F5's 2022 State of Application Strategy Report shows that edge deployment and load security have become the focus in the Asia-Pacific region

Digital transformation is in full swing, and technology is developing at a rapid pace. However, as digital transformation continues to advance, applications, integrations, and environments are growing explosively, and the resulting complexity is becoming increasingly difficult to manage. Recently, F5 released its annual survey report for IT decision makers, "2022 Application Strategy Status Report," which revealed several cutting-edge trends in application security and delivery, and interpreted the challenges faced by enterprises and the technologies they are concerned about.

The most exciting technology trends in APAC in 2022

Globally, the deep integration of IT and operational technology (OT) is the technology trend that respondents are most looking forward to. This result is not surprising, as the integration of IT and OT can bring many benefits, such as reducing operating costs, enhancing security coordination, and improving operational efficiency.

In addition, respondents in the Asia-Pacific region chose security-related technologies as the "most exciting technology". The survey results show that mainland China and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of China have shown a higher interest in Web Application and API Protection (WAAP).

After the outbreak, in order to reduce complexity, 90% of companies have been actively adjusting their security protection, improving security awareness through training, and exploring other solutions and methods. For example, last year, 48% of companies paid more attention to vulnerability management and automation. Other key strategies include adopting cloud security protection, strengthening employee training, and integrating security vendors. In the future, most companies will need to use a combination of the above strategies to effectively manage security vulnerability risks.

Edge application security and delivery technologies gain attention

As more organizations choose not to host applications on-premises, it’s critical to understand where the technology that powers applications is deployed. To better understand this, we asked respondents where they host application services that are critical to their IT and digital platforms.

Globally, more than four-fifths of respondents (84%) plan to deploy workloads to the edge to improve employee and customer experience. Looking at the results in different regions, we found that Australia and New Zealand and India, as pioneers in the Asia-Pacific region, are leading the trend of migrating workloads from public clouds to the emerging edge. They are the two regions with the highest level of edge deployment.

Compared with last year's survey results, edge deployment in the Asia-Pacific region is showing an overall growth trend. The growth in regions such as mainland China, Hong Kong, China, and Taiwan is considerable. This shows that the deployment of application-enabling technologies is also moving to the edge.

Not surprisingly, the consensus among edge deployments is that they want their applications to be secure, fast, and always available. Security services such as DDoS and API gateways provide the best performance at or near the edge, preventing attacks from affecting the entire network. Similarly, identity-based access control is likely to be most effective when deployed as close to users as possible—whether those users are using mobile devices or microservices.

We are seeing application security and delivery technologies increasingly deployed in locations separate from the applications they serve, and these application support services (ranging from DDoS protection to access management to fraud prevention technologies) increasingly appearing in whatever location is best suited for the specific context and function they serve. 92% of enterprises deploy applications on-premises, but only 53% host application security and delivery technologies there. Meanwhile, nearly 52% deploy supporting technologies in the public cloud or at the edge. This separation of applications and their supporting services is a direct result of the widespread adoption of cloud technologies, the emergence of edge technologies, the resulting distributed nature of applications, and the pros and cons of hybrid deployments of various security and delivery technologies.

Identity and access management technologies are most popular

Of the many application security and delivery technologies available, identity and access management technologies are now the most common, deployed by 96% of enterprises. This change is surprising because previously the first choice for enterprises has been availability technologies such as load balancing or more traditional security technologies such as SSL VPNs and firewalls.

Today’s buzz around identity and access management technologies is partly a reflection of the adoption of zero-trust security and the surge in remote work over the past two years, but mostly due to the explosion in the number of microservices, scripts, sensors, workloads, and even refrigerators and lights that can now access applications. In the context of applications and the technologies that support them, the definition of “user” has expanded far beyond the concept of someone who uses a device (even a mobile device). As a result, most, if not all, security solutions are moving toward identity-based management to securely authorize users (who are less likely to be employees and more likely to be APIs, services, or machines).

Traditional security services as a whole are the second most commonly deployed technology after identity services, with availability technologies ranking third. 90% of enterprises have deployed the above three services, and another 85% have deployed application delivery technologies to improve performance.

Enterprises need to strike a balance between performance and security

In the area of ​​security, this year's survey results bring some good news. First, there is a high degree of agreement between IT and business leaders on the importance of protecting the overall business and infrastructure and applications. Second, performance remains important, with more than three-quarters of respondents admitting that if they had a choice, they would be willing to turn off security measures to improve performance. Even if the performance improvement is less than 50%, half of the respondents would do so.

This desire for performance gains over security protection reflects a growing recognition that perfect threat mitigation does not exist, or that even if it does, the cost in terms of operational expenses, user dissatisfaction, or missed opportunities is beyond the enterprise's ability to bear. And running a secure digital business requires managing a range of risks in line with other practical goals. This means that enterprises need to balance acceptable performance, customer experience, and cost with acceptable protection and security compliance.

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Final Thoughts

In addition to the 2022 Application Strategy Status Report, the F5 Asia Pacific Research Team has prepared a separate report on multi-cloud trends in the Asia Pacific region, which explores the progress of multi-cloud deployment and the challenges of connecting, running, and protecting workloads in multiple clouds. Combining the findings of the two reports, we can draw a conclusion: the demand for multi-cloud and edge deployment stems from the accelerating digital transformation process and the strong demand of enterprises to accelerate business development.

Finally, we are pleased to see that more and more companies in the Asia Pacific region are making positive progress on the road to digital transformation. At the same time, we also encourage companies to prioritize security, visibility and control when undergoing digital transformation.

For more global survey results and other key insights, read the following technical blogs:

2022 Application Strategy Status Report: Modernizing with Intelligent Operations

The most exciting technology development in 2022: The convergence of IT and operational technology (OT)

Legal functions have become the focus of corporate digital transformation in 2022

About F5

F5 (NASDAQ: FFIV) is a multi-cloud application security and application delivery service technology leader that provides differentiated, high-performance, and secure digital experiences for customers including enterprises, service providers, governments, and consumer brands. For more information, please visit f5.com. You can also follow @F5 China official Weibo on Weibo, or visit our Chinese website at www.f5.cn to learn more about F5, its partners, and technology.

F5 is a trademark or service mark of F5, Inc. in the U.S. and other countries. All other product and company names mentioned herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.

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