F5 Redefines ADC for the AI Era

Rhea-AI Summary

F5 (NASDAQ: FFIV) has announced its vision for transforming Application Delivery Controllers (ADCs) to meet modern and AI-powered application demands. The company introduced ADC 3.0, a next-generation platform that combines high-performance application delivery with advanced security capabilities.

According to F5's State of Application Strategy Report, 75% of enterprises are already deploying AI apps. To address the challenges of securing and delivering AI applications, F5 has introduced a new AI reference architecture organizing AI/ML workflows into seven core building blocks. The company has also established strategic partnerships with companies like NVIDIA, Intel, NetApp, and MinIO to enhance AI workload capabilities.

The new ADC approach aims to support hybrid and multicloud infrastructures while addressing critical needs such as load balancing, web app and API security, multicloud networking, and AI gateway capabilities. This transformation is designed to help enterprises manage complex distributed systems and protect against emerging AI-focused cybersecurity threats.

Positive

• Introduction of next-generation ADC 3.0 platform addressing AI and modern application demands
• Strategic partnerships with major tech companies (NVIDIA, Intel, NetApp) for AI capabilities
• New AI reference architecture to help enterprises streamline AI/ML deployments
• 75% market penetration in enterprise AI app deployment

Negative

• None.

Insights

Technology Strategy Analyst

F5's strategic transformation of its ADC portfolio represents a significant market opportunity in the rapidly evolving AI infrastructure space. The announcement of ADC 3.0 positions F5 to capture a substantial share of the emerging AI-driven application delivery market, where traditional solutions are becoming obsolete.

The company's approach is particularly noteworthy for three reasons:

• Strategic Partnerships: Collaborations with NVIDIA (using BlueField-3 DPUs), Intel and NetApp create a robust ecosystem that addresses compute, storage and security challenges in AI deployments. These partnerships significantly enhance F5's competitive moat and create multiple revenue streams.
• Market Timing: With 75% of enterprises already deploying AI applications, F5's platform transformation aligns perfectly with market demands, potentially accelerating adoption and revenue growth.
• Technical Innovation: The convergence of high-performance load balancing with advanced security features in a single platform reduces complexity and total cost of ownership for enterprises, creating a compelling value proposition.

The reference architecture for AI deployments is particularly strategic, as it provides a blueprint for enterprises to implement secure AI infrastructure, potentially accelerating F5's sales cycles and professional services opportunities. This positions F5 as not just a technology provider but a strategic partner in AI transformation initiatives.

Enterprise Security Specialist

The security architecture of ADC 3.0 represents a paradigm shift in protecting AI infrastructure and applications. The platform's integrated approach to security is important for three critical reasons:

• AI-Specific Threat Protection: By incorporating protection against model theft, training data poisoning and prompt injection attacks, F5 addresses the unique security challenges of AI applications that traditional security solutions cannot handle.
• API Security Integration: The platform's comprehensive API protection capabilities are essential for securing the complex interactions between AI models, data stores and applications, reducing potential attack surfaces.
• Performance-Security Balance: The convergence of security and delivery functions eliminates the traditional trade-off between security and performance, important for AI applications that require both high throughput and robust protection.

The partnerships with security-focused companies like Prompt Security and AIShield demonstrate F5's commitment to building a comprehensive security ecosystem specifically designed for AI workloads. This approach provides enterprises with a secure foundation for scaling their AI initiatives while maintaining compliance and data protection standards.

• Next-generation Application Delivery Controllers address hybrid, multicloud, and AI-driven IT complexity crisis
• F5 is leading ADC transformation with convergence of high-performance application delivery with sophisticated application security capabilities into a single platform
• New reference architecture and partner alliances help customers deliver a secure future for AI-powered digital world

SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- F5 (NASDAQ: FFIV) today outlined its vision on how Application Delivery Controllers (ADCs) must transform to meet the extraordinary demands of modern and AI-powered applications. With a platform-based approach that delivers flexibility in form factor, management capabilities, and advanced control over every aspect of application security and delivery, F5 is leading the way and developing this next generation of ADCs.

“The rise of AI and modern applications demands a fundamental rethinking of application security and delivery. Traditional approaches fall short in managing today’s complex, distributed systems. Organizations need solutions that provide consistency, flexibility, and complete visibility across their IT landscape. F5 has transformed our technology portfolio to meet these challenges head-on, enabling our customers to confidently secure and deliver advanced digital experiences,” said Kunal Anand, Chief Innovation Officer, F5.

According to F5’s State of Application Strategy Report, the modern application era driven by AI is upon us. 75% of enterprises state they are already deploying AI apps in some form. Despite the rush to implement these new modern digital experiences, enterprises are ill equipped to secure and deliver AI applications that handle massive amounts of data, require complex traffic patterns, and introduce sophisticated security threats.

A new approach is needed to the underlying tech stack that is still powered by traditional ADCs. The next generation of ADCs must support the reality of today’s hybrid and multicloud infrastructures, converging what are currently point solutions to address critical needs such as high-performance load balancing, full web app and API security, multicloud networking, and AI gateway capabilities.

F5 is leading the industry in this transformation, introducing a new approach to secure and deliver modern apps with a series of architectures designed for today’s most dynamic AI use cases. These new resources will help enterprises accelerate AI planning and deployment while tackling the increasing complexity in delivering modern applications.

ADC 3.0: Redefining ADC for the AI Era

Infrastructure, applications, and security have evolved significantly over the past 25 years—from on-premises data centers and monolithic applications secured by basic rule-based WAF and DoS protection, to public cloud deployed microservices and container-based applications with more comprehensive security that includes API protection and bot defense. As we enter the AI era, hybrid, multicloud environments are now the norm and applications are highly distributed, requiring AI-powered security capabilities that protect against increasingly complex threats.

In an era of unprecedented technological complexity and security challenges, F5’s reimagined vision of what an ADC can and should be is critical for organizations looking to adapt. AI and other modern apps require a new, more advanced approach to ADCs that converges high-performance load balancing with more powerful web application and API cybersecurity capabilities to deliver this new breed of digital experiences. F5 created the ADC category and has been the leader in securing and delivering applications for the world’s largest organizations for nearly 30 years. As F5 enables customers to tackle the complexity challenges inherent in deploying AI applications, the company is once again leading the industry with a new vision for ADC technology.

“Apps have become more dynamic and more distributed. This trend is expected to continue as AI becomes more ubiquitous throughout the enterprise. As the nature of applications has changed, the ADC naturally needs to evolve as well. The need for robust load balancing and application delivery techniques combined with robust security features that protect data at the application and API level is critical as we enter the era of AI. F5 has been a proven leader in this space, and the company’s vision appears to meet the stringent delivery and security requirements that will be ever present in the AI era,” said Zeus Kerravala, founder and Principal Analyst, ZK Research.

Learn more about the next generation of ADC—ADC 3.0—at f5.com and preview exciting news coming later this month at AppWorld, F5’s flagship app security and delivery conference.

Delivering Secure AI Apps for All

The acceleration of AI is creating unprecedented application security and delivery challenges for enterprise IT and security teams already mired in hybrid and multicloud complexity. AI applications make larger and more frequent requests of enterprise data stores and AI models often housed in AI factories. This requires advanced high-performance load balancing capable of handling massive amounts of data and complex traffic patterns without creating latency. And, with new AI-focused cybersecurity threats such as model theft, training data poisoning, and prompt injection emerging with the growth of generative AI, attackers are working to infiltrate and hijack both the AI models and the data used to train them.

To help enterprises tackle these challenges, F5 has introduced a new AI reference architecture designed to organize AI/ML workflows into seven core building blocks, offering guidance and best practices for security, application traffic management, and platform optimization. It also includes critical considerations such as F5’s Application Delivery Top 10 challenges, OWASP’s Top 10 security risks for LLMs, and various deployment models. With this architecture, customers can efficiently align their business and technical requirements for AI projects.

F5's AI reference architecture enables customers to build secure and highly scalable IT infrastructure required for AI applications, reducing risks, costs, and the need for extensive in-house design efforts. F5 facilitates the integration of seven AI building blocks across hybrid and multicloud environments, and the company has announced partnerships with the following companies to support customers’ AI projects:

Compute

• F5 to Supercharge AI Application Delivery for Service Providers and Enterprises with NVIDIA BlueField-3 DPUs
• F5 Collaborates with Intel to Simplify the Security and Delivery of AI Services

Data & Storage

• F5 and NetApp Accelerate and Streamline Large Language Model Deployments
• MinIO and F5 to Enhance AI Workloads with High Performance Object Storage and Distributed Application Services

LLM Security & Observability

• Prompt Security Firewall for AI on F5 Distributed Cloud Platform Secures Generative AI App Interactions
• F5 Distributed Cloud Services Now Supports AIShield GuArdIan for Generative AI Applications and LLM Security
• Portkey and F5 Collaborate for Intelligent AI Application Delivery

Cloud Service Provider

• OVHcloud and F5 Deliver Advanced Multicloud Application Security

Supporting Resources

• Resource: Simplify and Scale AI Deployments with F5’s AI Reference Architecture
• Digital Experience: F5 Introduces New Vision for Application Delivery Controllers
• Blog: A New Generation of ADCs for the AI Era
• Resource: Application Delivery Top 10

About F5

F5 is a multicloud application security and delivery company committed to bringing a better digital world to life. F5 partners with the world’s largest, most advanced organizations to secure every app—on premises, in the cloud, or at the edge. F5 enables businesses to continuously stay ahead of threats while delivering exceptional, secure digital experiences for their customers. For more information, go to f5.com. (NASDAQ: FFIV)

You can also follow @F5 on X or visit us on LinkedIn and Facebook to learn about F5, its partners, and technologies. F5 and AppWorld are trademarks, service marks, or tradenames of F5, Inc., in the U.S. and other countries. All other product and company names herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.

Source: F5, Inc.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250211441468/en/

Dan Sorensen

F5

(650) 228-4842

d.sorensen@f5.com

Holly Lancaster

WE Communications

(415) 547-7054

hluka@we-worldwide.com

Source: F5, Inc.

FAQ

What is F5's new ADC 3.0 platform and how does it address AI applications?

F5's ADC 3.0 is a next-generation platform that combines high-performance application delivery with advanced security capabilities, designed specifically to handle AI workloads and modern applications in hybrid and multicloud environments.

What percentage of enterprises are currently deploying AI apps according to F5's report?

According to F5's State of Application Strategy Report, 75% of enterprises are already deploying AI applications in some form.

What key partnerships has F5 (FFIV) announced for AI capabilities?

F5 has announced partnerships with NVIDIA (for BlueField-3 DPUs), Intel, NetApp (for Large Language Model deployments), MinIO (for high-performance object storage), and others to enhance AI workload capabilities.

How does F5's new AI reference architecture help enterprises?

F5's AI reference architecture organizes AI/ML workflows into seven core building blocks, providing guidance and best practices for security, application traffic management, and platform optimization, helping enterprises reduce risks and costs in AI deployments.

What security threats does F5's new ADC platform address in AI applications?

F5's platform addresses emerging AI-focused cybersecurity threats including model theft, training data poisoning, prompt injection, and provides protection for both AI models and training data.