F5 Networks postpones London partner event over coronavirus fears

Security vendor cites 'travel and safety concerns' for postponement of its Partner Forum in London

F5 Networks has cited concerns over travel and safety in the midst of the coronavirus outbreak as the reason for postponing its UK and Ireland Partner Forum.

In a statement to CRN, Neill Burton, director of channel sales for the UK&I, said that the event - which was due to be held today - will be moved to a yet-to-be-decided new date.

"Due to escalating travel and safety concerns related to the global COVID-19 (coronavirus) outbreak, we cancelled our F5 Partner Forum on Tuesday 3 March 2020 in London," he said.

"While we are disappointed to miss sharing news and ideas with partners from across the UK and Ireland in person, we've made this decision out of an abundance of caution for our partners, employees, and distributors."

The channel boss added that today would have been the "perfect time" for the event after its recent acquisition of Shape and its new partner programme.

"With recent acquisitions, a new partner program (Unity+) and a growing appreciation of our position in the security market, this would have been a perfect time to host the forum," he continued.

"However, safety is currently our main concern. We will continue our dialogue with partners and look at hosting our Partner Forum in the coming months. We will share a new date as soon as possible. "

The vendor has cancelled its Agility 2020 customer and partner event in Orlando, which was due to run from 16 to 19 March, though it is putting plans in place to make it a "virtual experience".

"We are rapidly developing an alternative to Agility as a virtual experience, including delivering valuable F5 Labs certification and keynote content to our customers and partners," it added.

F5 is not the only vendor planning on replacing in-person conferences with virtual alternatives, as Google Cloud is also "reimaging" its flagship Next event as a ‘digital'-only event.

Google Cloud Next was due to run from 6 April to 8 April in San Francisco but has been changed to a virtual affair out of concern for attendees.

"The health and wellbeing of Google Cloud customers, partners, employees and the overall community is our top priority," Google said in a statement.

"Due to the growing concern around the coronavirus and in alignment with the best practices laid out by the CDC, WHO and other relevant entities, Google Cloud has decided to re-imagine Google Cloud Next '20, which will still take place from 6 to 8 April.

"Innovation is in Google's DNA and we are leveraging this strength to bring you an immersive and inspiring event this year without the risk of travel."