F5, Inc.

Good afternoon and welcome to the F5 Network's third quarter fiscal 2020 financial results conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question during the session, you'll need to press star one on your telephone. If you require any further assistance, please press star zero. Also, today's conference is being recorded. If anyone has any objections, Please disconnect at this time. I'll now turn the call over to Ms. Suzanne DuLong. Ma'am, you may begin.

Hello and welcome. I'm Suzanne DuLong, F5's Vice President of Investor Relations. Francois Locoh-Donou, F5's President and CEO, and Frank Peltzer, F5's Executive Vice President and CFO, will be making prepared remarks on today's call. Other members of the F5 executive team are also on hand to answer questions during the Q&A session. A copy of today's press release is available on our website at F5.com, or an archived version of today's call will be available through October 25, 2020. Today's live discussion is supported by visuals, which are viewable on the webcast and will be posted to our IR site at the conclusion of today's discussion. The replay of today's call will be available through midnight Pacific time, July 28th, by dialing 800-585-8367 or 416-621-4642. Use meeting ID 816-6352. For additional information or follow-up questions, please reach out to me directly at s.dulong at 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. Factors that may affect our results are summarized in the press release announcing our financial results and described in detail in our SEC filings. Please note that F5 has no duty to update any information presented in this call. With that, I'll turn the call over to Francois.

Thank you, Suzanne, and good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for joining us today. I will talk briefly to our business drivers before handing over to Franck to review the quarter's results in detail. Despite micro uncertainty, we delivered strong third quarter results. As a company, we continue to take a human-first approach. This means working to support our customers and each other as we cope with the ongoing pandemic and the resulting economic upheaval. It also means supporting each other through the social unrest and protest over the inequitable treatment of Black members of our communities. At F5, our commitment to the fight against racism is a foundational part of our culture. We consider diversity and inclusion part of being an F5er. As a company, our exec team, in collaboration with our F5 Appreciates Blackness, or FAB, Employee Inclusion Group, and our diversity and inclusion team are taking several steps to fight bias. This includes continuing our mandatory unconscious bias training for all employees. but no amount of policies and programs will achieve change if we do not make it personal. Everyday actions are what will truly make F5 a more diverse and inclusive company. I have pledged to all our employees, as has every member of the F5 exec team, that we will be accountable in our words and in our actions. As part of our F5 global good efforts, We have previously committed to support STEM education grants supporting women of color and underrepresented youth. In Q3, our FAB employee inclusion group went a step further, creating a fund and identifying partners to provide a resource for employees eager to support nonprofits working to advance basic human rights for people of color in the U.S. Over $124,000 was raised in just one month by F5ers, including the company Match. We firmly believe that our commitment to our human-first approach makes what we do as a business possible. This quarter, despite a multitude of challenges globally, our team outperformed our non-GAAP revenue and earnings guidance. Continued strong customer demand for software subscriptions and security use cases drove 4% total revenue growth and fueled our 43% software growth. Our systems business was down 12% while our services business grew 5%. In the current environment, our incumbency is a significant advantage. We are benefiting as customers accelerate their digital transformation and turn to operationalized solutions to meet both immediate and long-term business needs. After Franck reviews the quarter's financial results and our Q4 outlook, I will talk to our business trends and customer highlights from the quarter. I will also take time today to introduce our vision for the future of applications.