Partnership Extension is designed to simplify the deployment and security of modern distributed applications and AI workloads across hybrid multi-cloud environments.
According to F5, the expansion solution uses Equinix's network edge and Equinix fabric to bring together application delivery and security platforms (ADSPs). Together, they want to enable businesses to quickly and safely scale their digital infrastructure globally without the challenges of physical hardware.
The news is as large companies face increasing pressure to deploy and protect their applications quickly. With this in mind, both Equinix and F5 hope to provide a more streamlined way to quickly deploy and secure applications, reducing infrastructure costs and management overhead.
“We're committed to providing a range of services to our customers,” said John Madison, F5's Chief Products and Corporate Marketing Officer.
“Companies need a faster, safer way to globally deploy and connect applications and AI workloads without the complexity of managing their physical infrastructure. Our expanded partnership with Equinix gives customers exactly that.
Equinix is one of the world's largest data center organizations, with over 200 data centers and 96% of all internet traffic continuing through facilities. Connecting F5 to the Equinix Global Interconnection platform, a platform for digital business, gives users the ability to manage and secure all cloud-based traffic.
Adding solutions to the mix helps the companies tackle challenges such as operational complexity, increased costs, cyber risk, and regulatory compliance in hybrid multi-cloud environments.
In particular, F5 Distributed Cloud Customer Edge, a key component of F5 ADSP, is now available as a Virtual Network Function (VNF) in Equinix Network Edge. This hopes to enable near-provisioning of F5 app distribution and security services across Equinix's global footprint.
The main benefits of customer-facing scaling solutions include:
– Preparing AI infrastructure: Supports fast and secure connectivity for distributed AI workloads such as inference and RAG, protecting sensitive data from leaks and compromises.
– Global reach, no hardware required: instantly deploy application services to new markets via virtual capabilities, significantly reducing time to market and capital expenditures.
– Increased agility: Quickly adapt to changing demand without being constrained by infrastructure limitations, allowing businesses to stay competitive in dynamic markets.
– Unified Management and Compliance: Intensive security policies across the region, meeting data sovereignty and industry-specific compliance requirements, simplifying management and improving efficiency.
By leveraging Equinix's extensive global infrastructure and interconnections, F5 says that businesses can dynamically adapt to changing demands while maintaining seamless connectivity. This includes low latency and high performance environment support for AI inference and search rechargeable generation (RAG) in addition to addressing regulatory requirements for data sovereignty and privacy.
Additionally, Equinix customers will be able to deploy F5 app distribution and security services directly through Equinix's network edge along with F5 customers, gaining easy access to Equinix's global interconnection infrastructure. This includes private, low-latency connections to major cloud providers.
“Although organizations are competing to adopt AI, legacy infrastructure can slow them down or put them at unnecessary risk,” said Maryam Zand, Vice President of Partnerships and Ecosystem Development at Equinix.
“We partner with F5 to provide our customers with a seamless way of embedding AI applications and modern distributed workloads, providing security, compliance and performance.
“This solution helps businesses innovate faster, protect operations and stay competitive.”
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