F5 Transforms Application Security for the AI Era
New
end-to-end API security and AI capabilities make it easier for customers to protect
their AI-powered applications
BENGALURU,
FEBRUARY 8, 2024 – Today at AppWorld, the premier application security and delivery
conference, F5 (NASDAQ: FFIV) announced new capabilities that reduce the
complexity of protecting and powering the exploding number of applications and
APIs at the heart of modern digital experiences.
As AI accelerates the growth of applications and the APIs
that connect them, F5 is bringing API code testing and
telemetry analysis to F5 Distributed Cloud Services, creating the
industry’s most comprehensive and AI-ready API security solution. F5 also
announced it is making AI pervasive across its entire solution portfolio with
intelligent capabilities that help customers protect against sophisticated
AI-powered threats, while making it easier to secure and manage multicloud application
environments.
“Companies already face daunting complexity and a
rapidly changing threat landscape. The added pressure to secure and deliver AI services
compounds this, putting many security and IT teams in an untenable position,” said François
Locoh-Donou, President and CEO, F5. “It is our singular mission to deliver
solutions that greatly reduce this complexity so our customers can focus on
what matters most to them: their business. We are delivering new capabilities that
ensure our customers are ready for AI, making it significantly easier for them
to protect and power every app, every API, everywhere.”
In F5’s forthcoming 2024 State of Application Strategy report, 88% of enterprises report that they deploy apps and APIs across multiple locations. Companies have realized that no single cloud is perfect for every application, while hybrid and multicloud architectures offer the flexibility necessary to deliver today’s modern digital experiences and meet sky-high user expectations.
This has created immense complexity in enterprise application environments, and it only continues to grow. The same research found that the percentage of organizations hosting their applications in six different environments doubled in the past year, to 38%. At the same time, applications and the critical data that flows through them have become the preferred targets for increasingly sophisticated cyberattacks. Complexity is not just slowing down operations, it is expanding the threat surface area and creating substantial risk for organizations.
F5 Distributed Cloud Services offer the industry’s most comprehensive, AI-ready API security solution
As AI drives growth in the volume of apps and APIs, it is adding significant security challenges that companies must solve. New AI-driven digital experiences are highly distributed with a mix of data sources, models, and services spread across on-premises, cloud, and edge environments, all connected by an expanding network of APIs. The protection of these API connections and the data that runs through them is the critical security challenge that companies must face as they deploy more AI-enabled services.
To address this challenge, Distributed Cloud Services will
now offer the industry’s most comprehensive, AI-ready API security solution. Today,
companies are forced to use disparate tool sets and capabilities to secure
their APIs at build time and during runtime. The addition of capabilities recently
acquired from API security innovator Wib enables vulnerability detection and
observability in application development processes, ensuring that risks are
identified and policies implemented before APIs enter production. At a time
when API security has never been more important and more complex, F5 is
eliminating the need for customers to pay for and manage separate API security
solutions by offering API discovery, testing, posture management, and runtime protection—all
in a single platform.
Distributed Cloud Services offer the following benefits
of a full lifecycle API security solution:
·
Greatly
reduced risk window for new APIs, through the identification of vulnerabilities
and enforcement of strict, accurate specifications before they enter
production.
·
Clear
governance guidance, with real-time standards and regulatory compliance
reporting for security operations teams and CISOs.
·
API discovery,
including third-party and unmanaged APIs in application code, on public
internet properties, or referenced in app telemetry.
·
A
single solution for both API discovery and enforcement of protocols, policies,
and configurations from code to runtime.
“In today’s highly distributed and interconnected
world, the protection of the connections that fuel business-critical processes is
becoming one of the most important components of enterprise security,” said
Chris Steffen, Vice President of Research, EMA. “As AI accelerates growth in
applications and APIs, the ability to consolidate tools and have a single
end-to-end API security solution will be a significant advantage for any
company.”
“With the speed of digital transformation in India, the
added pressure to secure and deliver AI services compounds, and threatens to
put many security and IT teams in an untenable position,” said Dhananjay
Ganjoo, Managing Director for India and SAARC at F5. “F5 understands these
challenges and strives to provide our customers a secure yet rich digital
experience. By bringing forth our AI-ready API security solution, we aim to
help our customers defend against advanced AI-driven threats while making it easier
for them to manage their apps in the multi-cloud environment.”
For
more information on Distributed Cloud API Security, please see this companion blog.
Making
AI pervasive across the F5 portfolio
F5 technology sits in the data path of nearly half of
the world’s applications, providing the unique position and expertise to deliver
AI-enabled solutions that benefit from an unmatched level of data. The new F5 AI
Data Fabric is a foundation for building innovative
solutions that help customers make more informed decisions and take quicker
actions. Telemetry from Distributed Cloud Services, BIG-IP, and NGINX will surface
unparalleled insights, produce real-time reports, automate actions, and power
AI agents.
Later
this year, F5 will release an AI assistant that will change the way customers
interact with and manage F5 solutions using a natural language interface. Powered
by the F5 AI Data Fabric, the tool will serve as an intelligent partner to
stretched IT and security teams. It will easily generate data visualizations,
identify anomalies, query and generate policy configurations, and apply remediation
steps. It will also act as an embedded customer support manager, allowing
customers to ask questions and receive recommendations based on model training
of entire product knowledge bases.
For
more information on the F5 AI Data Fabric, please see this companion blog.
AppWorld
Mumbai
AppWorld
will be coming to Mumbai on 19 April, at J W Marriott Sahar Mumbai. The event
is an action-packed experience with keynotes, panel discussions, and breakout
sessions designed to gain a fresh perspective on what’s new, what’s possible,
and what’s next.
Additional Resources
·
At F5, Ridiculously Easy App Security and Delivery Is
Our Guiding Light – F5 Blog
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 (Twitter)
or visit us on LinkedIn and Facebook for
more information about F5, its partners, and technologies.
F5, AppWorld, Distributed Cloud Services, BIG-IP, NGINX, and AI Data Fabric 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.