F5 Inc (FFIV) 2024 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Good afternoon, and welcome to the F5 fourth quarter fiscal 2024 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 2024 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. We're here with you today to discuss our fourth quarter and fiscal year 2024 financial results.

您好，歡迎光臨。我是 Suzanne DuLong，F5 投資人關係副總裁。今天我們在這裡與您討論我們第四季和 2024 財年的財務表現。

François Locoh-Donou, F5's President and CEO; Frank Pelzer, F5's Executive Vice President and CFO; and Cooper Werner, our SVP of Finance and incoming 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.

François Locoh-Donou，F5 總裁兼執行長； Frank Pelzer，F5 執行副總裁兼財務長；我們的財務高級副總裁兼即將上任的財務長 Cooper Werner 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A copy of today's press release is available on our website at f5.com, where an archived version of today's audio will be available through January 27, 2025. We will post the slide deck accompanying today's webcast to our IR site at the conclusion of our call.

今天新聞稿的副本可在我們的網站f5.com 上獲取，其中今天音頻的存檔版本將在2025 年1 月27 日之前提供。網站。

To access the replay of today's webcast by phone, dial 877-660-6853 or 201-612-7415, and use meeting ID 13749373. The telephonic replay will be available through midnight, Pacific Time, October 29, 2024. For additional information or follow-up questions, please reach out to me directly at s.dulong@f5.com.

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 13749373。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 the 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，並在我們向 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。

During today's call, François will speak to our Q4 highlights, our strategy and growth opportunities, and our expectations for FY25. Frank will then review the details of our Q4 and FY24 results, and Cooper will speak to our outlook for FY25.

在今天的電話會議上，François 將談論我們第四季度的亮點、我們的策略和成長機會，以及我們對 2025 財年的期望。然後，弗蘭克將回顧我們第四季度和 24 財年業績的詳細信息，庫柏將談論我們對 25 財年的展望。

I will now turn the call over to François.

我現在將把電話轉給弗朗索瓦。

Thank you, Suzanne, and hello, everyone. We delivered a record Q4 across a number of metrics, including $747 million in revenues, which is up 6% year over year and above the high end of our guidance range. Q4's top line growth is the result of strong software performance, including 19% software revenue growth.

謝謝你，蘇珊娜，大家好。我們第四季的多項指標均創歷史新高，其中包括 7.47 億美元的收入，年增 6%，高於我們指導範圍的上限。第四季的營收成長得益於強勁的軟體業績，其中軟體收入成長了 19%。

Just as importantly, we delivered Q4 non-GAAP EPS of $3.67, (inaudible) of $0.17 above the top end of our guidance range, highlighting our improving operating margins, in addition to top line strength. Q4 was the cap to a fiscal year during which the F5 team outperformed our plan, even with a challenging macro backdrop to start the year.

同樣重要的是，我們第四季的非 GAAP 每股收益為 3.67 美元（聽不清楚），比我們指引範圍的上限高出 0.17 美元，這突顯了我們的營運利潤率以及營收實力的改善。第四季是一個財年的上限，在此期間，F5 團隊的表現超出了我們的計劃，儘管年初的宏觀背景充滿挑戰。

In FY24, we delivered revenue at the top end of our guidance. We also outperformed our initial expectations for software revenue, delivering 11% software growth compared to FY23, and we demonstrated continued operating discipline generating 14% non-GAAP growth for the year. These results speak to the power of our solutions, the strength of our operating model and the resilience of our business.

2024 財年，我們的營收達到了預期的最高水準。我們對軟體收入的表現也超出了我們的最初預期，與 2023 財年相比，軟體收入成長了 11%，並且我們展示了持續的營運紀律，全年實現了 14% 的非 GAAP 成長。這些結果證明了我們解決方案的力量、營運模式的優勢以及業務的彈性。

In a relatively short period of time, we have substantially reshaped F5 from a hardware-centric single product company into a security and software leader in today's hybrid multi-cloud world. Our transformation has redefined F5's role beyond the data center, increasing our value to customers, diversifying our revenue and expanding our total addressable market. The change is evident in several important metrics.

在相對較短的時間內，我們將 F5 從一家以硬體為中心的單一產品公司大幅重塑為當今混合多雲世界的安全和軟體領導者。我們的轉型重新定義了 F5 在資料中心之外的角色，提高了我們對客戶的價值，實現了多元化收入並擴大了我們的整體目標市場。這項變化在幾個重要指標中顯而易見。

In FY17, software contributed $122 million or just 13% of our product revenue. Today, software is $735 million and 58% of our product revenue. In FY17, subscriptions represented just $24 million or 20% of our software revenue.

2017 財年，軟體貢獻了 1.22 億美元，僅占我們產品收入的 13%。如今，軟體收入達 7.35 億美元，占我們產品收入的 58%。 2017 財年，訂閱量僅占我們軟體營收的 20%，即 2,400 萬美元。

Today, they totaled $624 million and 85% of our software revenue. And finally, in FY17, our recurring revenue was $1.1 billion or 52% of our total revenue. And today, it is $2.1 billion and 76% of our total revenue.

如今，它們的總收入為 6.24 億美元，占我們軟體收入的 85%。最後，2017 財年，我們的經常性收入為 11 億美元，佔總營收的 52%。如今，這一數字已達 21 億美元，占我們總收入的 76%。

A growing percentage of our business is coming from existing software customers, providing us with very good visibility to a large portion of our revenue for the coming year. As a result of our large software renewal opportunity, improving systems demand trends and our growing pipeline, we expect revenue growth to accelerate in FY25.

我們越來越多的業務來自現有的軟體客戶，這使我們能夠很好地了解來年的大部分收入。由於我們大量的軟體更新機會、不斷改善的系統需求趨勢以及不斷增長的管道，我們預計 25 財年的營收成長將加速。

We expect FY25 revenue growth in a range of 4% to 5% from FY24. This is ahead of the expectations we outlined when we first shared our FY25 outlook a year ago. In addition to top line growth, we expect to drive continued operating margin leverage. As a result, we expect to deliver 5% to 7% earnings growth in FY25.

我們預計 2025 財年營收將較 24 財年成長 4% 至 5%。這超出了我們一年前首次分享 25 財年展望時概述的預期。除了營收成長之外，我們預計還將推動持續的營業利潤率槓桿。因此，我們預計 2025 財年的獲利成長將達到 5% 至 7%。

On a tax neutral basis to FY24, the midpoint of this range reflects 10% EPS growth. Beyond the visibility we have into our recurring revenue and pipeline for FY25, we remain confident in F5's long-term growth prospects for several reasons. These include F5's alignment with robust and sustainable industry trends and the effectiveness of our go-to-market strategies.

在 2024 財年稅收中立的基礎上，該範圍的中點反映了 10% 的每股盈餘成長。除了我們對 2025 財年經常性收入和管道的了解之外，我們對 F5 的長期成長前景仍然充滿信心，原因有幾個。其中包括 F5 與強勁且可持續的行業趨勢的一致性以及我們的市場策略的有效性。

I will speak first to the industry trends. First, hybrid multi-cloud environments are now the norm and will remain so. According to our latest State of Application strategy report, nearly 90% of customers are operating across multiple environments with the benefits of choice clearly outweighing the challenges of managing apps across different deployment models.

我先講一下產業趨勢。首先，混合多雲環境現在已成為常態，並將繼續如此。根據我們最新的應用程式狀態策略報告，近 90% 的客戶在多個環境中運行，選擇的好處明顯超過了跨不同部署模型管理應用程式的挑戰。

Second, applications and the APIs that connect them are becoming increasingly distributed which means traditional single environment solutions are not capable of managing and securing them. Third, the number of application instances continues to grow. In fact, it is projected to grow from roughly $2 billion today to $6 billion by 2029.

其次，應用程式和連接它們的 API 變得越來越分散，這意味著傳統的單一環境解決方案無法管理和保護它們。第三，應用實例數量持續成長。事實上，預計到 2029 年，這一數字將從目前的約 20 億美元增長到 60 億美元。

Fourth, APIs are rapidly proliferating creating new challenges and risks for application owners. A recent F5 survey found that nearly a third of customer-facing APIs lack fundamental protection. Fifth, applications and APIs require more security and delivery services today than they used to.

第四，API 的快速普及給應用程式所有者帶來了新的挑戰和風險。 F5 最近的一項調查發現，近三分之一面向客戶的 API 缺乏基本保護。第五，如今的應用程式和 API 比以前需要更多的安全性和交付服務。

In 2016, organizations deployed a minimum of two app services to ensure an app remain performant and secure. Today, that number has grown to 13 on average and 27 in total. And finally, the emergence and eventual widespread adoption of AI and AI-powered applications will accelerate and further complicate all of these trends while also leading to new demands related to data ingestion and optimization of GPU environment.

2016 年，組織至少部署了兩項應用服務，以確保應用程式保持高效能和安全。如今，這一數字已增至平均 13 個，總數為 27 個。最後，人工智慧和人工智慧驅動的應用程式的出現和最終廣泛採用將加速並進一步複雜化所有這些趨勢，同時也帶來與資料攝取和 GPU 環境優化相關的新需求。

Individually, these dynamics are driving new complexity, cost and security risks for customers. The fact that they are all happening simultaneously is creating significant challenges for the IT teams managing them. You have heard us describe the confluence of these dynamics as the ball of fire, and we continue to believe that F5 is uniquely positioned to address it.

單獨而言，這些動態正在為客戶帶來新的複雜性、成本和安全風險。事實上，它們都是同時發生的，這給管理它們的 IT 團隊帶來了巨大的挑戰。您已經聽到我們將這些動態的匯合描述為火球，我們仍然相信 F5 具有獨特的定位來解決這個問題。

The powerful industry dynamics I just outlined are contributing to our ability to drive growth through our land, expand and renew go-to-market motions. We are landing new customers by winning competitive entry opportunities targeting competitive takeouts and leveraging and expanding our strong channel relationships.

我剛才概述的強大的行業動態有助於我們透過我們的土地推動成長、擴大和更新市場進入行動的能力。我們透過贏得競爭性外送的競爭性進入機會以及利用和擴大我們強大的通路關係來吸引新客戶。

Our biggest growth opportunity, however, comes from the potential to expand our footprint and wallet share across our base of approximately 20,000 customers. At times, this means expanding as an apps utilization grows over time. At others, it means leveraging the synergies and power of F5's platform to create a strong unified security posture, simplify multicloud complexity or streamline operations.

然而，我們最大的成長機會來自於擴大我們在約 20,000 名客戶中的足跡和錢包份額的潛力。有時，這意味著隨著應用程式利用率隨著時間的推移而增長。在其他方面，這意味著利用 F5 平台的協同作用和強大功能來創建強大的統一安全態勢、簡化多雲複雜性或簡化營運。

The power of this expand motion is evident in the early success of our F5 distributed cloud services. We launched this platform in February of 2022 and now have more than 800 customers on it, a third of whom are new customers to F5.

這種擴張運動的力量在我們的 F5 分散式雲端服務的早期成功中顯而易見。我們於 2022 年 2 月推出該平台，目前擁有 800 多名客戶，其中三分之一是 F5 的新客戶。

And finally, we are growing as we successfully renew and expand with existing customers. This motion has been a powerful driver for our business and is a testament to the value F5 delivers. Our sales and customer success teams are focused on ensuring it remains so. The relative success of these motions is further evidence of F5's differentiated ability to pay the ball of fire for our customers.

最後，隨著我們成功更新和擴展現有客戶，我們不斷成長。這項措施有力地推動了我們的業務，也證明了 F5 所提供的價值。我們的銷售和客戶成功團隊致力於確保這一點保持不變。這些動議的相對成功進一步證明了 F5 為客戶付出努力的差異化能力。

We do this across three vectors: app and API security, simplification and standardization and automation. First, app and API security. F5 delivers the most effective and comprehensive app and API security platform in the industry. We enable our customers to consolidate point products, targeting specific threats onto a single integrated platform with a suite of best-in-class capabilities.

我們透過三個面向來實現這一目標：應用程式和 API 安全性、簡化、標準化和自動化。首先，應用程式和 API 安全。 F5 提供業界最有效、最全面的應用程式和 API 安全平台。我們使客戶能夠整合單點產品，將特定威脅定位到具有一套一流功能的單一整合平台上。

As an example, during Q4, a global integrated energy company selected F5 distributed cloud services web application firewall and API protection to enhance and streamline its multi-cloud application security across two major public cloud platforms. Previously, the customer had been running two distinct cloud native WAF and API Gateway solutions.

例如，在第四季度，一家全球綜合能源公司選擇了 F5 分散式雲端服務 Web 應用程式防火牆和 API 保護，以增強和簡化其跨兩個主要公有雲平台的多雲應用程式安全性。在此之前，客戶一直在運行兩種不同的雲端原生 WAF 和 API 閘道解決方案。

The customer selected F5 distributed cloud services following a comprehensive evaluation, which included two competitive offerings. F5, one, based on its superior ability to provide a unified security posture effectively defending against advanced threats and delivering comprehensive API security.

經過全面評估，客戶選擇了 F5 分散式雲端服務，其中包括兩個有競爭力的產品。 F5 是其中之一，基於其提供統一安全態勢的卓越能力，有效防禦高級威脅並提供全面的 API 安全性。

Second, simplification enables the hybrid multi-cloud flexibility our customers' businesses demand with the simplicity their IT operations require. Only F5 delivers solutions that extend across public clouds to the edge and customers on-premises environments. Our solutions simplify connecting disparate infrastructure environments and the applications deployed in and across them.

其次，簡化能夠實現客戶業務所需的混合多雲靈活性以及 IT 營運所需的簡單性。只有 F5 提供跨公有雲擴展到邊緣和客戶本地環境的解決方案。我們的解決方案簡化了不同基礎設施環境以及在其中和跨環境部署的應用程式的連接。

As an example, during Q4, distributed cloud services was selected by the largest mobile provider in a Southeast Asian country to simplify a complex IT challenge. Following a merger with another large mobile provider, the customer faced complications arising from overlapping IP addresses between their core business applications and retail branches.

例如，在第四季度，東南亞國家最大的行動供應商選擇了分散式雲端服務來簡化複雜的 IT 挑戰。與另一家大型行動供應商合併後，該客戶面臨著由於其核心業務應用程式和零售分行之間 IP 位址重疊而產生的複雜情況。

Overlapping IP addresses can cause connectivity issues and operational inefficiencies, especially when different systems and networks emerged. F5's multi-cloud networking technology provided virtual IPs and translation services which allowed the new entity to easily manage IP conflicts across 500 branches.

重疊的 IP 位址可能會導致連線問題和營運效率低下，尤其是在出現不同的系統和網路時。 F5 的多雲網路技術提供虛擬 IP 和轉換服務，使新實體能夠輕鬆管理 500 個分支機構的 IP 衝突。

And third, standardization and automation. F5 solutions enable more cost-effective and scalable IT operations. We streamlined 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.

第三，標準化和自動化。 F5 解決方案可實現更具成本效益和可擴展的 IT 營運。我們透過一致的政策、全面的自動化和豐富的分析簡化了客戶的營運。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。

As an example, during Q4, a large Australia-based multinational bank and financial services organization selected F5 to reduce operational overhead and to refresh, consolidate and modernize its application infrastructure. Automation enabled by F5 VELOS hardware and software eliminated tens of thousands of lines of hard-to-maintain custom code.

例如，在第四季度，一家位於澳洲的大型跨國銀行和金融服務組織選擇 F5 來減少營運開銷並更新、整合和現代化其應用程式基礎設施。 F5 VELOS 硬體和軟體實現的自動化消除了數萬行難以維護的自訂程式碼。

F5 automation is also enabling application self-service streamlined certificate management and hit less upgrades. The new F5-enabled practices have improved security and reliability of the customers' applications while eliminating massive amounts of manual processes and labor.

F5 自動化還支援應用程式自助服務簡化證書管理並減少升級。支援 F5 的新實踐提高了客戶應用程式的安全性和可靠性，同時消除了大量的手動流程和勞動力。

These three points of strong differentiation, combined with the well-established role F5 plays embedded in the flow of application traffic enables us to address the ball of fire for our customers in ways our competitors cannot. Before I pass the call to Frank, as I have the last several quarters, I will speak to the opportunity we see emerging with AI use cases.

這三點強大的差異化，再加上 F5 在應用程式流量中所扮演的既定角色，使我們能夠以競爭對手無法做到的方式為客戶解決問題。在我打電話給 Frank 之前，就像過去幾個季度一樣，我將談談我們看到的人工智慧用例出現的機會。

As we discussed earlier this year, 2024 was the year of AI infrastructure build-out in preparation for AI apps. AI-driven use cases already are driving significant investment in new application and infrastructure requirements across compute, storage and networking layers.

正如我們今年早些時候討論的那樣，2024 年是人工智慧基礎設施建設的一年，為人工智慧應用程式做好準備。人工智慧驅動的用例已經在跨運算、儲存和網路層推動對新應用程式和基礎設施需求的大量投資。

In networking specifically, AI factories have extremely high data and throughput demands. F5's initial opportunities in AI are concentrated on three networking use cases. The first is AI data ingestion requiring high-performance traffic management for AI model training and retrieval augmented generation or RAG.

特別是在網路方面，人工智慧工廠具有極高的數據和吞吐量需求。 F5 在人工智慧領域的最初機會集中在三個網路用例上。第一個是人工智慧資料攝取，需要高效能流量管理來進行人工智慧模型訓練和檢索增強生成（RAG）。

Over the last several quarters, we have highlighted customers leveraging F5's industry-leading traffic management capabilities to optimize data ingestion. During Q4, we had another example of a customer choosing F5 for data ingestion. A global conglomerate with businesses across IT, automotive, media and financial services, chose F5 to optimize data ingest for its AI model training.

在過去的幾個季度中，我們將重點放在客戶利用 F5 行業領先的流量管理功能來優化資料攝取。在第四季度，我們有另一個客戶選擇 F5 進行資料攝取的範例。一家業務涉及 IT、汽車、媒體和金融服務的全球企業集團選擇 F5 來優化其 AI 模型訓練的資料攝取。

The customers' AI factories are collecting information and telemetry to power its connected vehicle business. In this deployment, F5 is providing high-performance load balancing between the customers' enterprise storage clusters and their AI factories. The second AI use case we are focused on is AI factory load balancing where we are optimizing the performance and scalability of AI factories with advanced traffic management.

客戶的人工智慧工廠正在收集資訊和遙測數據，為其連網汽車業務提供動力。在此部署中，F5 在客戶的企業儲存叢集與其 AI 工廠之間提供高效能負載平衡。我們關注的第二個人工智慧用例是人工智慧工廠負載平衡，我們透過先進的流量管理來優化人工智慧工廠的效能和可擴展性。

Just last week, we announced our exciting collaboration with NVIDIA to enable high-performance software ADC on AI infrastructure. There are two important pieces of this news. First, we have enabled BIG-IP NGINX next to run in Kubernetes. Enterprises and service providers building AI factories are driving strong demand for advanced semiconductors such as GPUs.

就在上週，我們宣布與 NVIDIA 展開令人興奮的合作，以在人工智慧基礎架構上實現高效能軟體 ADC。這個消息有兩個重要的內容。首先，我們接下來啟用 BIG-IP NGINX 在 Kubernetes 中運作。建造人工智慧工廠的企業和服務供應商正在推動對 GPU 等先進半導體的強勁需求。

AI workloads that run within this infrastructure are running on Kubernetes. F5 BIG-IP NGINX for Kubernetes brings our market-leading networking traffic management and security capabilities to these modern environments. Second, we partnered with NVIDIA to ensure that BIG-IP NGINX for Kubernetes works seamlessly with NVIDIA BLUEFIELD I DPUs.

在此基礎架構中運行的 AI 工作負載正在 Kubernetes 上運作。 F5 BIG-IP NGINX for Kubernetes 為這些現代環境帶來了我們市場領先的網路流量管理和安全功能。其次，我們與 NVIDIA 合作，確保 BIG-IP NGINX for Kubernetes 與 NVIDIA BLUEFIELD I DPU 無縫合作。

When combined with BIG-IP NGINX for Kubernetes, these DPUs effectively become AI accelerators, increasing the performance and security of training and inference workloads delivering superior AI-driven customer experiences. The first two AI use cases I have just highlighted our ADC opportunities, a market where we have been the leader for the last two decades.

當與適用於 Kubernetes 的 BIG-IP NGINX 結合使用時，這些 DPU 可以有效地成為 AI 加速器，提高訓練和推理工作負載的效能和安全性，從而提供卓越的 AI 驅動的客戶體驗。我剛剛強調了前兩個人工智慧用例，強調了我們的 ADC 機會，在過去二十年裡我們一直是該市場的領導者。

The third AI use case we are focused on leverages web application firewall and API protection or WAAP for secure AI inferencing. We have deployments supporting this use case today and expect it will become more prevalent as enterprises begin to leverage AI inferencing at scale over the next 18 to 24 months.

我們關注的第三個人工智慧用例利用 Web 應用程式防火牆和 API 保護或 WAAP 來實現安全的人工智慧推理。我們現在已經有支援此用例的部署，預計隨著企業在未來 18 到 24 個月內開始大規模利用人工智慧推理，它將變得更加普遍。

As you can see with these examples, F5 is not just adopting to the AI revolution, we are actively shaping it, providing the critical infrastructure that enables our customers to harness the full potential of AI safely and efficiently.

正如您從這些範例中看到的，F5 不僅在適應人工智慧革命，而且還在積極塑造它，提供關鍵基礎設施，使我們的客戶能夠安全高效地充分利用人工智慧的潛力。

Our sales, engineering and product teams have identified multiple additional AI use cases where F5 is likely to have a significant role to play. In addition, we continue to implement generative AI solutions across our portfolio, leveraging AI to help customers with their policies and configurations.

我們的銷售、工程和產品團隊已經確定了多個其他 AI 用例，F5 可能會在其中發揮重要作用。此外，我們繼續在我們的產品組合中實施生成式人工智慧解決方案，利用人工智慧幫助客戶制定策略和配置。

To conclude, we are confident that F5 is entering fiscal year 2025 with an industry-leading converged portfolio tightly aligned with significant industry trends and customer demand. Because of our unmatched Layer 4-7 functionality and expertise, we are unique in our ability to address escalating application and API complexity.

總而言之，我們相信 F5 將憑藉與重要產業趨勢和客戶需求緊密結合的業界領先的融合產品組合進入 2025 財年。由於我們無與倫比的第 4-7 層功能和專業知識，我們在解決不斷升級的應用程式和 API 複雜性方面具有獨特的能力。

We bring consistent industry-leading security. We simplify hybrid multicloud complexity and we streamline operations with standardization and automation.

我們帶來一致的行業領先的安全性。我們簡化了混合多雲的複雜性，並透過標準化和自動化簡化了營運。

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 FY24 results before I pass the call to Cooper, who will elaborate on our Q1 and full year FY25 outlook.

謝謝弗朗索瓦，大家下午好。在打電話給庫柏之前，我將回顧我們的第四季和 2024 財年業績，庫柏將詳細介紹我們的第一季和 2025 財年全年展望。

We delivered strong Q4 revenue of $747 million with a mix of 52% Global Services and 48% product revenue. Global service revenue of $388 million grew 2%, in line with our expectations. Product revenue totaled $358 million, up 10% year over year due to strong software growth. Systems revenue totaled $130 million, down 3% year over year.

我們第四季的營收強勁，達到 7.47 億美元，其中全球服務收入佔 52%，產品收入佔 48%。全球服務收入為 3.88 億美元，成長 2%，符合我們的預期。由於軟體的強勁成長，產品收入總計 3.58 億美元，年增 10%。系統收入總計1.3億美元，較去年同期下降3%。

I will note that demand for systems improved over the course of the quarter, which Cooper will speak to more when discussing our FY25 outlook. Software revenue totaled $228 million, representing 19% growth year over year. Our solid execution and renewals drove subscription-based software revenue of $204 million or 89% of total software revenue, growing 23% year over year.

我要指出的是，本季對系統的需求有所改善，庫柏將在討論我們的 2025 財年前景時更多地談到這一點。軟體收入總計 2.28 億美元，年增 19%。我們紮實的執行和續訂推動基於訂閱的軟體收入達到 2.04 億美元，佔軟體總收入的 89%，年增 23%。

Rounding out our software revenue, perpetual license software contributed $24 million. As Francois mentioned, the percentage of our revenue that is recurring continues to grow, thereby enhancing our revenue visibility.

永久授權軟體為我們的軟體收入貢獻了 2,400 萬美元。正如弗朗索瓦所提到的，我們的經常性收入百分比持續成長，從而提高了我們的收入可見度。

During Q4, 78% of our total revenue came from a combination of subscription-based revenue and the maintenance portion of our global services revenue. This is up from 76% a year ago.

第四季度，我們總收入的 78% 來自訂閱制的收入和全球服務收入的維護部分。這比一年前的 76% 有所上升。

Shifting to revenue distribution by region. Revenue from the Americas grew 9% year over year, representing 58% of total revenue. EMEA delivered a strong quarter with 4% growth, representing 26% of revenue. Meanwhile, APAC declined 3%, representing 16% of revenue.

轉向按地區分配收入。來自美洲的營收年增9%，佔總營收的58%。歐洲、中東和非洲地區的季度表現強勁，成長 4%，佔營收的 26%。與此同時，亞太地區下降了 3%，佔收入的 16%。

Looking at our major verticals, enterprise customers delivered a very strong quarter, representing 72% of Q4 product bookings. Government customers represented 18% of product bookings, including 8% from US Federal. Finally, service providers represented 10% of Q4 product bookings.

從我們主要的垂直產業來看，企業客戶的季度表現非常強勁，佔第四季產品預訂的 72%。政府客戶佔產品預訂的 18%，其中 8% 來自美國聯邦政府。最後，服務提供者佔第四季度產品預訂的 10%。

Our Q4 operating results were strong reflecting our continued operating efficiency improvements. GAAP gross margin was 80.8%. Non-GAAP gross margin was 83%. Our GAAP operating expenses were $412 million. Our non-GAAP operating expenses were $363 million.

我們第四季的營運業績強勁，反映出我們營運效率的持續提高。 GAAP 毛利率為 80.8%。非 GAAP 毛利率為 83%。我們的 GAAP 營運費用為 4.12 億美元。我們的非 GAAP 營運費用為 3.63 億美元。

Our GAAP operating margin was 25.6%. Our non-GAAP operating margin was 34.4%. Our GAAP effective tax rate for the quarter was 18.8%. Our non-GAAP effective tax rate was 19.5%.

我們的 GAAP 營業利潤率為 25.6%。我們的非 GAAP 營業利益率為 34.4%。我們本季的 GAAP 有效稅率為 18.8%。我們的非 GAAP 有效稅率為 19.5%。

Our GAAP net income for the quarter was $165 million or $2.80 per share. Our non-GAAP net income was $217 million or $3.67 per share.

我們本季的 GAAP 淨利潤為 1.65 億美元，即每股 2.80 美元。我們的非 GAAP 淨利潤為 2.17 億美元，即每股 3.67 美元。

I will now turn to cash flow and balance sheet metrics, all of which remain very strong. We generated $247 million in cash flow from operations in Q4 on strong net income and cash collections in the quarter. CapEx was $6 million.

我現在將轉向現金流和資產負債表指標，所有這些指標仍然非常強勁。由於本季強勁的淨利潤和現金回款，我們在第四季度的營運中產生了 2.47 億美元的現金流。資本支出為 600 萬美元。

DSO for the quarter was 47 days. Cash and investments totaled approximately $1.08 billion at quarter end. Deferred revenue was $1.8 billion, up 1% from the year ago period.

該季度的 DSO 為 47 天。截至季末，現金和投資總額約為 10.8 億美元。遞延營收為 18 億美元，比去年同期成長 1%。

In Q4, we repurchased $100 million worth of F5 shares at an average price of $206 per share. Over FY24, we repurchased $500 million worth of F5 shares at an average price of $177 per share. Our share repurchases represented 66% of our annual free cash flow in FY24, exceeding our commitment to use at least 50% of our free cash flow for this purpose.

第四季度，我們以每股 206 美元的平均價格回購了價值 1 億美元的 F5 股票。 2024 財年，我們以每股 177 美元的平均價格回購了價值 5 億美元的 F5 股票。我們的股票回購佔 2024 財年年度自由現金流的 66%，超出了我們將至少 50% 的自由現金流用於此目的的承諾。

As announced in the earnings release, our Board of Directors has authorized an additional $1 billion for our common stock repurchase program. This new authorization is incremental to the $422 million remaining in the existing program and as of today, brings the total available under the authorized stock repurchase program to $1.4 billion. Finally, we ended the quarter with approximately 6,560 employees.

正如收益發布中所宣布的那樣，我們的董事會已批准額外撥款 10 億美元用於我們的普通股回購計畫。這項新授權是現有計畫中剩餘 4.22 億美元的增量，截至今天，授權股票回購計畫的可用總額達到 14 億美元。最後，本季結束時，我們的員工數量約為 6,560 名。

I will now recap our FY24 results. Our FY24 revenue of $2.82 billion was up slightly from FY23 and at the top end of our initial revenue guidance for the year. These results speak to the strength of our business, particularly given the revenue growth headwind we faced in FY24 due to the elevated backlog fulfillment in FY23.

我現在將回顧我們 2024 財年的表現。我們 2024 財年的營收為 28.2 億美元，比 2023 財年略有成長，處於我們今年初始營收指引的上限。這些結果說明了我們業務的實力，特別是考慮到我們因 2023 財年積壓訂單履行量增加而在 24 財年面臨收入成長阻力。

Global Services revenue grew 4% to $1.54 billion, representing 55% of total revenue for the year. Product revenue representing 45% of revenue, declined 5% year over year. Within product revenue, our FY24 systems revenue totaled $537 million. While this represents a decline of 20% compared to FY23, our underlying systems bookings grew year over year.

全球服務收入成長 4%，達到 15.4 億美元，佔全年總收入的 55%。產品收入佔收入的45%，較去年同期下降5%。在產品收入中，我們 2024 財年的系統收入總計 5.37 億美元。雖然與 2023 財年相比下降了 20%，但我們的基礎系統預訂量逐年增長。

Software revenue of $735 million grew 11% compared to FY23. This is up from our initial expectation of flat to modest growth as a result of continued strong renewals performance in addition to a stronger new business trend compared to FY23. Software represented 58% of our FY24 product revenue and software subscriptions represented 85% of our FY24 software revenue.

軟體營收為 7.35 億美元，比 2023 財年成長 11%。這高於我們最初預期的持平或溫和成長，因為續約業績持續強勁，加上新業務趨勢比 2023 財年更強勁。軟體占我們 2024 財年產品收入的 58%，軟體訂閱占我們 2024 財年軟體收入的 85%。

Let's take a closer look at the components of our annual software revenue. Our software revenue is comprised of three elements: one, SaaS and managed services; two, term-based subscriptions; and three, perpetual software licenses. I'll expand on each of these, starting from the top down.

讓我們仔細看看我們年度軟體收入的組成部分。我們的軟體收入由三個要素組成：一是SaaS和託管服務；二、按期限訂閱；三是永久軟體許可證。我將從上到下逐一展開。

Our SaaS managed services, which is the portion of our software recognized ratably over the duration of the subscription term delivered $193 million in revenue in FY24, a decline of 5% year over year, largely as a result of planned legacy offering retirements and transitions. FY24 SaaS and managed services annualized recurring revenue, or ARR, of $182 million is down from $198 million in FY23 and primarily as a result of planned churn related to retiring legacy offerings, offset by continued growth in our core SaaS and managed services offerings.

我們的 SaaS 託管服務是我們軟體中在訂閱期限內得到認可的部分，在 2024 財年實現了 1.93 億美元的收入，同比下降 5%，這主要是由於計劃中的遺留產品退役和過渡所致。 2024 財年SaaS 和託管服務年化經常性收入(ARR) 為1.82 億美元，低於2023 財年的1.98 億美元，這主要是由於與淘汰舊產品相關的計劃流失，但被我們核心SaaS 和託管服務產品的持續成長所抵銷。

I'll speak first to our legacy offerings represented by the gray bar in our accompanying charts. There are two portions of our legacy offerings. The first is discontinued SaaS and managed service offerings. The second is Silverline managed services, which we continue to work to transition to F5 distributed cloud services.

我將首先談談我們的遺留產品，由隨附圖表中的灰色條代表。我們的傳統產品有兩個部分。第一個是停止提供 SaaS 和託管服務產品。第二個是 Silverline 託管服務，我們將繼續努力過渡到 F5 分散式雲端服務。

The vast majority of the legacy AR decline from FY23 to FY24 is related to planned churn associated with discontinued offerings. During FY24, we transitioned a modest amount of Silverline managed services to F5 distributed cloud services.

從 2023 財年到 2024 財年，絕大多數傳統 AR 下降與已停產產品相關的計畫流失有關。在 2024 財年，我們將少量 Silverline 託管服務轉換為 F5 分散式雲端服務。

We noted last year that the Silverline transition would be back-end weighted over the course of FY24 and FY25. The green portion of the bar represents our core SaaS and managed services, which includes F5 distributed cloud services, our high-end bought defense point solutions and our recently launched NGINX as a service offering. F5 distributed cloud service delivered strong growth off a relatively small base, offset by churn within our high-end bought defense solution.

我們去年指出，Silverline 過渡將在 2024 財年和 25 財年期間進行後端加權。條形的綠色部分代表我們的核心 SaaS 和託管服務，其中包括 F5 分散式雲端服務、我們的高階購買防禦點解決方案以及我們最近推出的 NGINX 即服務產品。 F5 分散式雲端服務在相對較小的基礎上實現了強勁成長，但被我們購買的高端防禦解決方案中的流失所抵消。

The second portion of our software revenue comes from term-based subscriptions, which are recognized largely upfront as product revenue with a portion deferred and recognized ratably as global services revenue over the subscription term. These include new renewal and true forward revenue for both annual and multiyear subscriptions of BIG-IP NGINX.

我們軟體收入的第二部分來自基於期限的訂閱，這些收入主要預先確認為產品收入，其中一部分在訂閱期限內遞延並按比例確認為全球服務收入。其中包括 BIG-IP NGINX 年度和多年訂閱的新續訂和真實遠期收入。

In FY24, revenue from term-based subscriptions contributed $430 million to our software revenue, up 22% year over year as a result of continued strong renewals and expansion performance as well as growth in new software business compared to FY23. The third and final component of our software revenue is perpetual software licenses, which contributed $112 million in software revenue, up 3% year over year.

2024 財年，基於期限的訂閱收入為我們的軟體收入貢獻了 4.3 億美元，同比增長 22%，這是由於與 2023 財年相比持續強勁的續訂和擴展業績以及新軟體業務的增長。我們軟體收入的第三個也是最後一個組成部分是永久軟體許可證，它貢獻了 1.12 億美元的軟體收入，年增 3%。

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 41% of total revenue. Stand-alone security revenue totaled $460 million, representing 36% of product revenue.

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 41%。獨立安全收入總計 4.6 億美元，佔產品收入的 36%。

I will now turn to our FY24 operating performance. GAAP gross margin in FY24 was 80.2%. Non-GAAP gross margin was 82.8%, up 132 basis points from FY23. Our GAAP operating margin for FY24 was 23.4%, and our non-GAAP operating margin was 33.6%, up 337 basis points from FY23 as a result of continued operating discipline.

我現在將談談我們 2024 財年的經營業績。 2024 財年 GAAP 毛利率為 80.2%。非 GAAP 毛利率為 82.8%，較 2023 財年上升 132 個基點。由於持續的經營紀律，我們 2024 財年的 GAAP 營業利潤率為 23.4%，非 GAAP 營業利潤率為 33.6%，較 2023 財年上升 337 個基點。

Our GAAP effective tax rate for the year was 18.5%. Our non-GAAP effective tax rate for the year was 19.2%. GAAP net income for FY24 was $567 million or $9.55 per share. Non-GAAP net income was $794 million or $13.37 per share representing growth of 14.3% over FY23.

我們當年的 GAAP 有效稅率為 18.5%。我們今年的非 GAAP 有效稅率為 19.2%。 2024 財年 GAAP 淨利為 5.67 億美元，即每股 9.55 美元。非 GAAP 淨利為 7.94 億美元，即每股 13.37 美元，較 2023 財年成長 14.3%。

I will now pass the call to Cooper to speak on our outlook. Cooper?

我現在將電話轉給庫珀，談談我們的前景。庫柏？

Thanks, Frank, and hello, everyone. Francois outlined our FY25 outlook at the start of the call. I'll recap it now with some additional color.

謝謝弗蘭克，大家好。 Francois 在電話會議開始時概述了我們 25 財年的展望。現在我將用一些額外的顏色來回顧。

I will also provide our outlook for Q1. With the exception of revenue, my guidance comments reference non-GAAP metrics. I'll start with FY25.

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。我將從 25 財年開始。

First, our FY25 outlook assumes continued macro stability, but does not assume a significant improvement to the macro environment. It also does not assume substantial growth in our customers' IT budgets. In FY25, we expect to deliver 4% to 5% revenue growth over FY24.

首先，我們的 25 財年展望假設宏觀環境持續穩定，但不假設宏觀環境顯著改善。它還沒有假設我們客戶的 IT 預算大幅成長。 25 財年，我們預計營收將比 24 財年成長 4% 至 5%。

Similar to FY24, we anticipate our FY25 revenue will be relatively back-end weighted. We expect low single-digit revenue growth across the first half of the year and mid-single-digit revenue growth in the second half. Our stronger second half expectations are based on the visibility we have to the sizable renewal base coming up during that period and our consistently strong renewal performance over time.

與 2024 財年類似，我們預期 25 財年的營收將相對後端加權。我們預計今年上半年營收將達到低個位數成長，下半年營收將達到中個位數成長。我們對下半年的強勁預期是基於我們對這一時期即將出現的規模可觀的續訂基礎的可見性以及我們隨著時間的推移持續強勁的續訂表現。

Taking a closer look at the components of FY25 revenue, I'll start with software. Our expectation for FY25 software revenue has improved from our initial view a year ago. At the beginning of our fiscal year 2024, we guided to flat to modest software growth in FY24 and shared our expectation that software would grow by double digits from that level in FY25. Against the much improved 11% software growth outcome in FY24, we now expect FY25 software to grow in the upper single digits year over year.

仔細研究 2025 財年收入的組成部分，我將從軟體開始。我們對 2025 財年軟體收入的預期較一年前的初步預期有所改善。在 2024 財年伊始，我們預計 2024 財年的軟體成長將持平至適度成長，並預計軟體將在 2025 財年以兩位數的速度成長。與 2024 財年軟體成長 11% 的大幅改善相比，我們現在預計 25 財年軟體將比去年同期實現較高個位數成長。

Looking at systems revenue. As Frank referenced in his comments related to Q4, we have recently seen an improvement in systems demand as customers begin to refresh older estates, and we drive momentum from competitive takeout opportunities. As a result, we expect systems revenue will grow mid-single digits in FY25.

查看系統收入。正如弗蘭克在與第四季度相關的評論中提到的那樣，隨著客戶開始更新舊的房產，我們最近看到系統需求有所改善，並且我們從競爭性外賣機會中推動了動力。因此，我們預計 2025 財年系統營收將實現中個位數成長。

And finally, we expect global services revenue will grow low single digits in FY25. From an operating perspective, we expect to deliver gross margin improvements resulting in FY25 non-GAAP gross margin in a range of 83% to 84%. We also expect to drive continued operating expense discipline, resulting in FY25 non-GAAP operating margin of approximately 35%.

最後，我們預計 2025 財年全球服務收入將達到低個位數成長。從營運角度來看，我們預計毛利率將有所改善，從而使 25 財年非 GAAP 毛利率達到 83% 至 84%。我們也預計將繼續推動營運費用紀律，使 25 財年非 GAAP 營運利潤率達到約 35%。

Seasonally, we expect operating margin in the low 30% range for the first half of FY25, moving to the upper 30s in the second half. We expect our typical seasonal low for operating margin in Q2, reflecting the combination of payroll tax resets and costs associated with a large customer event in February.

從季節性來看，我們預計 2025 財年上半年的營業利潤率將在 30% 左右，下半年將升至 30% 以上。我們預計第二季營業利潤率將出現典型的季節性低點，反映出工資稅重置和 2 月大型客戶活動相關成本的綜合影響。

We expect our FY25 non-GAAP effective tax rate will be in a range of 21% to 23%. We expect to deliver 5% to 7% non-GAAP earnings growth. On a tax neutral basis to FY24, the midpoint of this range reflects 10% EPS growth year over year.

我們預計 25 財年非 GAAP 有效稅率將在 21% 至 23% 之間。我們預期非 GAAP 獲利成長 5% 至 7%。在 2024 財年稅收中立的基礎上，該範圍的中點反映出每股收益年增 10%。

Finally, we intend to continue to use at least 50% of our annual free cash flow towards share repurchases in FY25. I will now speak to our outlook for Q1 of FY25. We expect Q1 revenue in the range of $705 million to $725 million. We expect non-GAAP gross margin of approximately 83%.

最後，我們打算在 2025 財年繼續將至少 50% 的年度自由現金流量用於股票回購。我現在將談談我們對 2025 財年第一季的展望。我們預計第一季營收在 7.05 億美元至 7.25 億美元之間。我們預計非 GAAP 毛利率約為 83%。

We estimate Q1 non-GAAP operating expenses of $343 million to $355 million. We expect Q1 share-based compensation expense of approximately $55 million to $57 million. We anticipate Q1 non-GAAP EPS in a range of $3.29 to $3.41 per share.

我們預計第一季非 GAAP 營運費用為 3.43 億美元至 3.55 億美元。我們預計第一季的股權激勵費用約為 5,500 萬至 5,700 萬美元。我們預計第一季非 GAAP 每股收益為 3.29 美元至 3.41 美元。

With that, I'll pass the call back to Francois.

這樣，我會將電話轉回給弗朗索瓦。

Thank you, Cooper. Before we conclude, I will provide an update on our executive team. I am pleased to announce that Kunal Anand will lead our product organization as Chief Innovation Officer. After a thorough search that included interviews with leaders from across our industry, it was clear that Kunal had both the experience and perspective required for the role.

謝謝你，庫柏。在結束之前，我將介紹我們執行團隊的最新情況。我很高興地宣布 Kunal Anand 將擔任首席創新官，領導我們的產品組織。經過徹底的搜索，包括對整個行業領導者的採訪，很明顯，庫納爾擁有該職位所需的經驗和視角。

Through his prior experience, leading the technical and security teams at Imperva, Kunal brings deep domain expertise and technical knowledge across cloud, security, networking, SaaS and AI his entrepreneurial mindset will be a tremendous asset as we execute the next phase of our portfolio road map, and I am excited to work with him in his new role.

憑藉著先前在Imperva 領導技術和安全團隊的經驗，Kunal 帶來了跨雲端、安全性、網路、SaaS 和人工智慧的深厚領域專業知識和技術知識，他的創業思維將成為我們執行下一階段投資組合之路的巨大資產地圖，我很高興能在他的新角色中與他合作。

I will also take this opportunity to express my sincere and heartfelt thanks to Frank for his leadership during his time at F5. For the record, I want to share with you all that Frank informed me recently when I asked how I could have been a better bus, that his real name is Frank, not Front.

我也藉此機會對 Frank 在 F5 期間的領導者表示誠摯和衷心的感謝。作為記錄，我想與大家分享弗蘭克最近告訴我的一切，當我問我如何才能成為一輛更好的巴士時，他的真名是弗蘭克，而不是弗朗特。

In all seriousness, Front, you have been a true partner and friend, and I cannot thank you enough for the impact you have had on this team and our business. And Cooper, I am looking forward to working with you more closely in your new role as CFO.

說實話，Front，您一直是一位真正的合作夥伴和朋友，對於您對這個團隊和我們業務的影響，我非常感謝您。庫珀，我期待在擔任財務長的新職位上與您更密切合作。

As we enter FY25, we see a more stable environment overall. Importantly, customers no longer have architectural ambiguity. Most believe that hybrid multi-cloud architectures will be the norm for the foreseeable future, in part because they enable organizations to choose the best environment for each application.

隨著進入 2025 財年，我們看到整體環境更加穩定。重要的是，客戶不再有架構上的模糊性。大多數人認為，混合多雲架構將在可預見的未來成為常態，部分原因是它們使組織能夠為每個應用程式選擇最佳環境。

This is good news for F5 because it means customers must also select partners capable of taming the inherent complexities, risks and costs that come with the benefits of hybrid multi-cloud architectures. We have firmly entered the era of AI and hybrid multi-cloud, which will characterize the next decade of our industry.

這對 F5 來說是個好消息，因為這意味著客戶也必須選擇能夠克服混合多雲架構帶來的固有複雜性、風險和成本的合作夥伴。我們已經堅定地進入了人工智慧和混合多雲時代，這將是我們行業下一個十年的特徵。

F5 is emerging as an important player in this new era. We are developing robust SaaS capabilities and presence and establishing ourselves as an emerging leader in the cloud WAAP market. Our unique strength lies in our ability to secure any app anywhere.

F5 正成為這個新時代的重要參與者。我們正在開發強大的 SaaS 功能和影響力，並將自己打造成雲端 WAAP 市場的新興領導者。我們獨特的優勢在於我們能夠保護任何地方的任何應用程式。

F5 has an outsized impact on the world. This year alone, we worked with 2,000 partners across 138 countries to deliver extraordinary experiences for more than 20,000 F5 customers. Together with those customers, we secured, delivered and optimized millions of apps and APIs that power the world.

F5 對世界有著巨大的影響。光是今年，我們就與 138 個國家的 2,000 家合作夥伴合作，為 20,000 多名 F5 客戶提供非凡的體驗。我們與這些客戶一起保護、交付和優化了數百萬個為世界提供動力的應用程式和 API。

Our work allows billions of people to live their lives day in and day out. People across the globe can shop, bank, fly, drive and live more securely, thanks to F5. Last quarter alone, distributed cloud services blocked more than 2.3 billion attacks.

我們的工作讓數十億人日復一日地過著自己的生活。透過 F5，全球各地的人們可以更安全地購物、辦理銀行業務、飛行、駕駛和生活。光是上個季度，分散式雲端服務就阻止了超過 23 億次攻擊。

I offer my humble and deep thanks to our employees, partners, customers and shareholders. It is truly an honor and a privilege to lead a company that plays such an important part in building a better digital world.

我向我們的員工、合作夥伴、客戶和股東致以謙卑和深切的感謝。能夠領導一家在建立更美好的數位世界中發揮如此重要作用的公司確實是一種榮幸。

Operator, please open the call to questions.

接線員，請打開電話提問。

(Operator Instructions) Samik Chatterjee, JPMorgan.

（操作員指示）Samik Chatterjee，摩根大通。

Congrats on the strong results here. I guess I had a couple of questions on software. So maybe just to start off here, Francois, Frank, very strong results in software in the quarter. Just wondering if you can detail out for us a bit more in terms of the composition of that between did the outperformance really come from renewals?

在這裡恭喜您取得了優異的成績。我想我有幾個關於軟體的問題。所以也許只是從這裡開始，弗朗索瓦、弗蘭克，本季的軟體業績非常強勁。只是想知道您是否可以為我們詳細說明兩者之間的組成，優異的表現是否真的來自續約？

Or is it more true-ups? Where did you see the strength coming in from -- or anything that you can parse out in terms of what you're hearing from the enterprises in driving some of that upside that you saw in the quarter? And then I have a follow-up.

還是更真實？您從哪裡看到了這種力量，或者您可以根據您從企業那裡聽到的信息來解析出任何您在推動本季度看到的上漲方面的信息？然後我有一個後續行動。

Sure, Samik. Thanks so much. It's Frank. And let me start with that one and see if Cooper or Francois has anything to add. So in the quarter, as you know, when we talked about our updated guidance when we were sitting with you in July and what we expect to do for the quarter -- or for the full year would imply the specific number. We obviously outperformed that number, and it came from really two strong factors.

當然，薩米克。非常感謝。是弗蘭克。讓我從這個開始，看看庫柏或弗朗索瓦是否有什麼要補充的。因此，正如您所知，在本季度，當我們在 7 月份與您坐在一起討論更新後的指導意見以及我們預計本季度或全年要做的事情時，就會暗示具體的數字。我們的表現顯然超過了這個數字，這實際上來自兩個強大的因素。

One, the expansion that we saw within the existing renewal base of customers as they were coming up for their next generation of contracts. It was quite impressive across the board, and we had a few big ones within there.

第一，我們在現有客戶續約基礎上看到了擴張，因為他們即將簽訂下一代合約。整體而言，這令人印象深刻，其中有一些大的。

And the second was actually new business activity from projects that have been delayed once people have gotten through their architectural design, they were ready to move forward. on some of their software engagements. And that was a factor at the beginning of the year that we did not expect to necessarily see in FY24, which we did end up seeing in the back half, particularly in Q4.

第二個實際上是來自被推遲的項目的新業務活動，一旦人們完成了他們的建築設計，他們就準備好繼續前進。關於他們的一些軟體業務。這是今年年初的一個因素，我們預計在 2024 財年不一定會看到這一因素，但我們最終在下半年看到了這一因素，特別是在第四季度。

So both of those were really great to see and resulted in a strong upside in software for the quarter and, obviously, improved our outlook for FY25.

因此，這兩件事真的很值得一看，並導致本季軟體的強勁上漲，並且顯然改善了我們對 25 財年的前景。

Got it. And I'll add, this is Cooper. On the expansion revenue opportunity, so we've got really good visibility as to the consumption that our customers have within some of these multiyear contracts. And so that came through as expected. But what we also see was maybe a little bit better performance in terms of consuming new offerings when they did renew those agreements.

知道了。我要補充一點，這是庫柏。關於擴大收入的機會，我們對客戶在其中一些多年合約中的消費情況有了很好的了解。結果正如預期的那樣。但我們也看到，當他們續簽這些協議時，在消費新產品方面可能會有更好的表現。

And so there's two different forms of expansion that we see. And so the consumption expansion really landed in line with our expectations and then we saw some incremental opportunity as customers are consuming more of the portfolio in their second-generation multiyear subscriptions.

因此，我們看到了兩種不同形式的擴張。因此，消費擴張確實符合我們的預期，然後隨著客戶在第二代多年訂閱中消費更多的產品組合，我們看到了一些增量機會。

Got it. And a follow-up. Maybe this is more of a broader question, just given the guide that you outlined for software, where you're calling for a high single-digit growth after the strong growth you had in fiscal '24 here. I mean the product perception, I think, still remains that enterprise are pretty early in their AI adoption cycle.

知道了。以及後續行動。也許這是一個更廣泛的問題，只是考慮到您概述的軟體指南，在 24 財年的強勁增長之後，您呼籲實現高單位數增長。我的意思是，我認為，人們對產品的看法仍然是企業仍處於人工智慧採用週期的早期階段。

Why -- just I wanted to understand the thinking in terms of software growth derating a bit, particularly in terms of how to think about how much conservatism is in that number versus should we be really thinking of a deceleration this early in the cycle if you really levered to the enterprises and their investment cycle around AI?

為什麼——我只是想了解軟體成長減速的想法，特別是如何思考這個數字中有多少保守主義，而我們是否應該在周期的早期真正考慮減速，如果你真的能撬動企業及其圍繞人工智能的投資週期嗎？

Thank you, Samik, I'll take this one. Look, I'll come to AI in a moment, but the guidance we're giving here is really driven by the macro trend of enterprises adopting a hybrid and multi-cloud poster. And so if you pull way up, I mean, at the time where everybody thought that all applications will go into a single public cloud, we saw a number of companies optimized for a world where all apps would be in the cloud, and we're all apps would consume app security and delivering delivery services as fast.

謝謝你，Samik，我想要這個。看，我稍後會談到人工智慧，但我們在這裡給出的指導實際上是由企業採用混合和多雲海報的宏觀趨勢所驅動的。因此，如果你拉得很遠，我的意思是，在每個人都認為所有應用程式都將進入單一公有雲的時候，我們看到許多公司針對所有應用程式都將在雲端中的世界進行了最佳化，並且我們'所有應用程式都會消耗應用程式安全性並以同樣快的速度提供交付服務。

We are in time we did not optimize for that world. We optimize for a world that would be hybrid and multi-cloud. And today, that's what we're seeing.

我們及時沒有針對那個世界進行最佳化。我們針對混合和多雲的世界進行最佳化。今天，這就是我們所看到的。

We're seeing that more than 90% of our customers are in hybrid and multi-cloud environments. And that's generating a number of tailwinds that are serving the business that we have optimized for specifically we're seeing a lot of customers do automation on-prem to get the benefits of the cloud in their private cloud environment.

我們發現超過 90% 的客戶處於混合雲和多雲環境。這產生了許多順風車，為我們優化的業務提供服務，特別是我們看到許多客戶在本地進行自動化，以在其私有雲環境中獲得雲端的優勢。

We're seeing applications becoming increasingly distributed over multiple infrastructure environment. we're seeing a large proliferation of APIs that needs to be secured. We're seeing more need for security services for each application.

我們看到應用程式越來越分佈在多個基礎設施環境中。我們看到需要保護的 API 大量增加。我們發現每個應用程式對安全服務的需求越來越大。

And all of these aspects of implementing hybrid and multi-cloud architectures are benefiting F5. And that is why we're seeing outperformance in the consumption of existing software agreements as well as customers starting new software projects with us. It's also having a positive impact.

實施混合雲和多雲架構的所有這些方面都使 F5 受益。這就是為什麼我們看到現有軟體協議的使用以及客戶與我們一起啟動新軟體專案的表現出色。這也產生了正面的影響。

As you saw, we're saying that our hardware will actually grow next year. And this is also in part because customers are comfortable with the hybrid multi-cloud architectures. They're comfortable that they will be in their data centers for the foreseeable future. And so any hesitation that existed in the past around refreshing existing hardware estate, we have seen any of that hesitation fade away with customers having full confidence in our current architectures.

正如您所看到的，我們說明年我們的硬體實際上將會成長。這也部分是因為顧客對混合多雲架構感到滿意。他們對在可預見的未來都將在自己的資料中心內感到放心。因此，過去在更新現有硬體資產方面存在的任何猶豫，隨著客戶對我們目前的架構充滿信心，我們已經看到任何猶豫都消失了。

Any comments on why should there be a distribution, particularly with AI still being a major driver of investment for the enterprises?

對於為什麼要進行分配有何評論，特別是在人工智慧仍然是企業投資的主要驅動力的情況下？

So in terms of guidance for next year, so it's early in the year, and we'll see how the year plays out. But of course, we want to remain prudent with our guidance overall. AI, we are in the very early days of deployments of AI, but we're seeing opportunities for FI, both in hardware and in software. And the positive news on that is these opportunities are new insertion points for F5.

因此，就明年的指導而言，現在還處於年初，我們將看看今年的情況如何。但當然，我們希望對我們的整體指導保持謹慎。人工智慧，我們正處於人工智慧部署的早期階段，但我們在硬體和軟體方面都看到了人工智慧的機會。正面的消息是這些機會是 F5 的新插入點。

So if you step back, F5 over the last two decades, has really mastered the expertise of securing and delivering a critical network and application traffic across data centers and cloud. It turns out that, that expertise in managing, securing and optimizing critical application traffic is very much needed for AI workloads, where there is significant movement of data between the device and storage tiers or between storage steers and GPU clusters.

因此，如果您退一步看，F5 在過去二十年中確實掌握了跨資料中心和雲端保護和交付關鍵網路和應用程式流量的專業知識。事實證明，人工智慧工作負載非常需要管理、保護和優化關鍵應用程式流量方面的專業知識，因為在裝置和儲存層之間或儲存引導和 GPU 叢集之間存在大量資料移動。

And so we are finding insertion points for those early companies that are building AI factories. We are finding insertion points with our BIG-IP hardware platform fronting some of these storage tiers or sitting between storage steers and GPU clusters.

因此，我們正在為那些正在建造人工智慧工廠的早期公司尋找切入點。我們正在透過我們的 BIG-IP 硬體平台尋找插入點，該平台位於其中一些儲存層之前或位於儲存引導和 GPU 叢集之間。

It's early days in terms of the volume of yields because at the moment, there are very few companies doing that. But we will see how the other opportunity develops over time. And we are also seeing opportunities potentially in software inside of these GPU clusters.

就收益率而言，現在還處於早期階段，因為目前很少公司這樣做。但隨著時間的推移，我們將看到其他機會如何發展。我們也看到了這些 GPU 叢集內部軟體的潛在機會。

And the partnership we just announced with NVIDIA is a manifestation of that opportunity. of marrying our software with the world's most advanced semiconductor technology to create AI factories that scale better and more efficiently for customers. So we see opportunities in AI.

我們剛剛宣布與 NVIDIA 的合作關係就是這一機會的體現。將我們的軟體與世界上最先進的半導體技術結合，創建能夠為客戶更好、更有效率地擴展的人工智慧工廠。所以我們看到了人工智慧的機會。

That being said, we have not really baked very significant contribution from AI in our FY25 guidance because our current belief system is that these opportunities will develop over time, and it's more of a '26 and beyond where we would see meaningful revenue contribution from these opportunities.

話雖這麼說，我們並沒有在25 財年指導中真正考慮人工智慧的重大貢獻，因為我們目前的信念體係是，這些機會將隨著時間的推移而發展，而且更多的是26 年及以後，我們將看到這些機會帶來有意義的收入貢獻機會。

Meta Marshall, Morgan Stanley.

梅塔‧馬歇爾，摩根士丹利。

On systems revenue maybe being better than expected as we head into fiscal '25. Do you see that more as share gains or more of accelerated refresh on this part of your customers? And I guess just related to that as a follow-up customer, I would think that share gains come in a healthier spend environment where people are willing to entertain making more decisions about their enterprise IT.

當我們進入 25 財年時，系統收入可能會比預期好。您認為這更多的是份額成長還是這部分客戶的加速更新？我想，作為後續客戶，我認為份額收益來自於更健康的支出環境，在這種環境中，人們願意就企業 IT 做出更多決策。

And so just what are you seeing in terms of as your customers are talking about fiscal '25 -- or calendar year '25, just what are they thinking about in terms of sales cycles or spend cycles, are you seeing any improvement there?

那麼，當您的客戶談論 25 財年或 25 日曆年時，您看到了什麼，他們在銷售週期或支出週期方面想到了什麼，您是否看到了任何改進？

Yes, I'll start Meta, and this is Francois, if you want to follow up. I think the strength we're seeing on systems is both from competitive replaced opportunities. We had a really good success, especially in the latter half of FY24, displacing some of the competitor states and some of the customers that we're bringing on to F5.

是的，我將啟動 Meta，我是弗朗索瓦，如果你想跟進的話。我認為我們在系統上看到的優勢既來自於競爭性的替代機會。我們取得了非常好的成功，尤其是在 2024 財年下半年，取代了一些競爭對手的州以及我們為 F5 帶來的一些客戶。

And then we are also starting to see a more material tech refresh of our installed base with our customers. And this goes back to the long period we've had where a lot of our customers were sweating their infrastructure. We're starting to see our customers have a little bit better certainty around their budgets and they're starting to move forward now with reinvesting in their hardware structure.

然後我們也開始看到我們與客戶的安裝基礎進行了更多實質的技術更新。這可以追溯到我們長期以來的許多客戶都在為他們的基礎設施付出努力。我們開始看到我們的客戶對他們的預算有了更好的確定性，並且他們現在開始對硬體結構進行再投資。

And so that's a trend that we think will likely continue to play out over the next several quarters, and that's behind our mid-single-digit growth outlook for the hardware business.

因此，我們認為這一趨勢可能會在未來幾季繼續出現，這也是我們對硬體業務實現中個位數成長前景的原因。

I mean I'll just add that, yes, we do continue to gain share from the data we look at. We continue to gain share in the traditional ADC market we have been quite successful at taking out certain competitors where customers have not been satisfied with their either performance or commercial approach to the relationship. And so we've had gained shares on that.

我的意思是我只想補充一點，是的，我們確實繼續從我們查看的數據中獲得份額。我們繼續在傳統 ADC 市場上獲得份額，我們非常成功地淘汰了某些競爭對手，這些競爭對手的客戶對他們的績效或商業關係方式不滿意。因此我們已經獲得了這方面的份額。

But I think there is perhaps some more macro effect here that customers have become from what we can see quite comfortable with our hybrid multi-cloud architectures. And as a result, they're really comfortable with moving forward with refreshing their estate, and they're comfortable deploying the new hybrid multi-cloud projects that sometimes it's hardware and software combined across the estate of applications.

但我認為，這可能會產生一些更宏觀的影響，我們可以看到，客戶已經對我們的混合多雲架構感到非常滿意。因此，他們非常樂意繼續更新自己的資產，並且樂於部署新的混合多雲項目，有時它是跨應用程式資產組合的硬體和軟體。

Michael Ng, Goldman Sachs.

邁克爾吳，高盛。

I wanted to ask about the cadence of subscription revenue obviously, very strong in the quarter. As we head into, I guess, the first half of next year and the December quarter, it seems like there's an implied decline in subscription revenue sequentially.

我想問訂閱收入的節奏，顯然，本季非常強勁。我想，當我們進入明年上半年和 12 月季度時，訂閱收入似乎會持續下降。

I was just wondering if you could speak to some of the dynamics there, whether that was the outperformance of things like true forwards in the September quarter or the timing of term base. But any color about that and how that plays out through the rest of fiscal '25 would be very helpful.

我只是想知道您是否可以談談那裡的一些動態，無論是九月份季度的真正前鋒的表現還是學期基礎的時間。但任何關於這一點的色彩以及它在 25 財年剩餘時間內如何發揮作用都會非常有幫助。

Yes. Thanks, Michael. This is Cooper. Yes, it is really more about the timing of the renewal base. And the strength that we saw in Q4. So we had a really strong performance with expansion on that renewal base. But we had said all along last year that the renewal base that was coming up was more back-end loaded. And that's the same for FY25.

是的。謝謝，麥可。這是庫柏。是的，這確實更多的是關於更新基地的時間。以及我們在第四季看到的實力。因此，我們在更新基礎上進行了擴展，並取得了非常強勁的表現。但我們去年一直說過，即將到來的更新基地有更多的後端負載。 25 財年也是如此。

We have a sizable renewal base is larger in FY25 than it was in FY24. But the renewal base tends to be more weighted to the second half of the year. And so it's -- any implied deceleration on the software growth is really just more about the timing of when these renewals come up for negotiation.

我們 25 財年的續約基數比 2024 財年還要大。但續約基數往往更偏重於下半年。因此，軟體成長的任何隱含減速實際上更取決於這些續訂進行談判的時間。

And just as a reminder, on the term-based licenses, that revenue is recognized largely upfront under ASC 606. And so you do get a little bit of a variability on the revenue that's reported from those sales that we think broadly, it's a very strong opportunity for us in FY25.

提醒一下，在基於期限的許可中，收入很大程度上是根據ASC 606 預先確認的。變化。

Great. And just as a quick follow-up. You had an expansion of the renewal base in the September quarter that was better than expected. I guess, are you assuming a similar level of expansion of the renewals that come up in fiscal '25 or smaller or bigger?

偉大的。就像快速跟進。您在九月季度的續訂基礎有所擴大，好於預期。我想，您是否假設 25 財年或更小或更大的財政年度出現類似水準的續約擴張？

Yes. So we adjusted our assumptions a little bit on the renewals just take into account the continued strength we've had. I mean every year, that base gets bigger. And so we have to take that into account when we're setting our guidance, but we have been very consistent in terms of both renewing and driving expansion.

是的。因此，我們對續約的假設進行了一些調整，只是考慮到我們所擁有的持續實力。我的意思是，這個基礎每年都在變大。因此，我們在製定指導方針時必須考慮到這一點，但我們在更新和推動擴張方面一直非常一致。

So that is something that we're factoring in, in the growth outlook. And then from the new side of the software business, that also has increased. We're looking at the new software as being flattish year over year, but that's against an improved FY24 result from the new software projects for our customers.

所以這是我們在成長前景中考慮的因素。然後從軟體業務的新方面來看，這一數字也有所增加。我們認為新軟體的表現與去年同期持平，但這與我們為客戶提供的新軟體專案帶來的 2024 財年業績改善形成鮮明對比。

Amit Daryani, Evercore ISI.

阿米特·達裡亞尼 (Amit Daryani)，Evercore ISI。

I have two questions as well. I guess, maybe to stop it, Francois, can you just talk a little bit more about the BIG-IP NGINX for Kubernetees? You've talked about it a little bit already, but just talk about which customer base do you think this will resonate more with it?

我也有兩個問題。我想，也許為了阻止它，Francois，你能多談談適用於 Kubernetes 的 BIG-IP NGINX 嗎？您已經談過一些了，但只談談您認為這會與哪些客戶群產生更多共鳴？

Is it the hyperscalers that are deploying more of the NVIDIA AI solutions right now? Or do you think it's going to be more with the enterprises over time? Where do you think this product will gain more traction? And any way to think about how big this opportunity could be for F5 as you go forward?

目前正在部署更多 NVIDIA AI 解決方案的是超大規模企業嗎？或者您認為隨著時間的推移，企業的影響力會更大嗎？您認為該產品將在哪些方面獲得更多關注？能否想像一下，隨著你們的發展，這個機會對 F5 來說有多大？

Right. Okay. So let me start a little bit on that solution. So thing I do like for Kubernetes is really what we're doing here is taking our traffic management software, which we have refactored for Kubernetes environment, and we're marrying that with NVIDIA'S GPU to provide key benefits to customers building AI factories.

正確的。好的。那麼讓我開始介紹一下這個解決方案。因此，我對Kubernetes 真正感興趣的是，我們在這裡所做的就是採用流量管理軟體，我們已針對Kubernetes 環境重構了該軟體，並將其與NVIDIA 的GPU 結合起來，為構建AI 工廠的客戶提供關鍵優勢。

The number one benefit is really increasing utilization of GPUs in part because we do traffic management, and so we can get data to GPUs faster in part because we also enable this a single GPU cluster, to serve multiple AI workloads or AI models, what we call multi-tenancy in the industry.

第一個好處確實提高了GPU 的利用率，部分原因是我們進行流量管理，因此我們可以更快地將資料傳輸到GPU，部分原因是我們還啟用了單一GPU 集群，以服務多個AI 工作負載或AI 模型，我們業界稱之為多租戶。

And so who are the customers who would benefit from that? It would be, of course, all service providers that provide GPU as a shared infrastructure shared service to a number of customers. It would be enterprises that are building even their own AI factory, but want to maximize the utilization of GPUs and CPUs are expensive resources today.

那麼哪些客戶將從中受益呢？當然，所有服務提供者都將 GPU 作為共享基礎設施共享服務提供給眾多客戶。企業甚至會建造自己的人工智慧工廠，但希望最大限度地利用 GPU 和 CPU，而如今 GPU 和 CPU 都是昂貴的資源。

So it's going to be generally either enterprises or service providers that are building AI factories at significant scale. So that's really who we're targeting with this joint solution.

因此，大規模建造人工智慧工廠的通常是企業或服務提供者。所以這確實是我們這個聯合解決方案的目標對象。

Now I want to be clear that we are early days. We have a validated technical architecture with NVIDIA. We're starting to get interest from the folks we speak to who are building these factories and who see a significant opportunity to improve the efficiency and the utilization in their factory. But there's a number of questions around the go-to-market model that we have not yet answered.

現在我想澄清的是，我們還處於早期階段。我們與 NVIDIA 擁有經過驗證的技術架構。我們開始對那些正在建造這些工廠的人產生興趣，他們看到了提高工廠效率和利用率的重大機會。但圍繞上市模式還有許多問題我們尚未解答。

And so we also see that opportunity materializing more in FY26 and beyond. But that said, it could be a pretty significant opportunity for F5, assuming that the go-to-market model works and that we find a way to embed the software technology on a large number of NVIDIA DPUs over time.

因此，我們也看到這個機會在 2026 財年及以後更多地實現。但話雖如此，這對 F5 來說可能是一個相當重要的機會，假設上市模式有效，並且隨著時間的推移，我們找到了一種將軟體技術嵌入大量 NVIDIA DPU 上的方法。

Got it. That's really helpful. And then if I can just get a clarification on the software growth, right, which I think you folks have talked about high single digits in fiscal '25 is the right way to do it. Is it fair to think that software growth, just like we've talked about the top line will be a bit more muted, maybe low single in the front half and then ramps up in the back half.

知道了。這真的很有幫助。然後，如果我能澄清軟體成長情況，對吧，我認為你們已經討論過 25 財年的高個位數成長是正確的方法。公平地認為，就像我們談論的那樣，軟體成長將更加溫和，前半部分可能較低，然後後半部分會上升。

We going to understand this because you do have a very tough compare in the March quarter where you got some term license deals on the software side. So just any cadence on the first half versus back half on software and how to think about that would be helpful.

我們會理解這一點，因為您在三月的季度確實進行了非常艱難的比較，您在軟體方面獲得了一些定期許可交易。因此，軟體上半部與後半部的任何節奏以及如何思考這一點都會有所幫助。

Yes. So we provided some context on the overall revenue growth seasonality for the year where we said it would be low single-digit growth in the first half of the year in mid-single digits second half. And really, the leading contributor to our overall growth in software as you get an idea that the software growth will also probably be stronger in the second half.

是的。因此，我們提供了有關今年整體收入成長季節性的一些背景信息，我們表示上半年將實現低個位數成長，下半年將實現中個位數成長。事實上，這是我們軟體整體成長的主要貢獻者，因為你知道軟體成長在下半年也可能會更加強勁。

And again, that's tied to that larger renewal base that we have coming up in the second half of the year. And so we'll see how that plays out over the course of the year. But a lot of these opportunities, as we said, they can be pretty material in size. So in any given quarter, there's going to be some variability up or down in the growth rate.

再說一遍，這與我們今年下半年即將推出的更大的續訂基礎有關。因此，我們將看看這一年的情況如何。但正如我們所說，其中許多機會的規模都相當大。因此，在任何特定季度，成長率都會出現一些上升或下降的變化。

And so we wouldn't prescribe too much emphasis on an individual quarter's growth outlook, but probably the upper single-digit growth, we feel really good about for software. And again, as Francois noted earlier, we have pretty good line of sight to about two-thirds of the footprint of where that software is going to be coming from because it's business we've already attracted. So that gives us a lot of confidence in the outlook for the year.

因此，我們不會過度強調單一季度的成長前景，但可能會出現個位數的高成長，我們對軟體感到非常滿意。而且，正如弗朗索瓦之前指出的那樣，我們對該軟體的來源地大約三分之二的足跡有很好的視野，因為我們已經吸引了這些業務。這讓我們對今年的前景充滿信心。

James Fish, Piper Sandler.

詹姆斯·菲什，派珀·桑德勒。

Nice quarter. Just curious, as going back to Meta's prior question around systems. You guys have talked in the past about potential price increases? And clearly, your largest competitor in that space changed their packaging and pricing. So how are you guys thinking about a potential price increase for some of your legacy systems or the maintenance sell given that change?

不錯的季度。只是好奇，回到 Meta 之前關於系統的問題。你們過去談過潛在的價格上漲嗎？顯然，您在該領域最大的競爭對手改變了他們的包裝和定價。那麼，你們如何考慮一些遺留系統的潛在價格上漲或考慮到這項變更的維護銷售？

And is that included in the growth rate around mid-single digits for systems, especially when this is a segment that Francois back in, I think, '17 or '18, you talked about it as a mid-single-digit decline segment. So just additional color would be great, guys.

這是否包含在系統中個位數左右的增長率中，特別是當弗朗索瓦回到這個細分市場時，我想，'17或'18，你將其稱為中個位數下降細分市場。所以，夥計們，只要再加點顏色就太好了。

Yes, Jim. So yes, we -- our view of the segment, Jim, in general, has been that the unit demand in that segment over time would decline at the mid-single-digit decline rate. And even if you look at -- since we made those statements in 2017, '18 and you drive a trend line across the segment, I think you would see that roughly has materialized.

是的，吉姆。所以，是的，吉姆，我們對該細分市場的看法總體而言是，隨著時間的推移，該細分市場的單位需求將以中個位數的下降率下降。即使你看看——自從我們在 2017 年、18 年發表這些聲明以來，你在整個細分市場上推動了一條趨勢線，我想你也會看到這大致已經實現。

Now that could change over time. There are a couple of things that could change that. One is, again, this commitment we're seeing to hybrid multi-cloud architectures from customers and the strength of their on-prem deployments and plans, including some data center build-outs.

現在這可能會隨著時間的推移而改變。有幾件事可能會改變這一點。其一是我們看到客戶對混合多雲架構的承諾以及他們的本地部署和計劃的實力，包括一些資料中心的擴建。

And two is AI, where we are seeing some opportunities in hardware in front of the storage tiers. And you probably have seen that we announced recently also a partnership with NetApp to accelerate the joint deployment that we're doing in AI for these opportunities.

第二個是人工智慧，我們在儲存層之前的硬體中看到了一些機會。您可能已經看到，我們最近也宣布與 NetApp 建立合作夥伴關係，以加速我們在人工智慧領域的共同部署，以抓住這些機會。

So I think those are a couple of factors that may change our view on the segment. But for the time being, what we've said about this mid-single-digit decline is RQ. In terms of price increases, we have announced modest price increases for this year for the beginning of the year.

所以我認為這些因素可能會改變我們對該細分市場的看法。但目前，我們所說的中個位數下降是 RQ。在漲價方面，我們年初就宣布了今年的小幅漲價。

And we've had price increases in the past as a result of changes in supply chain and so we monitor both the competitive environment and the price performance value that we want to give to our customers, and we make adjustments based on that, and we will continue to do that in the future.

過去，由於供應鏈的變化，我們的價格上漲了，因此我們監控競爭環境和我們想要為客戶提供的性價比價值，並據此進行調整，我們今後還會繼續這樣做。

Got it. And just to clarify those price increases when we say beginning of the year, that's calendar year, those going into effect.

知道了。只是為了澄清這些價格上漲，當我們說年初時，即日曆年，這些價格上漲將生效。

You guys care to quantify how much that price increase is? And then Francois building off of what you just said as well as your AI commentary before in terms of those three buckets. Is there a way to think about when to expect each of those tailwinds to come in, if there's any difference on timing? Or if we should think about them all coming in together at the same time?

你們想量化一下價格漲了多少嗎？然後弗朗索瓦根據您剛才所說的話以及您之前關於這三個方面的人工智慧評論進行了闡述。有沒有辦法考慮這些順風車何時會出現（如果時間上有任何差異）？或者我們是否應該考慮它們同時出現？

So the price increase in hardware, Jim, is in the single-digit acetates. And as it relates to the AI opportunity in terms of quantifying things, Jim, the first opportunity that we see that is immediate is with big IT hardware sitting between an AI app in the storage tier or between the storage tier and the GPU cluster. And those are deployments that we're seeing right now.

因此，吉姆，硬體的價格上漲是個位數的醋酸酯。 Jim 表示，由於它與量化事物方面的 AI 機會相關，我們看到的第一個直接機會是位於儲存層中的 AI 應用程式之間或儲存層與 GPU 叢集之間的大型 IT 硬體。這些是我們現在看到的部署。

We have one already a handful of opportunities when we're doing that. Those opportunities are with large enterprises, building AI factories or service providers also building AI factories, and we've seen that both in the US and internationally.

當我們這樣做時，我們已經擁有了很多機會。這些機會來自大型企業，他們建造人工智慧工廠或服務提供者也建造人工智慧工廠，我們在美國和國際上都看到了這種情況。

We're not planning on that being a very significant contributor to revenue in 2025, but we're starting to see more deployment and we'll see how fast they scale. But that's the opportunity. That's the multimillion.

我們並不打算讓它成為 2025 年收入的一個非常重要的貢獻者，但我們開始看到更多的部署，並且我們將看到它們擴展的速度。但這就是機會。那就是數百萬。

The second opportunity then is in software, and that's where we're going into the GPU clusters. Our partnership with NVIDIA is about that, and it's about improving the efficiencies of the GPU clusters using F5 traffic management software. I think that opportunity from a timing perspective, is really 2026 and beyond because there's still a lot of go-to-market and commercial work to be done before we are ready to go into production with these solutions.

第二個機會是軟體領域，這就是我們要進入 GPU 叢集的地方。我們與 NVIDIA 的合作正是基於此，即使用 F5 流量管理軟體來提高 GPU 叢集的效率。我認為從時間角度來看，這個機會確實是在 2026 年及以後，因為在我們準備好將這些解決方案投入生產之前，仍有大量的上市和商業工作要做。

Simon Leopold, Raymond James.

西蒙·利奧波德，雷蒙德·詹姆斯。

First, I just want to see if I can clarify how you've updated the cadence forecast. On the last earnings call, you had indicated the first half of fiscal '25 would be relatively flat with strength in the second half of the year. Now you've given us this forecast for the first quarter that at the midpoint, it's about 3% year-over-year growth I think you're implying that the second quarter should be somewhat similar year-over-year growth.

首先，我只是想看看能否澄清一下您是如何更新步頻預測的。在上次財報電話會議上，您曾表示 25 財年上半年將相對持平，下半年將強勁。現在您已經向我們提供了第一季的預測，在中位數時，同比增長約為 3%，我認為您的意思是第二季度的同比增長應該有些相似。

And so you've essentially guided up from the prior quarter's flat first half rather than implying that Q2 should be down a lot to compensate for the 3% growth in the first half? And then I've got a quick follow-up if you can just clarify that guidance comment first.

因此，您基本上是在上一季上半年持平的基礎上進行了引導，而不是暗示第二季度應該大幅下降以彌補上半年 3% 的增長？如果您能先澄清該指導意見，我會進行快速跟進。

Yes. Thanks, Simon. So yes, we did update our expectation for the first half of the year to be low single-digit growth. And so you've got the guidance for Q1, and so we'll leave it to you to make an assumption around Q2. But probably what you're seeing is some of the strength that we're seeing on the expansion from the renewals.

是的。謝謝，西蒙。所以，是的，我們確實將今年上半年的預期更新為低個位數成長。現在您已經獲得了第一季的指導，因此我們將讓您對第二季做出假設。但您可能看到的是我們在續約擴張中看到的一些力量。

It's a little bit of the factor on the software side and then the strength we're seeing in systems where -- we had said we expected it to grow for the year, but we haven't put an expectation against that growth rate, and now we're seeing mid-single digits. And you can assume we'll start to see some of that benefit sequentially in the first half of the year.

這是軟體方面的一點因素，然後是我們在系統中看到的實力——我們曾說過我們預計今年會成長，但我們沒有對這一增長率做出預期，並且現在我們看到的是中個位數。您可以假設我們將在今年上半年開始陸續看到其中的一些好處。

Great. And then I just wanted to see if we could talk a little bit about how the verticals performed relative to your expectations in that in the past, you've had meaningful seasonal benefit from the US Federal, which was on a dollar basis, decent and certainly a nice percentage, but other public sector was basically flattish sequentially this quarter. Just wondering, it sounds to me like your enterprise was the positive surprise that offset others. But how did your verticals perform relative to expectations that you guided?

偉大的。然後我只是想看看我們是否可以談談垂直行業相對於您的預期的表現如何，在過去，您從美聯儲那裡獲得了有意義的季節性收益，這是基於美元的，體面且當然，這是一個不錯的百分比，但本季其他公共部門的情況基本上持平。只是想知道，在我看來，你們的企業是抵銷其他企業的正面驚喜。但是，相對於您指導的預期，您的垂直產業表現如何？

Sure, Simon, it's Frank. Let me take that one. So you're absolutely right. The enterprise was the strong sector in the quarter and was above our expectations, and that's what led to the outperformance US Fed as a percentage was maybe not criticized, but when you map out the dollars, there was some the expectations that we had. They largely lived up to.

當然，西蒙，我是法蘭克。讓我拿走那個。所以你是完全正確的。企業是本季表現強勁的行業，超出了我們的預期，這就是導緻聯準會表現優異的原因，其百分比可能沒有受到批評，但當你繪製美元圖時，我們有一些預期。他們基本上沒有辜負。

And then service provider, as we said all year, as a sector has been a little weaker on the demand side, we've had a few specific service providers where we've had a lot of success with, but as a broad industry it has not come back. There still serve a lot of constraint on demand there. So this largely performed as we expected with the exception of enterprise, which came in stronger than we expected at the beginning of the quarter.

然後是服務提供者，正如我們全年所說，由於一個行業的需求方面有點疲軟，我們有一些特定的服務提供者，我們在這些服務提供者方面取得了很大的成功，但作為一個廣泛的業，它還沒回來。那裡的需求仍然存在許多限制。因此，除了企業之外，這基本上符合我們的預期，企業的表現強於我們在本季初的預期。

Sebastien Naji, William Blair.

塞巴斯蒂安·納吉，威廉·布萊爾。

Two quick ones here. Just the first one, can you give us a sense for how much of your growth each quarter is coming from new customers? Just one helpful to get your view on how much growth in 2024 came from competitive share gains? And then how much customers are expected to contribute to growth in fiscal year 2025.

這裡有兩個快速的。第一個，您能否讓我們了解您每季的成長有多少來自新客戶？能否幫助您了解 2024 年有多少成長來自競爭性份額成長？然後預計客戶將為 2025 財年的成長做出多少貢獻。

And then my second question, just so it's out there is around the new BlueField NVIDIA announcement. What are you serving as an alternative to here? Are you replacing a native NVIDIA load balancer? And if so, what is the risk for them to build a more competitive offering and drive that higher utilization internally with their own solution?

我的第二個問題是關於 NVIDIA 新的 BlueField 公告。除了這裡，你還提供什麼替代方案？您要更換原生 NVIDIA 負載平衡器嗎？如果是這樣，他們建立更具競爭力的產品並透過自己的解決方案在內部提高利用率的風險是什麼？

Thank you, Sebastian. Let me start with the first part -- on the first part of your question new customers. Thank you. So Sebastien, we win, of course, we win a number of new customers every single quarter with every part of our portfolio with BIG-IP, with NGINX and with distributed cloud services. In fact, we saw, for example, the distributed cloud services last year at this time, we had about 500 customers.

謝謝你，賽巴斯蒂安。讓我從第一部分開始——關於你的新客戶問題的第一部分。謝謝。所以 Sebastien，我們贏了，當然，我們每個季度都透過 BIG-IP、NGINX 和分散式雲端服務的產品組合的每個部分贏得了許多新客戶。其實我們看到，比如說去年這個時候的分散式雲端服務，我們大概有500個客戶。

Now we have over 800 customers with distributed cloud services. So we have seen a lot of traction with distributed cloud with new customers, customers that have never purchased anything from F5. We also with a number of new customers in competitive takeout opportunities with our ADC solutions.

現在我們有超過800家客戶提供分散式雲端服務。因此，我們看到分散式雲端對新客戶（從未從 F5 購買過任何產品的客戶）有很大的吸引力。我們也透過我們的 ADC 解決方案為許多新客戶帶來了競爭性的外送機會。

However, the majority of our growth comes from existing customers, and that was true in '24, and it will be true also in 2025. And it comes in the form of expansion in existing agreements that we have signed with our customers, and it comes in the form of cross-selling multiple product families into existing customers.

然而，我們的大部分成長來自現有客戶，24 年是這樣，2025 年也是如此。形式出現。

And the trends we're seeing with customers deploying hybrid multi-cloud architectures, we're seeing more opportunity for us to go into existing customers who have purchased multiple point solutions over time. and consolidate these point solutions on to F5 as a platform today because we have built a single software stack that includes all the security and delivery needs that large enterprise customers need.

我們看到客戶部署混合多雲架構的趨勢，我們看到隨著時間的推移，我們有更多的機會進入購買多點解決方案的現有客戶。並將這些單點解決方案整合到 F5 作為一個平台，因為我們建立了一個單一軟體堆疊，其中包含大型企業客戶所需的所有安全和交付需求。

So one of the ways that we go to existing customers is consolidating functions and application services onto a site. As it relates to the second question on the Bluefield with NVIDIA. Look, there will be -- our view of this is we provide a very compelling way of addressing the issue of GPU utilization in GPU cluster. It's an issue for the whole industry.

因此，我們吸引現有客戶的方法之一是將功能和應用程式服務整合到網站上。因為它涉及 NVIDIA 的 Bluefield 的第二個問題。看，我們的觀點是，我們提供了一種非常引人注目的方法來解決 GPU 叢集中的 GPU 利用率問題。這是整個產業的問題。

GPUs are expensive and gas resources and the expertise in Layer 4-7, traffic management and security that F5 and that is factored for Kubernetes environment is unique. Nobody else in the industry has that expertise, nobody else in our industry as those capabilities. And NVIDIA, of course, recognizes that, which is why -- we have spent a lot of time with them building this technical solution together.

GPU 非常昂貴，gas 資源也很昂貴，而且 F5 以及為 Kubernetes 環境考慮的第 4-7 層、流量管理和安全方面的專業知識是獨一無二的。業內沒有其他人擁有這種專業知識，我們行業中沒有其他人擁有這些能力。當然，NVIDIA 也意識到這一點，這就是為什麼我們花了很多時間與他們一起建立這個技術解決方案。

That being said, of course, I'm sure that others in the industry will look to address this issue over time. And I'm sure that it will be -- there won't be competition. It will be a solution that is conducted over time. But we think we are early in the market. We think we have a solution that is compelling.

當然，話雖如此，我相信隨著時間的推移，業內其他人也會尋求解決這個問題。我確信，不會有競爭。這將是一個隨著時間的推移而實施的解決方案。但我們認為我們處於市場早期。我們認為我們有一個引人注目的解決方案。

And we know that the two decades of expertise that we have a mass in high-performance traffic management and security directly applies to the AI workloads and that no one brings that expertise to the table today or, frankly, in the foreseeable future. So we are pretty confident about the differentiation in the technical solution. The work that is ahead of us is figuring out what are the go-to-market and commercial models that will work for customers in the field.

我們知道，我們在高效能流量管理和安全方面擁有的二十年的專業知識直接適用於人工智慧工作負載，但目前沒有人將這些專業知識帶到桌面上，坦白說，在可預見的未來。所以我們對技術解決方案的差異化非常有信心。我們面臨的工作是弄清楚什麼是適合該領域客戶的上市和商業模式。

Matt Dezort, Needham.

馬特·德佐特，李約瑟。

Great. Congrats on the great results, guys. On the go-to-market, I guess, just quickly, as you turn the page to fiscal '25, any changes in sales comp incentives especially as you start to more cross-sell NGINX One? And any changes to the partner program as you think about fiscal '25?

偉大的。恭喜你們取得如此好的成績。我想，在進入市場方面，當您翻到 25 財年時，銷售補償激勵措施是否會發生任何變化，特別是當您開始更多地交叉銷售 NGINX One 時？當您考慮 25 財年時，合作夥伴計畫有何變化？

On the partner program, so we have a pretty strong program. I mentioned earlier that we work with 2,000 partners across the globe that are all involved in our Unity program. And frankly, I have been very pleased with the way our partners have embraced the growing portfolio at F5 and have contributed to wins with distributed cloud with NGINX and of course, with our BIG-IP (inaudible)

在合作夥伴計劃上，我們有一個非常強大的計劃。我之前提到，我們與全球 2,000 個合作夥伴合作，他們都參與了我們的 Unity 計畫。坦白說，我對我們的合作夥伴接受 F5 不斷增長的產品組合的方式感到非常滿意，並通過 NGINX，當然還有我們的 BIG-IP（聽不清）為分佈式雲的勝利做出了貢獻

This year, in terms of incentives for our sales force, of course, we're going to continue to win in hybrid multi-cloud architecture and incent our teams to cross-sell the portfolio of F5. We have a number of customers, it's a diminishing number, but a number of customers that today have only one product family for F5, and we think a big opportunity for F5 is to cross-sell our second or third product family into these customers.

今年，在對我們銷售人員的激勵方面，當然，我們將繼續在混合多雲架構方面獲勝，並激勵我們的團隊交叉銷售 F5 產品組合。我們有很多客戶，雖然數量正在減少，但許多客戶現在只有一個 F5 產品系列，我們認為 F5 的一個很大機會是將我們的第二或第三個產品系列交叉銷售給這些客戶。

And our incentives to our sales team increasingly go to that cross-selling the portfolio and of course, we have been working hard with our teams in research and development, in building the technical synergies across the portfolio that make it easier for the sales teams to cross-sell and make it easier for our customers to consume multiple product families from F because they see tremendous value from doing so and doing so across all their application infrastructure environment.

我們對銷售團隊的激勵越來越多地轉向交叉銷售產品組合，當然，我們一直在與我們的團隊一起努力研發，在整個產品組合中建立技術協同效應，使銷售團隊更容易交叉銷售並使我們的客戶更容易使用F 的多個產品系列，因為他們看到了這樣做以及在所有應用程式基礎設施環境中這樣做的巨大價值。

All right. Thank you. This concludes our call today. You may now disconnect. Thank you for your participation. Goodbye.

好的。謝謝。我們今天的電話會議到此結束。您現在可以斷開連線。感謝您的參與。再見。