F5 Strengthens Protection Of The Digital World With F5 Distributed Cloud Services

New SaaS platform expands F5 security portfolio with simplified management and security for all applications in all locations

SYDNEY – February 15, 2022 – Today at its annual Agility Conference, F5 (NASDAQ: FFIV) announced a major expansion of its application security and delivery portfolio with F5 Distributed Cloud Services, a new platform that provides SaaS-based security, multi-cloud networking and edge-based computing solutions. The company is also launching the first new service on the platform, F5 Distributed Cloud WAAP (Web Application and API Protection), which integrates multiple security capabilities from across F5 solutions into a unified software-as-a-service (SaaS) offering.

Nearly all organisations today find themselves at the epicentre of two significant trends: the evolution of applications as the centre of their customers’ digital lives and the escalation of threats against them. This presents a tremendous challenge as many companies now manage complex application portfolios comprised of older legacy and newer modern technologies and infrastructure. In F5’s upcoming 2022 State of Application Strategy Report, 88 per cent of organisations say they operate both legacy and modern application architectures, while 70 per cent operate in multiple clouds. This expands the threat surface area as companies are forced to deploy inconsistent security controls across different environments.

To satisfy growing customer demands across Australia and New Zealand, F5 expanded its global footprint in 2019 by deploying a regional point of presence (PoP) in Sydney, and over the past several years, F5 has transformed its business and significantly expanded its software and cloud offerings to deliver a broad portfolio of solutions to help customers address this complexity and risk. Through the BIG-IP, NGINX and now F5 Distributed Cloud Services, F5 offers a range of integrated, machine learning-driven solutions that protect legacy and modern applications and APIs across data centre, cloud and edge locations. The world’s largest organisations, including banks, retailers, service providers and government agencies, rely on F5 to maintain application availability, protect APIs powering their digital supply chains, address threats like malware and bots, and fight rampant fraud.

“Applications and the digital experiences they power have become a foundation for human connection and achievement and a platform for significant business innovation and market creation,” said François Locoh-Donou, President and CEO, F5. “We have made it our mission at F5 to help organisations protect these applications from the now constant barrage of cyberattacks. The launch of F5 Distributed Cloud Services is significant because it provides a simpler way for customers to manage the complex challenge of modern application security.”

Introducing F5 Distributed Cloud WAAP

F5 Distributed Cloud WAAP simplifies security and automates process, allowing application teams to focus on delivering features and functionality that will enhance their customers’ experience and propel their business forward. The new SaaS-based service consolidates F5’s industry-leading web application firewall, bot mitigation, DDoS and API protection capabilities into a single, easy-to-deploy solution that enables SecOps and DevOps teams to enforce consistent security policy wherever they need to deploy their applications.

The new solution brings together the best of F5 application security technologies, including:

• Application protection from F5 Advanced WAF, which more effectively and efficiently protects against the most prevalent application attacks.
• API security from Volterra’s machine learning-based auto-discovery and anomaly detection, which automates the entire process of finding, securing, and monitoring APIs.
• Bot defence based on F5 Shape AI technology.
• Global distributed denial of service (DDoS) protection.

“Virtual workforces, digital-first selling, service, and customer experience are driving the need for security services to be closer to the users,” said Erin Chapple, Microsoft Corporate Vice President, Azure Core Product and Design. “The launch of F5 Distributed Cloud WAAP support in Azure gives customers more choice in how they address complex cybersecurity risks for applications running in the cloud.”

F5 Distributed Cloud WAAP is available from F5 in A/NZ and worldwide now and will launch in the Azure Marketplace by the end of February. Customers can learn more through our real-time simulator tool and on F5.com.

F5 Distributed Cloud Services bring a new approach to app security and delivery

The F5 Distributed Cloud Platform provides cloud-native SaaS-based app security and delivery services. These services are centrally managed but can be deployed anywhere the app needs to be to maximise business impact and deliver a superior customer experience. Built on a combination of the platform and services acquired from Volterra and industry-leading F5 and Shape security services, F5 Distributed Cloud Services are unique because they:

• Deploy natively in multi-cloud, data centre, and edge environments.
• Provide end-to-end visibility and policy control across all apps in a single dashboard.
• Unify app security, multi-cloud networking and app platform services on a single SaaS platform.
• Provide an integrated global private network in 22 major metropolitan areas.

There are several additional F5 Distributed Cloud Services currently available to customers. F5 Distributed Cloud Transit enables multi-cloud networking (MCN) functionality with secure and high-performance connectivity between clouds and a network firewall. F5 Distributed Cloud Secure Kubernetes Gateway provides an integrated load balancer, Kubernetes, and API gateways to easily deploy modern workloads and microservices across distributed clusters, locations, and cloud providers. The platform also has cloud-native computing capabilities at the edge of the network, known as an app delivery network (ADN), that improve end user experience by distributing applications to the edge of F5’s global private network.

In addition, F5 has taken steps to integrate the customer experience across its growing portfolio by simplifying product naming. Many F5, Shape and Volterra services have been renamed as F5 Distributed Cloud Services, including F5 Distributed Cloud Bot Defence, F5 Distributed Cloud DDoS Mitigation, F5 Distributed Cloud WAF, and F5 Distributed Cloud API Security.

“F5’s expansion and transformation has dramatically increased its offerings to help our customers – including some of Australia and New Zealand’s largest organisations such as the big four banks, major retailers, and government agencies – navigate complex security concerns across many different environments. Security needs to be addressed at the application layer, and if we look at – for example – Visa using Australia as an anti-bot testing ground, it’s clear modern organisations need to adapt modern technologies at that layer to balance security with the user experience.” said Jason Baden, Regional Vice President, F5 Networks.

Customers can visit F5.com for further detail on F5 Distributed Cloud Services, and contact F5 Sales for additional product and service availability information.

Additional Quotes

“We have been bringing our applications and IT services in-house over the last year and selected F5 as a key partner to help us secure and accelerate them,” said Ryan Burgess, Director, Technology Infrastructure, BlueShore Financial. “F5 Distributed Cloud WAAP provides the exact combination we need—high efficacy to protect web properties and online banking applications, coupled with the agility and ease of operation of a SaaS-based offering.”

“Modern applications have evolved rapidly,” said Bob Laliberte, Principal Analyst, ESG. “They are more complex, leverage APIs extensively, and are far more distributed. As a result, application security solutions need to be more flexible and deployable wherever those application workloads reside. To ensure flexibility, a SaaS-based model capable of distributing cloud services anywhere with consistent visibility and control is required. F5 has created its innovative Distributed Cloud Services to provide organizations the ability to easily deploy services where and when they are required.”

“As F5 Distributed Cloud WAAP expands the company’s industry-leading security solutions to the network edge, Ping Identity is excited to continue our longstanding partnership and joint commitment to strengthening access and security capabilities for enterprise users,” said Bernard Harguindeguy, Senior Vice President, Special Projects, Ping Identity. “Ping Identity continually strives to ensure organizations can achieve stronger security, and our partnership with F5 is one important way we deliver powerful identity access management and security for global enterprise customers.”

“The successful launch of F5 Distributed Cloud WAAP is yet another impactful milestone for F5 with much-anticipated benefits for our joint customers,” said Gustaf Sahlman, CEO, Promon. “Overcoming automated attacks, including bot attacks, requires an ecosystem approach and close collaboration between technology vendors like F5 and Promon. By delivering improved security at the network edge, F5 displays the same responsiveness to changing dynamics that has helped it earn a place among technology leaders for the past 25 years.”

“Stellar Cyber is excited to see F5 launch Distributed Cloud WAAP, and we believe that our joint customers will be excited as well,” said Jim O’Hara, Chief Revenue Officer, Stellar Cyber. “Stellar and F5 have worked together closely to help users achieve the goal of operating a single security platform for extended visibility and remediation across hybrid environments—including, now, the increasingly important network edge. Our focus is on enabling IT teams to respond to threats in seconds rather than days or weeks utilizing Open XDR, and F5 Distributed Cloud WAAP only strengthens these capabilities.”

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Additional Resources

• How to Combat Complexity and Elevate Modern App Security – F5 Blog Post
• F5 Introduces Comprehensive SaaS-based Security for Web Apps and APIs – F5 Blog Post
• F5 Distributed Cloud WAAP and Rich Partner Ecosystem Deliver Security and Value – F5 Blog Post
• F5 Labs 2022 Application Protection Report
• F5 Press Kit Materials

About F5

F5 (NASDAQ: FFIV) is a multi-cloud application security and delivery company that enables our customers—which include the world’s largest enterprises, financial institutions, service providers, and governments—to bring extraordinary digital experiences to life. For more information, go to f5.com. You can also follow @F5 on Twitter or visit us on LinkedIn and Facebook for more information about F5, its partners, and technologies.

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