F5 expands partnerships to lead in multi-cloud networking

F5 announced an expansion of its technology partnerships and highlights new customer wins, aiming to position itself as a key player in multi-cloud networking. The partnerships are designed to extend the capabilities of F5's multi-cloud networking solutions, addressing a wider array of customer challenges.

Collaborations with NetApp, Red Hat, and Console Connect are central to F5's strategy. Senior Vice President and General Manager of distributed Cloud Platform and Security Services at F5, Arul Elumalai, explained: "Modern enterprises today must manage a multitude of disparate applications, all hosted on multiple clouds and on-premises environments. The realities of today's hybrid multi-cloud infrastructures mandate that applications must be stitched together to deliver secure, fast, and reliable digital experiences."

Elumalai added, "With multi-cloud comes significant complexity, cost, and security risks, as applications become increasingly distributed. F5's secure multi-cloud networking capabilities abstract this complexity to connect and protect these distributed applications, without having to pay attention to the cloud or infrastructure on which they run."

In addressing customer needs, F5's Distributed Cloud Services are being integrated with technologies from these key partners. The partnership with NetApp aims to provide robust, secure, and agile data mobility capabilities. NetApp Blue XP, for instance, ensures a cloud-native unified management experience for storage and data services across multi-cloud, hybrid, and on-premises environments.

F5 also strengthens its collaboration with Red Hat to simplify migration and management of cloud workloads using Red Hat OpenShift Service on AWS (ROSA). This integration endeavours to enhance security capabilities, reduce complexity, and lower costs, providing more seamless app-to-app communication and security-optimised workload migration.

The partnership with Console Connect will integrate the Network as a Service (NaaS) provider with F5 across multiple Points of Presence (PoPs), reinforcing F5's global backbone. This collaboration aims to remove the need for public internet reliance, offering private and secure connectivity across clouds.

Pratik Shah, Managing Director of India and SAARC at F5, commented on the increasing demand in the local market: "Indian businesses are rapidly adopting hybrid/multi-cloud technologies to modernise and accelerate revenue. However, this has heightened security challenges due to sophisticated cyber threats, increasing demand for enhanced cloud security. According to Gartner, security and risk management spending in India is expected to grow by 12% year-on-year in 2024."

Shah continued, "Businesses are looking for security solutions that are designed to secure their applications, irrespective of where they are deployed in the multi-cloud environment. At F5, we understand these challenges and are expanding our partnerships to provide innovative solutions that simplify the complexities of securely connecting applications across hybrid environments."

Several organisations are already leveraging F5's multi-cloud networking capabilities. Ailos Cooperative, for example, implemented F5 solutions to enhance app and API security across multiple public clouds and proprietary data centres. Educational technology provider Grupo lve used F5 services to simplify and secure its multicloud environment, reducing administrative workloads by 90%.

McGraw Hill, an educational content provider, adopted F5 services to streamline infrastructure management and enhance security across various cloud platforms. The Scottish Government utilised F5 Distributed Cloud Services for a consistent security model and operational efficiency across its cloud environments.