application security capabilities. The first example is an API security use case. Last quarter, we spoke to the substantial increase we are seeing in the volume of API-targeted attacks. Customers tell us API security is one of their most significant concerns and with good reason. APIs represent a critical avenue for attack, potentially exposing backend systems and data. We foresaw this API crisis coming and last year, launched a comprehensive and AI-ready API security solution available via F5 Distributed Cloud Services.

我將透過前 2 個客戶範例來強調我們的應用程式安全功能。第一個範例是 API 安全用例。上個季度，我們談到了針對 API 的攻擊數量的大幅增加。客戶告訴我們 API 安全性是他們最關心的問題之一，這是有充分理由的。 API 是攻擊的一個重要途徑，可能會暴露後端系統和資料。我們預見這場 API 危機即將到來，去年，我們透過 F5 分散式雲端服務推出了全面且支援 AI 的 API 安全解決方案。

Our differentiation stems from our ability to go beyond API discovery through traffic analysis. In addition, we performed continuous monitoring, code scanning, API testing analysis, threat surface mapping and enforcement. We do all of this in a holistic, easy-to-deploy solution that provides complete visibility, architectural flexibility and management through a single pane of glass.

我們的差異化源自於我們透過流量分析超越 API 發現的能力。此外，我們還進行了持續監控、程式碼掃描、API 測試分析、威脅面映射和執行。我們在一個易於部署的整體解決方案中完成所有這一切，該解決方案透過單一管理平台提供完整的可見性、架構靈活性和管理。

During Q2, a large multinational networking and telecommunications company needed a solution to mitigate an explosive rise in API and web application attacks on its digital wallet solution. This solution supports more than 400 million wallets across 24 countries, processing over 2.8 billion transactions worth more than $40 billion every month. To protect their consumers' financial transactions on a global scale, this use case demanded the highest level of app and API security efficacy with no trade-offs on performance. The customer is standardizing on F5's Distributed Cloud Services, application and API security as the basis for its new industry network and API security globally, ensuring coverage for new markets worldwide with heightened security for financial transactions.

在第二季度，一家大型跨國網路和電信公司需要一種解決方案來緩解對其數位錢包解決方案的 API 和 Web 應用程式攻擊的爆炸性增長。該解決方案支援 24 個國家的 4 億多個錢包，每月處理超過 28 億筆交易，價值超過 400 億美元。為了在全球範圍內保護消費者的金融交易，此用例需要最高等級的應用程式和 API 安全功效，且不影響效能。該客戶正在對 F5 的分散式雲端服務、應用程式和 API 安全進行標準化，作為其全球新行業網路和 API 安全的基礎，確保覆蓋全球新市場，並提高金融交易的安全性。

The second app security example is a bot mitigation use case. In Q2, a multinational beverage company leveraged our Distributed Cloud Services platform for advanced bot mitigation. During a proof of concept, F5's solution discovered 99% of the customers' traffic was coming from bots and it blocked millions of fraudulent attempts. As a result, the customer deployed F5 across its branded marketing and consumer-facing sites and thus far, has saved near $3 million in fraud. This deployment is also an example of the success of our land-and-expand strategy as the customer previously deployed F5 for load balancing and WAF.

第二個應用程式安全範例是機器人緩解用例。在第二季度，一家跨國飲料公司利用我們的分散式雲端服務平台進行高階機器人緩解。在概念驗證過程中，F5 的解決方案發現 99% 的客戶流量來自機器人，並阻止了數百萬次詐欺嘗試。結果，該客戶在其品牌行銷和麵向消費者的網站上部署了 F5，到目前為止，已避免了近 300 萬美元的詐欺行為。此次部署也是我們土地擴展策略成功的一個例子，因為客戶之前部署了 F5 來實現負載平衡和 WAF。

The next customer win I will highlight exemplifies how F5 is able to simplify connecting disparate infrastructures, making hybrid multi-cloud ridiculously easy for our customers. An energy company in our APAC region selected a combination of BIG-IP VELOS hardware and Distributed Cloud Services to improve application security and scalability while also driving operational efficiency and reducing costs. Following the acquisitions of several companies, the customers wanted a new shared infrastructure that united their disparate on-premises operating environments and positioned them to move to the cloud. Ultimately, this customer opted to consolidate multiple vendors on to F5, leveraging our hardware and SaaS offerings.

我將重點介紹的下一個客戶勝利例證了 F5 如何能夠簡化不同基礎設施的連接，使我們的客戶能夠輕鬆地實現混合多雲。我們亞太地區的一家能源公司選擇了 BIG-IP VELOS 硬體和分散式雲端服務的組合，以提高應用程式安全性和可擴展性，同時提高營運效率並降低成本。在收購了幾家公司之後，客戶希望有一個新的共享基礎設施，能夠將不同的本地操作環境統一起來，並將其遷移到雲端。最終，該客戶選擇利用我們的硬體和 SaaS 產品將多個供應商整合到 F5 上。

The final 2 customer wins I will highlight demonstrate how we streamline customers' operations with consistent policies, comprehensive automation and rich analytics. During Q2, an American auto insurance provider selected F5 Distributed Cloud Services to increase their business velocity through automation. The customer faced the ball of fire. The evolution of their multi-cloud infrastructure led to tool fragmentation, inefficient modern application deployment, inconsistent security and the lack of manageability and visibility.

我將重點介紹最後 2 個贏得客戶的案例，展示我們如何透過一致的政策、全面的自動化和豐富的分析來簡化客戶的營運。第二季度，一家美國汽車保險公司選擇 F5 分散式雲端服務來透過自動化提高其業務速度。顧客面對著火球。多雲基礎設施的發展導致工具碎片化、現代應用程式部署效率低下、安全性不一致以及缺乏可管理性和可見性。

The customer evaluated several point solutions in addition to F5's platform approach. We demonstrated our ability to improve velocity through automation while also providing consistent and more effective app security and faster response times. The customer ultimately consolidated on to F5, replacing their existing WAAP provider with Distributed Cloud Services.

除了 F5 的平台方法之外，客戶還評估了多種單點解決方案。我們展示了透過自動化提高速度的能力，同時也提供一致且更有效的應用程式安全性和更快的回應時間。該客戶最終整合到 F5，以分散式雲端服務取代了現有的 WAAP 供應商。

In another example from Q2, a multinational bank and financial services company expanded their F5 BIG-IP footprint. Leveraging both software instances in public clouds and hardware and traditional data centers, F5 is enabling a fully automated self-service ADC and security solution for all of their load balancing and firewall needs. As a result, the customers speed of provisioning new application services have gone from weeks to minutes, and F5 has captured a 2x increase in spend over the last 5 years.

在第二季的另一個例子中，一家跨國銀行和金融服務公司擴大了其 F5 BIG-IP 足跡。利用公有雲中的軟體實例以及硬體和傳統資料中心，F5 正在實現完全自動化的自助服務 ADC 和安全解決方案，以滿足其所有負載平衡和防火牆需求。因此，客戶配置新應用程式服務的速度從幾週縮短到幾分鐘，而 F5 的支出在過去 5 年中增加了 2 倍。

Before I pass the call to Frank, I will close with some brief commentary about how we are innovating to target and capture emerging AI opportunities. There is no question that AI will accelerate the growth in the number of applications and APIs. It will also exacerbate the ball of fire. Last quarter, we spoke about F5 as an AI enabler and discussed some early use cases where customers are deploying F5 in support of AI initiatives.

在將電話轉給 Frank 之前，我將簡要評論我們如何透過創新來瞄準和抓住新興的人工智慧機會。毫無疑問，人工智慧將加速應用程式和 API 數量的成長。它還會加劇火球。上季度，我們討論了 F5 作為 AI 推動者的問題，並討論了客戶部署 F5 以支援 AI 計劃的一些早期用例。

In addition to innovating and evolving our portfolio to ensure we are optimizing for AI, we also are engaging customers in architectural discussions about the AI readiness of their environments. We already are working with customers on 3 specific AI-related challenges. The first is API security because API security is AI security.

除了創新和發展我們的產品組合以確保我們針對人工智慧進行最佳化之外，我們還讓客戶參與有關其環境的人工智慧準備情況的架構討論。我們已經與客戶合作應對 3 個與人工智慧相關的具體挑戰。首先是API安全，因為API安全就是AI安全。

As APIs proliferate, for example, through the adoption and deployment of AI services for inferencing, there is a critical need for a solution that automatically discovers and secures those endpoints. As I mentioned earlier, F5 has the most comprehensive, AI-ready API security solution available today via F5 Distributed Cloud Services.

例如，隨著 API 的激增，透過採用和部署用於推理的 AI 服務，迫切需要一種能夠自動發現和保護這些端點的解決方案。正如我之前提到的，F5 擁有當今透過 F5 分散式雲端服務提供的最全面、支援 AI 的 API 安全解決方案。

The second AI-related challenge is secure multi-cloud networking. With increasingly distributed applications and APIs, customers need high-throughput connectivity across on-premises, cloud and edge for AI inference. Distributed Cloud Services is unmatched in its capabilities to connect, secure and manage distributed apps and APIs across hybrid and multi-cloud environments.

第二個與人工智慧相關的挑戰是安全的多雲網路。隨著應用程式和 API 的日益分佈式，客戶需要跨本地、雲端和邊緣的高吞吐量連接來進行 AI 推理。分散式雲端服務在跨混合和多雲環境連接、保護和管理分散式應用程式和 API 方面具有無與倫比的能力。

The third AI-related challenge is high-speed data ingestion. In use cases where customers want to ingest data for multibillion parameter AI models, they need high-performance low balancing, and no one is better at high-throughput load balancing than F5. We expect that enterprises broadly renting AI adoption over the next 1 to 2 years will bring a host of additional AI-fueled use cases for F5 solutions. Our platform approach, our continuing innovation and our role in the line of traffic of millions of applications that will ultimately leverage AI puts us in a unique position to partner with customers as they work to solve both current and future AI challenges.

第三個與人工智慧相關的挑戰是高速資料攝取。在客戶想要為數十億參數 AI 模型獲取資料的用例中，他們需要高性能低平衡，而在高吞吐量負載平衡方面沒有人比 F5 更好。我們預計，未來 1 到 2 年內廣泛採用 AI 的企業將為 F5 解決方案帶來大量額外的 AI 驅動用例。我們的平台方法、我們的持續創新以及我們在最終將利用人工智慧的數百萬應用程式流量中的作用，使我們處於獨特的地位，可以與客戶合作，幫助他們解決當前和未來的人工智慧挑戰。

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 Q2 results before I elaborate on our Q3 and FY '24 outlook. We delivered Q2 revenue of $681 million, reflecting sales that were down 3% year-over-year with a mix of 56% global services and 44% product revenue. Global services revenue of $381 million grew 5%, in line with our expectations, which reflect our lapping the benefit of prior price increases. Product revenue totaled $300 million, down 12% year-over-year, reflecting a lower level of backlog-related systems shipments than the year ago quarter. Systems revenue of $142 million declined 32% year-over-year.

謝謝弗朗索瓦，大家下午好。在詳細闡述我們的第三季和 24 財年展望之前，我將回顧我們第二季的業績。我們第二季的營收為 6.81 億美元，銷售額年減 3%，其中全球服務收入佔 56%，產品收入佔 44%。全球服務收入達到 3.81 億美元，成長 5%，符合我們的預期，反映出我們享受到先前漲價帶來的好處。產品收入總計 3 億美元，年減 12%，反映積壓相關係統出貨量低於去年同期。系統營收為 1.42 億美元，年減 32%。

Total software revenue grew 20% over the year ago period to $159 million. Subscription-based revenue contributed $140 million or 88% of the total software revenue, representing growth of 28% from last year. Within subscriptions, renewals were strong. As expected, demand for new subscriptions were flat year-over-year, given customers' current spending caution on new projects. Rounding out our software revenue, perpetual software contributed $18 million. Revenue from recurring sources contributed 75% of Q2's revenue, up from 65% a year ago. Recurring revenue includes subscription-based revenue as well as the maintenance portion of our global services revenue.

軟體總收入較去年同期成長 20%，達到 1.59 億美元。訂閱收入貢獻了 1.4 億美元，佔軟體總收入的 88%，比去年增長 28%。在訂閱方面，續訂很強勁。正如預期的那樣，鑑於客戶目前對新項目的支出持謹慎態度，新訂閱需求較去年同期持平。永久軟體為我們的軟體收入貢獻了 1800 萬美元。經常性來源的收入佔第二季收入的 75%，高於一年前的 65%。經常性收入包括訂閱制的收入以及我們全球服務收入的維護部分。

On a regional basis, revenue from Americas grew 1% year-over-year, representing 57% of total revenue. EMEA declined 6%, representing 26% of revenue, and APAC declined 9%, representing 17% of revenue. Looking at our major verticals, we saw relative strength from enterprises with enterprise customers representing 69% of product bookings in the quarter. Government customers performed well, representing 19% of product bookings, including 7% from U.S. Federal. Finally, following the strong Q1, service providers represented 13% of Q2 product bookings.

從地區來看，美洲地區的營收年增1%，佔總營收的57%。歐洲、中東和非洲地區下降 6%，佔收入的 26%，亞太地區下降 9%，佔收入的 17%。縱觀我們的主要垂直行業，我們看到企業的相對實力，企業客戶佔本季產品預訂的 69%。政府客戶表現良好，佔產品預訂的 19%，其中 7% 來自美國聯邦。最後，繼第一季表現強勁之後，服務提供者佔第二季產品預訂的 13%。

Our Q2 operating results reflect the usual seasonal patterns as well as our continued operating discipline. GAAP gross margin was 79.3%, non-GAAP gross margin was 82.1%, an improvement of approximately 170 basis points from Q2 of FY '23. As expected, our operating expenses ticked up in Q2 given payroll tax resets as of January 1 as well as costs associated with our global AppWorld events.

我們第二季的經營業績反映了通常的季節性模式以及我們持續的經營紀律。 GAAP 毛利率為 79.3%，非 GAAP 毛利率為 82.1%，較 23 財年第二季提高約 170 個基點。正如預期的那樣，鑑於 1 月 1 日起工資稅重置以及與我們的全球 AppWorld 活動相關的成本，我們的營運支出在第二季度有所增加。

Our GAAP operating expenses were $400 million. Our non-GAAP operating expenses were $349 million. Our GAAP operating margin was 20.5%. Our non-GAAP operating margin was 30.9%, reflecting an improvement of approximately 370 basis points from Q2 of FY '23. Our GAAP effective tax rate for the quarter was 18.4%. Our non-GAAP effective tax rate was 20%. Our GAAP net income for the quarter was $119 million or $2 per share. Our non-GAAP net income was $173 million, up approximately 13% from Q2 of FY '23. Our non-GAAP EPS was $2.91 per share, up approximately 15% from Q2 of last year.

我們的 GAAP 營運費用為 4 億美元。我們的非 GAAP 營運費用為 3.49 億美元。我們的 GAAP 營業利潤率為 20.5%。我們的非 GAAP 營業利潤率為 30.9%，比 23 財年第二季提高了約 370 個基點。我們本季的 GAAP 有效稅率為 18.4%。我們的非 GAAP 有效稅率為 20%。我們本季的 GAAP 淨利潤為 1.19 億美元，即每股 2 美元。我們的非 GAAP 淨利潤為 1.73 億美元，比 23 財年第二季成長約 13%。我們的非 GAAP 每股收益為 2.91 美元，比去年第二季成長約 15%。

I will now turn to cash flow and balance sheet, which also remained very strong. We generated $222 million in cash flow from operations in Q2, up 57% from $141 million in the year ago period. The significant increase is largely the result of an increase in cash received from customers and the timing of collections compared to billings.

我現在將談談現金流和資產負債表，它們也仍然非常強勁。第二季我們的營運現金流為 2.22 億美元，比去年同期的 1.41 億美元成長 57%。顯著增加主要是由於從客戶收到的現金以及與帳單相比收款時間的增加。

CapEx was $9 million. DSO for the quarter was 51 days, down from our unusually high 67 days in Q1 and reflecting our improved product availability and a return to normalized shipping linearity, which supported strong cash collections. Cash and investments totaled approximately $910 million at quarter end. Deferred revenue was $1.81 billion, up 1% from Q2 of FY '23.

資本支出為 900 萬美元。本季的 DSO 為 51 天，低於第一季異常高的 67 天，反映了我們產品可用性的改善和正常化運輸線性的回歸，這支持了強勁的現金回款。截至季末，現金和投資總額約為 9.1 億美元。遞延營收為 18.1 億美元，比 23 財年第二季成長 1%。

Our share repurchases reflect our ongoing commitment to returning cash to shareholders. We repurchased $100 million worth of F5 shares in Q2 at an average price of $184 per share. Year-to-date, we have used approximately 68% of our free cash flow towards share repurchases. Finally, we ended the quarter with approximately 6,450 employees.

我們的股票回購反映了我們對向股東返還現金的持續承諾。我們在第二季以每股 184 美元的平均價格回購了價值 1 億美元的 F5 股票。今年迄今為止，我們已將約 68% 的自由現金流用於股票回購。最後，本季結束時，我們的員工數量約為 6,450 名。

I will now speak to our outlook for Q3 and our updated view on our FY '24 outlook. First, I will speak to Q3. We expect Q3 revenue in the range of $675 million to $695 million. We expect non-GAAP gross margins in the range of 82% to 83%. We estimate Q3 non-GAAP operating expenses of $340 million to $352 million. We are targeting Q3 non-GAAP EPS in the range of $2.89 to $3.01 per share. We expect Q3 share-based compensation expense of approximately $55 million to $57 million.

我現在將談談我們對第三季的展望以及我們對 24 財年展望的最新看法。首先，我將談談 Q3。我們預計第三季營收在 6.75 億美元至 6.95 億美元之間。我們預計非 GAAP 毛利率在 82% 至 83% 之間。我們預計第三季非 GAAP 營運費用為 3.4 億美元至 3.52 億美元。我們將第三季非 GAAP 每股盈餘目標定在 2.89 美元至 3.01 美元之間。我們預計第三季的股權激勵費用約為 5,500 萬至 5,700 萬美元。

I will now turn to our FY '24 outlook. We have good visibility to and confidence in our subscription renewals in our second half. This visibility leads us to expect our second half of FY '24 will be stronger than our first half, reflecting the cyclicality associated with the timing and cadence of our subscription renewals. Our outlook does not assume a significant improvement in macro environment.

我現在將談談我們對 24 財年的展望。我們對下半年的訂閱續訂有良好的可見度和信心。這種可見性使我們預計 24 財年下半年將強於上半年，反映了與我們訂閱續訂的時間和節奏相關的周期性。我們的前景並不假設宏觀環境出現顯著改善。

As Francois mentioned, we expect FY '24 revenue growth that is flat to down 2% from FY '23. This outlook is consistent with our prior FY '24 revenue outlook, albeit with more specificity on the range given we're halfway through the year. We are not revising our gross or operating margin targets for FY '24 and continue to expect non-GAAP gross margins in the range of 82% to 83%. We expect non-GAAP operating margin in the range of 33% to 34%. We now expect our FY '24 tax rate will be in the range of 20% to 22%, a slightly wider range than our prior estimate of 21% to 22%. Finally, we are raising our non-GAAP EPS growth expectations. We now expect FY '24 non-GAAP EPS growth between 7% and 9%. This is up from 6% to 8% range we provided last quarter.

正如 Francois 所提到的，我們預計 24 財年的營收成長將與 23 財年持平或下降 2%。這一前景與我們先前 24 財年的收入前景一致，儘管考慮到今年已過半，範圍更加具體。我們不會修改 24 財年的毛利率或營業利潤率目標，並繼續預期非 GAAP 毛利率在 82% 至 83% 之間。我們預計非 GAAP 營運利潤率在 33% 至 34% 之間。我們現在預計 24 財年的稅率將在 20% 至 22% 之間，比我們之前估計的 21% 至 22% 稍寬一些。最後，我們提高了非公認會計準則每股收益成長預期。我們現在預計 24 財年非 GAAP 每股盈餘將成長 7% 至 9%。這比我們上個季度提供的 6% 到 8% 的範圍有所上升。

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

現在我將把電話轉回給弗朗索瓦。弗朗索瓦？

Thank you, Frank. In conclusion, F5 predicted the hybrid multi-cloud ball of fire crisis our customers now face. For the last several years, we have been innovating and evolving to create the industry's first distributed application security and delivery platform.

謝謝你，弗蘭克。總之，F5 預測了我們的客戶現在面臨的混合多雲火球危機。在過去的幾年裡，我們一直在創新和發展，以創建業界第一個分散式應用程式安全和交付平台。

Today, we are the only provider capable of securing, delivering and optimizing any application, any API regardless of its location, be it in a data center, any one of the public clouds, at SaaS or at the network edge. Today's hybrid and multi-cloud reality brings with it untenable operational complexity, considerable cost and escalating security risks. Broad-based enterprise adoption of AI will only compound these challenges.

如今，我們是唯一一家能夠保護、交付和優化任何應用程式、任何 API 的供應商，無論其位置如何，無論是在資料中心、任何公有雲、SaaS 還是網路邊緣。當今的混合和多雲現實帶來了難以承受的營運複雜性、巨大的成本和不斷升級的安全風險。企業廣泛採用人工智慧只會加劇這些挑戰。

F5's 3 points of differentiation, best-of-breed app security, our ability to simplify connecting disparate infrastructures and our ability to streamline operations through standardization and automation set F5 apart from the alternatives. When combined with the role we play in the line of application traffic, these differentiators position us to extinguish the ball of fire for our customers, empowering them to run at the speed their businesses demand.

F5 的 3 點差異化、同類最佳的應用程式安全性、我們簡化不同基礎設施連接的能力以及我們透過標準化和自動化簡化營運的能力，使 F5 在眾多替代方案中脫穎而出。當與我們在應用程式流量中扮演的角色相結合時，這些差異化優勢使我們能夠為客戶撲滅火球，使他們能夠按照業務所需的速度運行。

Operator, please open the call to questions.

接線員，請打開電話提問。

(Operator Instructions) Our first question comes from Tim Long with Barclays.

（操作員說明）我們的第一個問題來自巴克萊銀行的提姆朗。

Maybe 2, if I could. First, Francois, I think the last few quarters, you talked about kind of competitive landscape and some disruption at some of your competitors. Could you just give us an update on that kind of win rate or what you're seeing?

如果可以的話，也許是 2 個。首先，弗朗索瓦，我認為在過去的幾個季度中，您談到了競爭格局以及一些競爭對手的一些幹擾。您能否向我們提供有關勝率或您所看到的情況的最新資訊？

And then second, I did want to dig into that AI commentary with load balancing a little bit more. Is it, for F5, going to be specifically for enterprise use cases? Or will you guys play in some of these other larger data centers that are seeing a lot of CapEx activity currently and maybe timing of that enterprise, if you could.

其次，我確實想深入研究負載平衡的人工智慧評論。對於 F5 來說，它是專門針對企業用例的嗎？或者，如果可以的話，你們是否會在其他一些較大的資料中心中進行遊戲，這些資料中心目前有大量的資本支出活動，也許還有該企業的時間安排。

Thank you, Tim. So maybe let me start with your second question, and then I'll come back to the competitive landscape. But Tim, on AI, the use case that I referred to when I talked about high-capacity load balancing for data ingestion, I think we're going to see that use case primarily in enterprises, but specifically enterprises that are running their own large language model at scale and who have a need to ingest significant amount of data, whether that data comes from their own on-premise environments or from the cloud.

謝謝你，提姆。所以也許讓我從你的第二個問題開始，然後我會回到競爭格局。但是蒂姆，關於人工智慧，我在談論資料攝取的高容量負載平衡時提到的用例，我認為我們將主要在企業中看到該用例，但特別是那些運行自己的大型企業大規模語言模型以及需要攝取大量資料的人，無論這些資料是來自自己的本地環境還是來自雲端。

But the need to ingest this data and send the data to various environments is creating the need for high-capacity load balancing. And we're starting to see more of the digital innovators, so those large enterprises that have invested heavily in digital transformation and are maybe ahead of others, that are starting to deploy large language models in production have this kind of need. This is not inside of a hyperscaler's infrastructure, if that's what you're asking. That is an enterprise need for a specific type of enterprise. And that is, as you know, very early days.

但是，提取這些數據並將數據發送到各種環境的需要產生了對高容量負載平衡的需求。我們開始看到更多的數位創新者，因此那些在數位轉型方面投入巨資並且可能領先於其他企業、開始在生產中部署大型語言模型的大型企業有這種需求。如果你想問的話，這並不在超大規模基礎設施的內部。這是特定類型企業的企業需求。如你所知，那是非常早期的事情。

We are also on AI beyond high-capacity load balancing. We are also seeing a couple of other types of use cases. Specifically, the fact that AI workloads are going to be distributed and have a heavy reliance on APIs means that API security is emerging as a really important capability to support AI workloads, and we're starting to see a couple of use cases in that area.

我們也致力於大容量負載平衡之外的人工智慧。我們也看到了一些其他類型的用例。具體來說，人工智慧工作負載將是分散式且嚴重依賴 API，這意味著 API 安全性正在成為支援人工智慧的工作負載的非常重要的功能，並且我們開始看到該領域的一些用例。

And then the third is the ability to network applications together across multiple clouds is really key in AI because customers have their data in different environments. They want to learn -- they want to run models in certain environment and access data in other environments, and that requires connecting and networking applications or workloads together. And we've got a capability to do that with Distributed Cloud. So this is what we're seeing emerging as use cases in AI. It's early days, but we're pretty encouraged by what we've seen over the last 3 to 6 months.

第三，跨多個雲端將應用程式聯網的能力對於人工智慧來說非常關鍵，因為客戶的資料位於不同的環境中。他們想要學習——他們想要在特定環境中運行模型並存取其他環境中的數據，這需要將應用程式或工作負載連接和聯網。我們有能力透過分散式雲端來做到這一點。這就是我們所看到的人工智慧用例。現在還處於早期階段，但我們對過去 3 到 6 個月所看到的情況感到非常鼓舞。

To your first question about the competitive landscape, I did, in fact, refer to a couple of our competitors that have changed their models. I think the first one, more in the traditional ADC space, we continue to see very good traction in that area. I would say the momentum relative to last year has accelerated. And so things in that area is going to plan. And we have several [win] examples, essentially consolidating on to F5 multiple capabilities, including capabilities that could have come from a competitor or replacing a competitor altogether in some of the largest enterprises, both in North America and around the world.

對於你關於競爭格局的第一個問題，事實上，我確實提到了我們的一些競爭對手，他們已經改變了他們的模式。我認為第一個，更多的是在傳統的 ADC 領域，我們繼續在該領域看到非常好的吸引力。我想說，與去年相比，這股勢頭有所加快。因此該領域的事情將會有計劃。我們有幾個[獲勝]的例子，本質上是整合了 F5 的多種能力，包括可能來自競爭對手的能力或在北美和世界各地的一些最大的企業中完全取代競爭對手的能力。

And then in the area of SaaS, we continue to make good traction with XC, including displacing some competitors. And really the approach that we've taken with -- when I say XC, I mean, F5 Distributed Cloud Services. The approach we have taken with F5 Distributed Cloud is really recognizing that in the areas of application security, customers really ideally want all of the capabilities in one platform. And so we have built API security, DDoS protection, web application firewall, bot defense, all of that into a single platform. And that's quite appealing to customers and allowing us to come in and take out some competitors that perhaps have not invested to the degree we have.

然後在 SaaS 領域，我們繼續在 XC 方面取得良好的進展，包括取代一些競爭對手。事實上，我們所採用的方法——當我說 XC 時，我的意思是 F5 分散式雲端服務。我們對 F5 分散式雲端採取的方法確實認識到，在應用程式安全領域，客戶確實希望在一個平台中擁有所有功能。因此，我們將 API 安全、DDoS 防護、Web 應用程式防火牆、機器人防禦等全部建置到一個平台中。這對客戶來說非常有吸引力，並允許我們介入並淘汰一些可能沒有達到我們投資程度的競爭對手。

Our next question comes from Samik Chatterjee with JPMorgan.

我們的下一個問題來自摩根大通的 Samik Chatterjee。

I guess for the first one, Francois, Frank, you have some strong momentum here on the software subscription revenue quarter-over-quarter. Just how should I think about sustainability of that momentum going forward? And maybe the same one, sort of a bit disappointed to see the perpetual revenue on the software side moderate this much quarter-over-quarter, but it also seems like that's the lowest we've seen it track. So is there any potentially sort of more downside to that perpetual revenue number? But any thoughts on both of those aspects and the outlook there would be helpful. And I have a follow-up.

我想對於第一個，弗朗索瓦、弗蘭克，軟體訂閱收入環比成長勢頭強勁。我該如何考慮這種勢頭未來的可持續性？也許是同樣的情況，看到軟體方面的永久收入環比下降這麼多，有點失望，但這似乎也是我們所看到的最低水平。那麼，這個永久收入數字是否還有潛在的更多負面影響呢？但對這兩個方面及其前景的任何想法都會有所幫助。我有一個後續行動。

Yes. Samik, why don't I start with that? So this is one of those areas that will fluctuate quarter-to-quarter. Obviously, with last quarter, we had several large perpetual deals that gave us in-quarter revenue and lifted that software number up. We were not surprised this is the way it's playing out internally in our model, to dip back down in Q2, and would expect other results, obviously, with the software guidance that we've given for the back half of the year. That subscription revenue at 88% of total software revenue was an all-time high for us. It's going to fluctuate, but I would expect that it's going to be higher as a percentage than obviously what we saw in Q1.

是的。 Samik，我為什麼不從這個開始呢？因此，這是會逐季度波動的領域之一。顯然，在上個季度，我們進行了幾筆大型永久交易，這些交易為我們帶來了季度收入並提高了軟體數量。我們對這種在我們的模型內部發揮的方式並不感到驚訝，在第二季度回落，並且顯然根據我們為今年下半年提供的軟體指導，預計會出現其他結果。訂閱收入佔軟體總收入的 88%，對我們來說是歷史最高水準。它會波動，但我預計它的百分比會明顯高於我們在第一季看到的百分比。

Okay. And Francois, I appreciate all your comments about sort of how you're helping enterprises with their AI, sort of particularly said investments. But I think on the investor side at least, not sure as much on the industry side, but there's a lot of debate about when enterprises do spend towards AI use cases. Is that more of them spending on-prem? Or is that on a public cloud? Any insights you're getting from the early use cases on that and how -- sort of where they choose to spend, dictate sort of how they utilize the F5 portfolio?

好的。弗朗索瓦，我感謝您關於如何幫助企業利用人工智慧的所有評論，特別是投資。但我認為至少在投資者方面，行業方面不太確定，但對於企業何時在人工智慧用例上進行投資存在著許多爭論。他們中的內部支出是否更多？還是在公有雲上？您從早期用例中獲得了關於此方面的任何見解以及如何——他們選擇在哪裡花錢，決定了他們如何利用 F5 投資組合？

Yes. I think what we're seeing is it's going to be, by nature, AI implementations are going to be multi-cloud. And the reason for that is customers want to do training in certain environments. They want to do inference in other environments. For a number of verticals, they want to do inference at the edge. And also, their data is in a lot of different locations.

是的。我認為我們所看到的是，從本質上講，人工智慧的實施將是多雲的。原因是客戶希望在某些環境中進行培訓。他們想在其他環境中進行推理。對於許多垂直領域，他們希望在邊緣進行推理。而且，他們的數據位於許多不同的位置。

In addition, these AI models need to access other services, including other models, so by definition, what we're starting to see is customers' AI implementation are hybrid and multi-cloud. And that's why we have talked about what we call the ball of fire, which is really the fact that customers increasingly -- we have -- close to 90% of our customers are now in hybrid and multi-cloud environment. And we think close to 40% of our customers are using 6 or more cloud environments.

此外，這些人工智慧模型需要存取其他服務，包括其他模型，因此根據定義，我們開始看到客戶的人工智慧實作是混合和多雲的。這就是為什麼我們談論所謂的“火球”，這實際上是越來越多的客戶（我們有）接近 90% 的客戶現在處於混合和多雲環境中。我們認為近 40% 的客戶正在使用 6 個或更多雲端環境。

And we think that, that will accelerate as they start implementing and deploying AI, and that creates a ton of complexity for them, complexity to secure applications, complexity to network these applications together, complexity to deal with disparate tools and different vendors for application services. And we have really consolidated all of that into a single platform that automates networking application and securing applications together across cloud environment. We think that's the value proposition that's going to play well in AI.

我們認為，隨著他們開始實施和部署人工智慧，這將會加速，這將為他們帶來大量的複雜性，保護應用程式的複雜性，將這些應用程式聯網的複雜性，處理不同工具和不同供應商的應用程式服務的複雜性。我們確實將所有這些整合到一個平台中，該平台可以自動化網路應用程式並跨雲端環境保護應用程式的安全性。我們認為這就是在人工智慧中發揮良好作用的價值主張。

Now we also think that enterprises really deploying AI at scale, we're still, I think, 1 to 2 years away from seeing that. The early use cases that we've seen are from large enterprises that are ahead of everybody else and are really starting to deploy, but I think it won't grow mainstream until several quarters from now.

現在我們也認為企業真正大規模部署人工智慧，我認為我們還需要 1 到 2 年的時間才能看到這一點。我們看到的早期用例來自領先其他所有人並且真正開始部署的大型企業，但我認為直到幾個季度後它才會成為主流。

Our next question comes from Alex Henderson with Needham & Co.

我們的下一個問題來自 Needham & Co 的 Alex Henderson。

So I was hoping you could talk a little bit about the implication of a reacceleration in application growth in the context of most of the cloud companies, and we don't have Amazon yet, but other ones such as Microsoft Azure has already seen -- seeing a reacceleration after several years of the so-called efficiency movement decelerating. That growth rate does now look like it's starting to reaccelerate. And I was wondering if you could talk about whether Hashi acquisition has any impact on you positively or negatively and what you're doing to take advantage of those 2 dynamics within the distribution VAR channels?

所以我希望你能談談在大多數雲端公司的背景下應用程式成長重新加速的影響，我們還沒有亞馬遜，但微軟 Azure 等其他公司已經看到了——在所謂的效率運動減速幾年後，看到了重新加速。現在看來，這一成長率確實開始重新加速。我想知道您是否可以談談收購 Hashi 對您有積極還是消極的影響，以及您正在採取哪些措施來利用 VAR 分銷管道中的這兩種動態？

Alex, thank you. So on the potential reacceleration, if confirmed of applications, we think it has potentially 2 implications. The first one is more customers deploying more applications in hybrid and multi-cloud environments. And I've just talked about the implications of that, which for us, we think, are net positive because it creates more requirements for security and networking across clouds.

亞歷克斯，謝謝你。因此，關於潛在的重新加速，如果應用得到證實，我們認為它可能有兩個影響。第一個是更多的客戶在混合和多雲環境中部署更多的應用程式。我剛剛談到了它的影響，我們認為這對我們來說是積極的，因為它對跨雲端的安全性和網路提出了更多要求。

And then the second potential implication is more automation. We're seeing, as customers reaccelerate the number of workloads that they're dealing with, the need to automate application changes, provisioning of new application services, et cetera, grows, and that requires software that enables that automation. And we, of course, have solutions that play into that.

第二個潛在影響是更多的自動化。我們看到，隨著客戶重新加速處理的工作負載數量，自動化應用程式變更、配置新應用程式服務等的需求也在增長，並且需要支援這種自動化的軟體。當然，我們有解決方案。

That said, we don't compete directly with HashiCorp, and so we're more complementary to what they do. So we don't think there is really either negative or positive impact to the acquisition. We think for F5, that's going to be largely net neutral, but we will, of course, continue working with HashiCorp in a number of customers and markets.

也就是說，我們並不與 HashiCorp 直接競爭，因此我們與他們的業務更具互補性。因此，我們認為此次收購實際上不會產生負面或正面影響。我們認為對於 F5 來說，這將在很大程度上保持網路中立，但我們當然會繼續與 HashiCorp 在許多客戶和市場上合作。

And the distribution part of the question, taking advantage of those dynamics to drive channel?

問題的分銷部分，利用這些動態來推動通路？

Well, there is not really an impact into how we would change our approach to distribution of what we would do into the channel. We would -- the dynamics in terms of how we meet in the market and work with Hashi will, I think, continue unchanged for the most part. So -- only as far as we're concerned. I don't know what decisions IBM may make around what they want to change in the go-to-market for Hashi. But as far as we're concerned, I think customers see us as complementary, often want us to work together, and we'll continue to do that in the market.

嗯，對於我們如何改變我們在頻道中所做的事情的分配方式並沒有真正的影響。我認為，我們在市場上見面以及與 Hashi 合作的動態將在很大程度上保持不變。所以——僅就我們而言。我不知道 IBM 可能會圍繞著 Hashi 上市過程中想要改變的內容做出哪些決定。但就我們而言，我認為客戶認為我們是互補的，經常希望我們合作，我們將在市場上繼續這樣做。

Our next question comes from Meta Marshall with Morgan Stanley.

我們的下一個問題來自摩根士丹利的梅塔·馬歇爾。

I just wanted to probe a little bit into kind of your talk about flat IT budgets or just macro cautiousness from customers. There's a number of things. There's the strength in the dollar. There's prioritization of AI investments. I'm just -- guess I'm just trying to get a sense of the macro caution. Is any of that driven by FX or just kind of budget prioritization? Or is it just kind of wallets across the board being more cautious?

我只是想稍微探討一下您所說的 IT 預算不變或客戶的宏觀謹慎態度。有很多事情。美元走強。人工智慧投資有優先順序。我只是——我想我只是想了解宏觀的謹慎態度。其中任何一個是由外匯驅動的還是只是某種預算優先順序？還是只是錢包全面變得更加謹慎？

And then maybe as a follow-up to that, are you seeing more advancement of deals where there is kind of multi-cloud or kind of security elements to it versus core ADC sales? Or just kind of how are you seeing that in kind of what the overall book of business is?

然後，也許作為後續行動，您是否看到與核心 ADC 銷售相比，涉及多雲或安全元素的交易取得了更多進展？或者您如何看待整個業務？

Thank you, Meta. So on budget, I should say first of all, the macro environment, Meta, has remained stable. So we haven't seen a fundamental change from last year in terms of customers' sort of appetite to spend. What has changed, I think we shared it last quarter, is the sort of unpredictability that we were seeing a year ago around deal delays and cancellations and last-minute pushouts. That has largely abated. But overall, customers remain cautious. This was also, for a number of customers, the first quarter of the calendar year. So they've just gotten their budgets. I think we saw probably a little more caution on CapEx, specifically on hardware, given the current macro environment.

謝謝你，梅塔。所以在預算方面，我首先要說的是，宏觀環境Meta保持穩定。因此，與去年相比，我們並沒有看到顧客的消費意願發生根本性變化。我認為我們上個季度分享的變化是我們一年前看到的關於交易延遲、取消和最後一刻推出的不可預測性。這種情況已經大大減弱。但整體而言，客戶仍保持謹慎態度。對許多客戶來說，這也是日曆年的第一季。所以他們剛剛得到了預算。我認為，考慮到當前的宏觀環境，我們對資本支出（尤其是硬體）可能更加謹慎。

We don't necessarily think it's related to FX. And as far as we can see, there's not really an effect of customers prioritizing AI in general for the vast majority of enterprises because they're not there yet in terms of putting big budgets on AI today. In the service provider space, I think we continue to see customers sweating assets, with 1 or 2 exceptions, but for the most part, trying to sweat assets as long as possible. And then to your second question, which was -- need to be reminded.

我們不一定認為這與外匯有關。據我們所知，對於絕大多數企業來說，客戶優先考慮人工智慧並沒有真正產生影響，因為他們目前還沒有在人工智慧上投入大量預算。在服務提供者領域，我認為我們繼續看到客戶在消耗資產，只有一兩個例外，但在大多數情況下，他們會盡可能長時間地消耗資產。然後是你的第二個問題，需要提醒的是。

Just -- yes, just whether it's taking the form of -- kind of on the ADCs versus other portions of the portfolio?

只是 - 是的，只是它是否採取 - ADC 與投資組合其他部分的形式？

Yes. So we are -- I think it's a combination because a lot of the -- what we're seeing more opportunities with existing customers that are both ADC and other portions of the portfolio, especially in this multiyear subscription agreements that continue to do very well and our vehicle that customers love because it gives them the flexibility.

是的。所以我們——我認為這是一個組合，因為很多——我們看到現有客戶有更多的機會，這些客戶既是ADC 又是產品組合的其他部分，特別是在這個持續表現良好的多年訂閱協議中我們的車輛深受客戶喜愛，因為它為他們提供了靈活性。

But I would say we are seeing more deals on other side of the portfolio, specifically in security, increasing in application security. We're seeing API security, in particular, emerge as a strong use case. More and more customers are recognizing that they don't have a real handle on where their APIs are, how many are in production, how many are visible, how many are not and how do they discover these APIs and how do they protect them. So we're seeing more traction in API security, in particular, and then increasingly, customers trying to network these clouds together, network their application across cloud and trying to find automation to do that. And that's opportunities with our Distributed Cloud Solutions.

但我想說的是，我們在產品組合的其他方面看到了更多交易，特別是在安全性方面，應用程式安全性不斷提高。我們看到 API 安全性尤其成為一個強大的用例。越來越多的客戶意識到，他們無法真正掌握自己的 API 的位置、有多少 API 正在生產中、有多少 API 可見、有多少 API 不可見、以及如何發現這些 API 以及如何保護它們。因此，我們看到 API 安全性越來越受到關注，並且越來越多的客戶嘗試將這些雲端聯網在一起，跨雲端聯網其應用程序，並試圖找到自動化來實現這一點。這就是我們的分散式雲端解決方案的機會。

Our next question comes from Michael Ng with Goldman Sachs.

我們的下一個問題來自高盛的 Michael Ng。

I just have 2. First, just as a follow-up to the earlier question around software, I was just wondering if you could talk about the components of subscription software between term base and SaaS, how did those perform. And then second, on services, I can appreciate we're lapping some of the price increases that I think were first implemented in -- I think it was July of 2022. Could you just remind me if there are opportunities to periodically increase pricing on services? What has that time line been historically? And is this 5% growth a good way to think about services growth going forward?

我只有 2。其次，在服務方面，我可以理解我們正在實施一些我認為首次實施的價格上漲 - 我認為是 2022 年 7 月。這個時間線在歷史上是怎麼樣的？這 5% 的成長是考慮未來服務成長的好方法嗎？

Yes. Michael, why don't I take that? Look, on the sort of components of the subscription business in terms of SaaS and ARR, that one, ARR versus the term base, we talk about that annually, but it's not something we talk about quarterly. But the components of those businesses, we're really excited about what we're seeing for Distributed Cloud adoption, particularly the value proposition around WAAP and specifically API security that Francois just mentioned as well as our multi-cloud networking. So those are great.

是的。邁克爾，我為什麼不接受這個？看，就 SaaS 和 ARR 而言，訂閱業務的組成部分，即 ARR 與術語庫，我們每年都會討論這一點，但這不是我們每季討論的內容。但對於這些業務的組成部分，我們對分散式雲端的採用感到非常興奮，特別是圍繞 WAAP 的價值主張，特別是 Francois 剛剛提到的 API 安全性以及我們的多雲網路。所以這些都很棒。

We do see AI having a big boost in application demand over the coming years, but it's not something that we expect a ton of revenue in FY '24 from. We are still seeing the high end of the bot market being a bit challenged, but those are the underlying aspects of what we're seeing in the SaaS business as well as strong renewals that we're continuing to experience in our multiyear flexible consumption programs. And so those are the dynamics, but we don't split the components out except for at the end of the year.

我們確實看到未來幾年人工智慧的應用需求將大幅成長，但我們預計 24 財年不會有大量收入。我們仍然看到機器人市場的高端面臨一些挑戰，但這些是我們在 SaaS 業務中看到的基本方面，以及我們在多年靈活消費計劃中繼續經歷的強勁更新。這些就是動態，但除了年底之外，我們不會將各個組成部分分開。

In terms of the services side, you're right. The last time we raised prices was in July of '22. It's one of those things that we continue to evaluate on what's the best strategic use of price increases for our customers. And I don't have anything new to report there, but more to come in the coming quarters. It's probably been 6 quarters, and so you're seeing the lapping effect of that services revenue starting to come down. That was due to price increasing last year largely as well as some of the sweating of the assets. And so 7% is what we saw in Q1, 5% in Q2, and we do expect that to trail down in Q3 and Q4 as we lap even more of those annual increases from last year.

就服務方面而言，你是對的。我們上次漲價是在 22 年 7 月。這是我們不斷評估對客戶來說漲價的最佳策略用途的事情之一。我沒有什麼新的報告要報告，但未來幾季還會有更多報告。可能已經過去了 6 個季度，因此您會看到服務收入的重疊效應開始下降。這主要是因為去年價格上漲以及部分資產的流失所致。因此，我們在第一季度看到了 7%，在第二季度看到了 5%，我們確實預計這一數字將在第三季和第四季下降，因為我們比去年的年度成長更多。

Our next question comes from Amit Daryanani with Evercore ISI.

我們的下一個問題來自 Evercore ISI 的 Amit Daryanani。

I have 2 as well. I guess, Frank, maybe just start with you. I think in the past, you talked about software growth for the full year being flat to, I believe, up modestly, I think was the statement. Given the performance you just saw this quarter, which I think was much better than expected on software, how do you think the back half of the year stacks up on the software side?

我也有2個。我想，法蘭克，也許就從你開始吧。我想在過去，您談到全年軟體成長持平，我認為是適度成長，我認為這就是聲明。考慮到您剛剛看到的本季的表現，我認為軟體方面的表現比預期要好得多，您認為下半年軟體的表現如何？

Sure. So look, we had a strong software growth number in Q2. It was in our expectation range. And largely, software to date in the first half has been ahead of our software expectation. But having said that, we did not change our outlook from flat to modest growth, but I think we'd be disappointed if we weren't at the higher end of that or better by the end of the year given the strong first half performance that we saw.

當然。所以看，我們在第二季的軟體成長數據強勁。這在我們的預期範圍之內。在很大程度上，上半年迄今的軟體已經超出了我們的軟體預期。但話雖如此，我們並沒有將我們的前景從持平增長改為溫和增長，但考慮到上半年的強勁表現，如果我們在年底前沒有達到較高水平或更好，我們會感到失望我們看到的。

Obviously, we're hitting a second half where the comparable numbers are a little more difficult. Having said that, we're really excited, particularly in Q4, about the subscription base of renewals that we're seeing on our flexible consumption programs and so have strong visibility into that.

顯然，我們正在進入下半場，可比較的數字會更加困難。話雖如此，我們真的很興奮，特別是在第四季度，我們在靈活的消費計劃中看到續訂的訂閱基礎，因此對此有很強的可見性。

Got it. Perfect. And then if I just follow up on this, customers having to deal with the ball of fire [likely], kind of characterize that dynamic. I'd sort of love to understand, what does that mean that you solve that ball of fire problem for your customers? What does that mean to F5's long-term growth rate as you think about that? And crucially, do you think there's anyone out there -- who do you think is your competition when it comes to solving that ball of fire from an end-to-end basis across load balancing and security?

知道了。完美的。然後，如果我跟進這一點，客戶[可能]必須處理火球，這就是這種動態的特徵。我很想了解，您為客戶解決火球問題代表什麼？您認為這對 F5 的長期成長率意味著什麼？至關重要的是，您認為在端到端解決負載平衡和安全問題時，您認為誰是您的競爭對手？

Well, thank you. There are multiple dimensions to solving the ball of fire, and we don't think we really have competition that can address it as exhaustively as we are addressing it. So the first aspect is the completeness of the application services that are required to solve it, which very few, if any company really has, because it goes from all of the application delivery services like load balancing authentication, but also web application firewall, all of the security services, API security, DDoS, multi-cloud networking, all of these capabilities you have to have to solve the ball of fire. Part of the complexity for customers is that they have had in the past to rely on multiple different vendors to be able to solve the ball of fire. So that's one aspect is the ability to bring it all together.

嗯，謝謝。解決火球問題有多個維度，我們認為我們沒有真正的競爭對手能夠像我們正在解決的那樣徹底解決這個問題。因此，第一個方面是解決該問題所需的應用程式服務的完整性，而真正擁有這種服務的公司卻很少，因為它來自所有應用程式交付服務，例如負載平衡身份驗證，還有Web應用程式防火牆，所有安全服務、API安全、DDoS、多雲網絡，所有這些能力都是你必須解決的。對客戶來說，部分複雜性在於他們過去必須依賴多個不同的供應商來解決火球問題。一方面是將所有這些結合在一起的能力。

The second aspect is really the ability to make multi-cloud ridiculously easy, which to be able to do that, if you're a pure-play SaaS vendor, you're not able to do that because you only offer your services in your point of presence. F5 is unique in the sense that we can offer all these services not just in the cloud, but in any public cloud or any on-premise location, and we can locate these services anywhere where a workload is. So we're taking advantage of our heritage as an on-prem vendor and our new capabilities in the cloud to offer these services ubiquitously to customers. And really, there is no other vendor in our space that brings all of that together. So in that way, we're pretty unique.

第二個面向是讓多雲變得異常簡單的能力，如果你是純粹的 SaaS 供應商，你就無法做到這一點，因為你只在自己的領域提供服務。 F5 的獨特之處在於，我們不僅可以在雲端提供所有這些服務，還可以在任何公有雲或任何本地位置提供所有這些服務，並且我們可以在工作負載所在的任何地方找到這些服務。因此，我們正在利用我們作為本地供應商的傳統以及我們在雲端中的新功能，為客戶提供無處不在的這些服務。事實上，在我們的領域中沒有其他供應商能夠將所有這些功能整合在一起。所以從這個角度來說，我們是非常獨特的。

And so when you take examples of that, you're asking what does it look like, this quarter, for example, we had a large bank in the U.S. that was connecting applications to multiple clouds, to Azure, on-premise and in Oracle. And we were essentially the only ones that can automate these connections for them and help them make multi-cloud ridiculously easy in their application, and we won the customer.

因此，當您舉出這樣的例子時，您會問它是什麼樣子的，例如，本季度，我們在美國有一家大型銀行，它將應用程式連接到多個雲端、Azure、本地和 Oracle 。我們基本上是唯一能夠為他們自動化這些連接並幫助他們在應用程式中輕鬆實現多雲的公司，我們贏得了客戶。

We have similar bank customers in Europe who had the front end of their application in Azure, the back end of their application on-prem. We brought the connectivity to these components of these applications together and automated all of it for them to be able to deploy, and we won the customer. So we have these capabilities that are unique to the combination of on-prem and cloud brought together. And in that sense, we don't really think we have competition.

我們在歐洲也有類似的銀行客戶，他們的應用程式前端位於 Azure，後端應用程式位於本地。我們將這些應用程式的這些元件的連接整合在一起，並將所有這些連接自動化，以便它們能夠部署，我們贏得了客戶。因此，我們擁有這些本地部署和雲端結合所獨有的功能。從這個意義上說，我們並不真正認為我們有競爭。

Our next question comes from 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。

Francois, I think we get the product strategy here. So my question is more directed at Frank. So talking about stronger renewals on the subscription side in the second half, Frank, is there any way to quantify this magnitude? Or what is giving the confidence in those second half numbers, especially after -- this quarter came in a little bit lighter than we're used to seeing F5's report and implies a sizable fiscal Q4 ramp to roughly $40 million-ish kind of sequential ramp here in fiscal Q4. And additionally, have you seen any changes in subscription durations?

弗朗索瓦，我想我們已經了解了產品策略。所以我的問題比較是針對弗蘭克的。那麼談到下半年訂閱方面的強勁續訂，Frank，有什麼方法可以量化這個幅度嗎？或者是什麼讓人們對下半年的數據充滿信心，尤其是在這個季度的數據比我們習慣看到的F5 報告要淡一些，這意味著第四季度的財政收入將大幅增長，達到約4000 萬美元左右的連續成長第四財季。此外，您是否發現訂閱期限有任何變化？

Sure. Absolutely, Jim. So I appreciate the question. And when we take a look at the results of this quarter in relation to our expectations, where we saw a softer performance was in the system side, not the software side of the business. And when we take a look at the back half of the year, that's really where we saw the strength of the pipeline in that area as well as for the renewals that we have in the outlook. And those renewals specifically are coming in -- in both quarters, they are stronger than what we have seen in Q2, but they just ramp up because of the nature of when the deals were done 3 years ago in Q4. And if you take a look back 3 years ago between Q3 and Q4, I think you'll see a similar dynamic in the software growth that we expect. And so that is really that $40 million swing that you're referring to between those 2 quarters. So that's really the visibility. It's the strength that we've seen in the renewals. It's the true forwards sense and the second or the interims of what's available to renew in Q4.

當然。當然，吉姆。所以我很欣賞這個問題。當我們根據我們的預期查看本季的業績時，我們發現系統方面的表現較弱，而不是業務的軟體方面。當我們回顧今年下半年時，我們確實看到了該領域管道的實力以及我們在前景中的更新。這些續約具體即將到來——在這兩個季度中，它們都比我們在第二季度看到的要強，但由於三年前第四季交易完成的性質，它們只是增加了。如果你回顧三年前的第三和第四季度，我想你會看到我們預期的軟體成長的類似動態。因此，這實際上是您所指的這兩個季度之間 4000 萬美元的波動。這就是可見度。這是我們在續約中看到的力量。這是真正的前瞻性意義，也是第四季可更新的第二個或中期內容。

Anything on the duration side of what you're seeing?

您所看到的內容的持續時間方面有什麼嗎？

The duration side really has not changed. These are not universally, but almost always 3-year deals.

持續時間方面確實沒有改變。這些協議並不普遍，但幾乎都是 3 年期協議。

Our next question comes from Ray McDonough with Guggenheim Partners.

我們的下一個問題來自古根漢合夥人公司的雷麥克唐納。

Maybe to start, Frank, as we think about cash flow dynamics going forward with term renewals and the opportunity in the back half, as you just discussed, and as renewals generally become a larger portion of the mix, combined with the product availability you mentioned earlier in the call, should we expect cash flow margins to continue to trend up from here as well?

也許首先，弗蘭克，當我們考慮續約的現金流動態和後半部分的機會時，正如您剛才討論的那樣，續約通常會成為組合中的較大部分，再加上您提到的產品可用性在電話會議的早些時候，我們是否應該預期現金流利潤率也將繼續呈上升趨勢？

Ray, it's a great question. So the biggest dynamic of the cash flow changes between the quarters right now continue to be maintenance that just outweighs some of the subscription revenues that we've seen. And so the dynamics that you're implying absolutely are happening just on the smaller base of the overall cash flow that is coming out of that deferred revenue bucket, which is still largely maintenance related.

雷，這是一個很好的問題。因此，目前各季度之間現金流變化的最大動態仍然是維護，其規模剛剛超過了我們所看到的一些訂閱收入。因此，您絕對暗示的動態只是在遞延收入桶中產生的整體現金流量的較小基礎上發生的，這在很大程度上仍然與維護相關。

And so I think, obviously, we had a very large accounts receivable balance going into Q2 you saw us collect and we're to a normalized level. So I think from where we had our cash flow from ops in Q2, likely, we're going to come down in Q3 and then my expectation would be back up in Q4. But that's the dynamics of the SaaS business is, as you're describing, it's not just a major portion, though, of what's driving the change in deferred right now and some of our cash flow from ops.

所以我認為，顯然，我們在第二季有非常大的應收帳款餘額，你看到我們收集了，我們已經達到正常化水準了。因此，我認為從第二季我們的營運現金流來看，我們可能會在第三季下降，然後我的預期將在第四季回升。但這就是 SaaS 業務的動態，正如您所描述的，它不僅僅是推動目前遞延現金流和我們營運現金流變化的主要部分。

Great. Maybe just a question for Francois. We've talked a lot about bringing hybrid multi-cloud environments kind of together and simplifying the management of that. And I'm just wondering, when we take a step back, you announced the Distributed Cloud Console at AppWorld, I believe. What's been the reaction within your conversations with customers? Are you seeing interest that's resulting in cross-selling it or even better renewal or expansion rates, even if it's not direct, just as a result of maybe the offering being out there and customers being more comfortable with the road map? Any thoughts there would be helpful.

偉大的。也許只是弗朗索瓦的一個問題。我們已經討論了很多關於將混合多雲環境整合在一起並簡化其管理的問題。我只是想知道，當我們退後一步時，我相信您在 AppWorld 上宣布了分散式雲端控制台。您與客戶的對話中有何反應？您是否看到了交叉銷售或甚至更好的續訂或擴展率的興趣，即使不是直接的，只是因為產品已經存在並且客戶對路線圖更加滿意？任何想法都會有幫助。

Yes. So the reaction at AppWorld on Distributed Cloud has been very positive. And most -- let me just give you some numbers there, Ray. So of the -- we shared in October that we had over 500 customers on Distributed Cloud. The number has grown since then, and we will share that number. And we said we would share it annually, so we'll share it again in October. But over 2/3 of the customers on Distributed Cloud are existing F5 customers that were typically BIG-IP customers that choose Distributed Cloud as a complement to a hardware or software on-prem implementation, and in part because of our ability to, in the future, bring both the hardware, software on-prem and the SaaS services to a single pane of glass. And the other 1/3 of customers are net new customers to F5.

是的。因此，AppWorld on Distributed Cloud 的反應非常正面。大多數 - 讓我給你一些數字，雷。因此，我們在 10 月透露，我們在分散式雲端上擁有超過 500 個客戶。從那時起，這個數字一直在增長，我們將分享這個數字。我們說過我們會每年分享一次，所以我們將在十月再次分享。但超過 2/3 的分散式雲端客戶是現有的 F5 客戶，這些客戶通常是 BIG-IP 客戶，他們選擇分散式雲端作為硬體或軟體本地實施的補充，部分原因是我們有能力在未來，將硬體、本機軟體和SaaS 服務整合到單一管理平台。另外 1/3 的客戶是 F5 的淨新客戶。

And what we're seeing is a number of customers have gone into hybrid and multi-cloud environments either by accident or by acquisition and have not really had the opportunity to do this right, and we're working with customers to -- there are now solutions like Distributed Cloud that help you do multi-cloud right. And multi-cloud right means having a consistent set of security policies across the board to be able to automate the provisioning of application services across the board, being able to automate the network of these applications together.

我們看到的是，許多客戶無意中或透過收購進入了混合雲和多雲環境，但並沒有真正有機會正確地做到這一點，我們正在與客戶合作——有現在，分散式雲端等解決方案可以幫助您正確實現多雲。多雲意味著擁有一套一致的全面安全策略，能夠全面自動化應用程式服務的配置，能夠同時自動化這些應用程式的網路。

And customers are pretty excited about the ability to do that because it takes away very significant headache from them, headache around their operations, headache around the manual toil that a lot of their resources are spending, headache around the risk that they have of not running consistent application security policies across clouds. So very positive reception overall and growing awareness amongst our customer base of the capabilities of Distributed Cloud have us pretty excited for the future.

客戶對能夠做到這一點感到非常興奮，因為這消除了他們非常顯著的頭痛，他們的運營頭痛，他們花費大量資源的手工勞動的頭痛，他們不運行的風險的頭痛跨雲的一致應用程序安全策略。因此，整體上非常積極的反響以及我們的客戶群對分散式雲端功能的認識不斷提高，讓我們對未來感到非常興奮。

Due to timing, our last question will be from Sebastien Naji with William Blair.

由於時間關係，我們的最後一個問題將由塞巴斯蒂安·納吉和威廉·布萊爾提出。

Two for me. The first one, just following up on the competition question from the beginning. In those instances where you are displacing one of those ADC competitors going through a disruption, how do you typically land? Is it more heavily weighted towards like appliances or software or SaaS?

給我兩個。第一個，只是從頭開始跟進競賽問題。如果您要取代正在經歷混亂的 ADC 競爭對手之一，通常會如何著陸？是否更偏重於裝置、軟體或 SaaS 等？

And then my second question is just around cyber and AI. As we think about the ability for malicious actors to leverage AI in their own attacks, how do you think about being able to address some of these new types of AI attacks? Or in other words, do you need new techniques and solutions? Or can you use the existing systems at a broader scale? And which of the solutions within F5 are particularly well positioned for those types of attacks?

我的第二個問題是關於網路和人工智慧的。當我們考慮惡意行為者在自己的攻擊中利用人工智慧的能力時，您如何看待能夠解決其中一些新型人工智慧攻擊？或者換句話說，您需要新的技術和解決方案嗎？或者您可以更廣泛地使用現有系統嗎？ F5 中的哪些解決方案特別適合應對這些類型的攻擊？

Well, thank you. Let me start with the question on AI and the type of attacks. So we are already using AI today to block significant attacks, including automated attacks on a number of applications. This quarter alone, we blocked several billion API attacks in our Distributed Cloud capability. And a lot of that uses AI and automation, machine learning, specifically, in AI to block these attacks.

嗯，謝謝。讓我從人工智慧和攻擊類型的問題開始。因此，我們今天已經在使用人工智慧來阻止重大攻擊，包括對許多應用程式的自動攻擊。僅本季度，我們就透過分散式雲端功能阻止了數十億次 API 攻擊。其中許多都使用人工智慧和自動化、機器學習，特別是人工智慧來阻止這些攻擊。

We think that attackers will continue to get more sophisticated. They are already using generative AI for all kinds of attack vectors. And we're investing to, of course, stay ahead of criminals. In our bot solution, we probably have the most sophisticated fraud solution in the market, leveraging AI to block against all kinds of automated attacks. And we're now also investing in generative AI to actually make it easier for our customers to interact with our solutions and respond faster to changes in attack vectors. This is a rapidly developing field, but we'll continue to invest in our security solutions on that.

我們認為攻擊者將繼續變得更加複雜。他們已經在使用生成式人工智慧來應對各種攻擊媒介。當然，我們進行投資是為了領先犯罪者。在我們的機器人解決方案中，我們可能擁有市場上最複雜的詐欺解決方案，利用人工智慧來阻止各種自動攻擊。我們現在也投資生成式人工智慧，實際上使我們的客戶能夠更輕鬆地與我們的解決方案進行交互，並更快地響應攻擊向量的變化。這是一個快速發展的領域，但我們將繼續投資於我們的安全解決方案。

The second part, on the competition. And you asked when we're displacing competitors in ADC, is it more hardware or software oriented? It actually is both. I wouldn't have a percentage for you, but it is -- we're displacing customers that have taken a hardware implementation of a competitor and replacing the entire estate with our hardware.

第二部分，關於比賽。您問我們當我們在 ADC 領域取代競爭對手時，是更注重硬體還是軟體？實際上兩者都是。我不會給你一個百分比，但它是——我們正在取代那些採用競爭對手硬體實施的客戶，並用我們的硬體替換整個資產。

As you know, we invested over 4 years ago in a new generation of our hardware that brings a lot of the benefits of the cloud to on-prem implementation. Others have not necessarily made these investments. And so we bring benefits to our customers in terms of multi-tenancy, automation, et cetera, that others don't have. So that is a very clear difference in hardware.

如您所知，我們在 4 年前投資了新一代硬件，為本地實施帶來了雲端的許多優勢。其他人不一定會進行這些投資。因此，我們在多租戶、自動化等方面為客戶帶來了其他公司所沒有的好處。所以這是硬體上非常明顯的差異。

And then in software, similarly, we have invested to have a software footprint that is easy to consume in public clouds, and that's creating a good difference relative to competitors. And some of these deals are both hardware and software in some of these agreements for customers that are in hybrid multi-cloud environment.

然後在軟體方面，類似地，我們投資了一個易於在公有雲中使用的軟體足跡，這與競爭對手相比創造了很大的差異。其中一些交易既是硬體又是軟體，其中一些協議針對的是混合多雲環境中的客戶。

Thank you. This concludes today's teleconference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.

謝謝。今天的電話會議到此結束。此時您可以斷開線路。感謝您的參與。