F5 Launches Industry’s First Integrated Application Delivery and Security Platform to Enable Hybrid Multi-Cloud Infrastructure in the AI ​​Era

F5 recently announced the launch of the F5 Application Delivery and Security Platform at the AppWorld conference. The platform is the industry's first application delivery controller (ADC) solution that deeply integrates high-performance load balancing, traffic management, and advanced application and API security capabilities into a single platform. With this new platform, F5 implements the vision of "ADC 3.0 in the AI ​​era" and delivers on the promise of the next-generation ADC - ADC 3.0 , helping enterprises cope with the stringent requirements of modern applications and AI-driven applications.

“AI is accelerating innovation, but it is also driving up costs, increasing architectural complexity, and bringing increasing cybersecurity risks, posing serious challenges to IT and security teams,” said François Locoh-Donou, president and CEO of F5. “F5 is uniquely positioned to address the challenges of hybrid multi-cloud architectures in the AI ​​era, and our newly released F5 Application Delivery and Security Platform will be able to bring about a leap forward for enterprises, help reduce architectural complexity, and fully unleash the potential of AI.”

F5's upcoming "State of Application Strategy 2025" report shows that 96% of enterprises are deploying AI models. F5 further predicts that 80% of applications will be AI-enabled in the next three years. However, despite the full arrival of AI, most enterprises are not yet ready to cope with the challenges of AI applications in terms of massive data, complex traffic patterns, and new security threats.

The new F5 application delivery and security platform is designed to address these challenges and will provide enterprises with the most comprehensive ADC solution in hybrid multi-cloud environments, delivering the following core values:

Integrated application delivery and security: Deeply integrate the delivery and security of each application into a single platform to simplify management for IT and security teams.

Flexible deployment and compatibility with multiple environments: Supports deployment in any form and location, achieving seamless operation across multiple IT environments.

Single policy and unified management: Reduce complexity and improve operational efficiency by implementing a single policy and unified management across all deployment environments .

In-depth analysis and precise insights: Provide accurate and executable data analysis to optimize application performance and enhance security protection capabilities for complex applications .

Programmable data plane: supports automated deployment and customization, helping enterprises to respond flexibly and efficiently to changes in business needs.

Full lifecycle automation: allows teams to get rid of tedious operation and maintenance work and focus on business innovation.

The platform uses an API-driven architecture to ensure policy consistency for all applications in various environments and different deployment forms. The new F5 application delivery and security platform has been built after years of investment and innovation. It can run seamlessly on high-performance hardware in local data centers, next-generation software in virtualized and hybrid environments, and SaaS solutions in cloud-native environments, achieving efficient operation and security protection across environments.

The new F5 application delivery and security platform deeply integrates the current fragmented single solution to fully meet key needs such as high-performance load balancing, multi-cloud network connectivity, comprehensive web application and API security protection, and AI gateway capabilities.

“AI is driving innovation, but it is also bringing unprecedented complexity and risk to enterprises,” said Christopher Rodriguez, research director of IDC’s Security and Trust team . “In this rapidly changing digital landscape, the deep integration of application delivery and application security capabilities will be key for enterprises to maintain a competitive advantage.”

F5 Releases New Platform Solutions and Innovative Products

In addition, F5 has released a number of new solutions and key capabilities to continue to promote technological innovation in F5's application delivery and security platforms. These solutions will allow customers to fully leverage the power of AI to reduce complexity, simplify operations, and comprehensively strengthen application security protection. These include:

F5 AI Gateway: F5 AI Gateway is now generally available, helping enterprises to efficiently integrate applications, APIs, and large language models (LLMs) to accelerate the widespread deployment of AI technologies . As a powerful containerized solution, AI Gateway can achieve performance optimization, improve observability, and strengthen security protection, thereby effectively reducing costs. Its excellent data processing capabilities and user experience provide an efficient path for operations and security teams to seamlessly connect AI services.

NGINX One AI Assistant: Following the launch of the distributed cloud service AI assistant last year, F5 has officially expanded this capability to NGINX One. The tool is powered by the F5 AI Data Fabric and can serve as an intelligent assistant for NetOps, SecOps, DevOps, and platform operation and maintenance teams to help alleviate operation and maintenance pressure. The NGINX One AI Assistant uses a natural language interactive interface to help teams efficiently configure and optimize application delivery, thereby improving operation and maintenance efficiency and return on investment ( ROI). In addition, the NGINX One AI Assistant can warn of security threats and proactively identify anomalies, helping teams respond in a timely manner before problems affect production, ensuring efficient and stable operation of the business.

BIG-IP AI Assistant and iRules Code Generation and Parsing: Later this year, F5 will launch the BIG-IP AI Assistant, which will enable a higher level of automation and intelligence for iRules. The assistant can automatically generate, maintain, and optimize iRules, significantly reducing the time and resources that enterprises spend on traffic management and secure application delivery. With AI technology, the system can automatically generate optimized and validated iRules to strictly follow best practices. This approach not only improves accuracy, but also effectively reduces errors, ensuring that enterprises have a stable and consistent application delivery experience.

·F5 VELOS CX1610 and BX520 chassis and blades: F5 has introduced new high-performance products in the VELOS product line, providing service providers and large enterprises with a unified and customizable solution to optimize data-intensive workloads for AI and other modern applications. The new VELOS CX1610 chassis and BX520 400 Gbps high-performance blades can scale up to multi-terabyte throughput, meet the highest performance NEBS certification standards, and support the most demanding 5G fixed wireless access (FWA) services. The VELOS product line features optimized packet routing, refined security policies, load balancing, and ultra-low latency to meet the core requirements of AI solutions for high-speed data processing and real-time computing.