MinIO and F5 to Enhance AI Workloads with High-Performance Object Storage and Distributed Application Services

Rhea-AI Summary

MinIO and F5 (FFIV) announced a strategic partnership combining MinIO's high-performance object storage with F5's traffic management and security technologies to enhance AI workloads. MinIO's AIStor, built for AI/ML workloads, achieves benchmark results exceeding 2.2 TiB/sec for GETs and 1.0 TiB/sec for PUTs on 260 nodes.

F5's BIG-IP, Distributed Cloud Services, and NGINX offerings deliver layer 4/7 throughput of 3+ Tbps on 32 blades of F5 VELOS. The partnership focuses on optimizing data flow, security, and seamless hybrid/multicloud networking for large-scale AI deployments. A real-world implementation showcases a global manufacturing company utilizing the combined solution for efficient data collection and AI model training.

Positive

• Partnership enables handling of massive AI workloads at hundreds of petabytes scale
• MinIO's AIStor achieves industry-leading performance with 2.2 TiB/sec GET and 1.0 TiB/sec PUT speeds
• F5 BIG-IP delivers high throughput of 3+ Tbps on 32 blades of F5 VELOS

Negative

• None.

Insights

Tech Expert

The MinIO-F5 partnership represents a significant technological advancement in AI infrastructure. MinIO's AIStor delivers impressive performance metrics with <b>2.2 TiB/sec GETs and 1.0 TiB/sec PUTs</b> on 260 nodes, while F5's BIG-IP achieves <b>3+ Tbps throughput</b> on 32 VELOS blades. This integration addresses critical challenges in large-scale AI deployments, particularly in data flow optimization and security. The partnership's ability to handle hundreds of petabytes of data efficiently positions it as a robust solution for enterprises building extensive S3 object stores. The collaboration with NVIDIA for BIG-IP deployment on BlueField-3 DPUs further enhances the offering's capabilities in AI infrastructure optimization.

Market Research Analyst

For F5 (FFIV), this strategic partnership strengthens its position in the rapidly growing AI infrastructure market. The collaboration addresses a critical market need as organizations scale their AI operations to exabyte levels. The partnership's focus on edge computing and distributed infrastructure aligns with current market trends, where the global edge computing market is experiencing exponential growth. The real-world implementation in manufacturing demonstrates practical applications and market validation. This positions F5 to capture a larger share of the enterprise AI infrastructure market, particularly in sectors requiring high-performance, secure data management solutions.

REDWOOD CITY, Calif., Dec. 17, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- MinIO, the leader in high-performance, Kubernetes-native object storage, today announced a strategic partnership with F5, the global leader in multicloud application security and delivery. This collaboration unites MinIO's cutting-edge, scalable storage solutions with F5's high-performance traffic management and security technologies to enhance AI workloads, especially at exascale levels. Together, MinIO and F5 will address unique challenges of large-scale AI deployments by providing optimized data flow, robust security, and seamless hybrid and multicloud networking.

MinIO's recently launched AIStor was built for AI and ML workloads and works out of the box with every major AI/ML technology. It is the world's fastest object store with GETs/PUTs benchmark results that exceed 2.2 TiB/sec and 1.0 TiB/sec on 260 nodes of NVMe drives and a 100GbE network. From predictive models to GenAI, MinIO delivers the performance and scalability to power the AI enterprise.

"In partnering with MinIO on massive AI-centric workloads, we have seen first-hand their ability to deliver performance at scale at hundreds of petabytes," said Mike Rau, SVP of Technical Enterprise Strategy and Business Development at F5. "The ability to create reference architectures and product integrations to solve customer problems at this scale with F5's exceptional high-performing traffic management and security solutions offers a robust and comprehensive answer to the challenges facing organizations building large-scale S3 object stores."

F5 BIG-IP, F5 Distributed Cloud Services, and F5 NGINX offerings provide the security, network connectivity, deployment flexibility, and traffic management needed to connect, secure, and manage AI/ML apps and workloads in the cloud, at the edge, or in the F5 Global Network. Highly scalable, high-performance traffic load balancing can deliver layer 4/7 throughput of 3+ Tbps on 32 blades of F5 VELOS. F5 also recently announced a collaboration with NVIDIA to deploy BIG-IP on NVIDIA BlueField-3 DPUs to help optimize large-scale AI infrastructure while also freeing up CPU resources.

"The scale associated with modern AI workloads is orders of magnitude larger than what we saw even 24 months ago," said Manjusha Gangadharan, Head of Sales and Partnerships at MinIO. "Working with F5 gives our joint customers the opportunity to leverage best in class networking, unparalleled security and cutting-edge traffic management. MinIO and F5 are cornerstones of large-scale data infrastructure and are mission critical for successful private cloud AI deployments, as we have seen in production."

As organizations increasingly adopt AI-driven solutions, the demand for efficient data storage and management is paramount. This partnership will empower enterprises to harness the full potential of their AI initiatives by ensuring reliable access to data while maintaining the performance and security required for sensitive workloads.

Key Highlights of Technology Collaboration:

• Optimized Data Flow for AI and Advanced Analytics Workloads: Integration ensures high-speed, seamless data flow and scalability to meet the requirements of exascale AI deployments, ideal for storing and processing large datasets used in advanced analytics and AI applications.
• Robust AI Security Measures: F5's industry-leading security solutions provide comprehensive protection for AI-driven applications, offering organizations peace of mind as they scale AI/ML infrastructure to production levels.
• Streamlined Data Ingestion and Management: Deployed anywhere—public cloud, private cloud, on-prem, or edge—MinIO and F5 enable data to be securely stored and managed across a distributed infrastructure, empowering organizations to keep data close to where it's generated for optimal performance.
• Efficient and Secure Data Collection from the Edge: F5 Distributed Cloud Mesh and global traffic management facilitate secure, efficient data ingestion from the edge back to a MinIO-based central data lake for AI model training, business intelligence, and data analytics.

Real World Use Case: Exascale Data Collection and Management

As industries increasingly rely on automation, vast amounts of data are generated from sensors, cameras, and other telemetry systems. This data is critical for AI modeling to advance autonomous capabilities. A global manufacturing company is taking advantage of the MinIO and F5 partnership by using F5's secure traffic management to collect, transmit, and safeguard data efficiently in real time, directly from the edge to a central data lake. This central repository, based on MinIO, serves as the foundation for AI model training, where data is analyzed to enhance edge system perception, decision-making, and overall system performance.

With the combined power of F5 and MinIO solutions, enterprises are equipped to tackle the challenges of AI exascale data management head-on, ensuring their AI applications run smoother, faster, and more securely than ever before.

About MinIO

MinIO is pioneering high performance, Kubernetes-native object storage for the AI/ML and modern data lake workloads. The software-defined, Amazon S3-compatible object storage system is used by more than three-quarters of the Fortune 500. With 2B+ Docker downloads, MinIO is the fastest-growing cloud object storage company and is consistently ranked by industry analysts as a leader in object storage. Founded in November of 2014, the company is backed by Intel Capital, Softbank Vision Fund 2, Dell Technologies Capital, Nexus Venture Partners, General Catalyst and key angel investors.

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, BIG-IP, NGINX, and VELOS 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. The use of the terms "partner," "partners," "partnership," or "partnering" in this press release does not imply that a joint venture exists between F5 and any other company.

For media inquiries, please contact:
MinIO US Media Contact
Tucker Hallowell
339-368-2290
minio@inkhouse.com 

F5 US Media Contact
Dan Sorensen
650-228-4842
d.sorensen@f5.com 

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SOURCE MinIO

FAQ

What are the performance metrics of MinIO's AIStor in the F5 (FFIV) partnership?

MinIO's AIStor achieves benchmark results exceeding 2.2 TiB/sec for GETs and 1.0 TiB/sec for PUTs on 260 nodes of NVMe drives and a 100GbE network.

What throughput can F5 (FFIV) BIG-IP deliver according to the announcement?

F5 BIG-IP can deliver layer 4/7 throughput of 3+ Tbps on 32 blades of F5 VELOS.

How does the F5 (FFIV) and MinIO partnership benefit AI workloads?

The partnership optimizes data flow, provides robust security, and enables seamless hybrid and multicloud networking for large-scale AI deployments, particularly at exascale levels.

What real-world application is demonstrated in the F5 (FFIV) and MinIO partnership?

A global manufacturing company is using F5's traffic management to collect and transmit data from edge devices to a MinIO-based central data lake for AI model training and system enhancement.