F5 and Intel join forces to streamline AI security and delivery.
Takeaway Points
- F5 and Intel Join Forces to Streamline AI Security and Delivery.
- To further boost performance, Intel IPUs offload infrastructure services from the host CPU, freeing up resources for AI model servers.
- On July 29, 2024, F5, Inc. announced the financial results for its third quarter ended June 30, 2024.
F5 and Intel Join Forces
F5 on Wednesday said it is bringing robust application security and delivery capabilities to AI deployments powered by Intel. This new joint solution combines industry-leading security and traffic management from F5’s NGINX Plus offering with the cutting-edge optimization and performance of the Intel Distribution of OpenVINO toolkit and Infrastructure Processing Units (IPUs) to deliver superior protection, scalability, and performance for advanced AI inference.
As organizations increasingly adopt AI to power intelligent applications and workflows, efficient and secure AI inference becomes critical. This need is addressed by combining the OpenVINO toolkit—which optimizes and accelerates AI model inference—with F5 NGINX Plus, providing robust traffic management and security, F5 said.
Kunal Anand, Chief Technology Officer at F5, said in a comment that joining forces with Intel will help them push the boundaries of AI deployment.
“Teaming up with Intel empowers us to push the boundaries of AI deployment. This collaboration highlights our commitment to driving innovation and delivers a secure, reliable, and scalable AI inference solution that will enable enterprises to securely deliver AI services at speed. Our combined solution ensures that organizations can harness the power of AI with superior performance and security,” Anand said.
Pere Monclus, Chief Technology Officer, Network and Edge Group of Intel, said, “Leveraging the cutting-edge infrastructure acceleration of Intel IPUs and the OpenVINO toolkit alongside F5 NGINX Plus can help enable enterprises to realize innovative AI inference solutions with improved simplicity, security, and performance at scale for multiple vertical markets and workloads.”
Acting as a reverse proxy, NGINX Plus manages traffic, ensures high availability, and provides active health checks. It also facilitates SSL termination and mTLS encryption, safeguarding communications between applications and AI models without compromising performance, the company said in a statement.
To further boost performance, Intel IPUs offload infrastructure services from the host CPU, freeing up resources for AI model servers.
F5 Reports Third Quarter Fiscal Year 2024 Revenue
On July 29, 2024, F5, Inc. announced the financial results for its third quarter ended June 30, 2024.
According to the report, the company’s third quarter fiscal year 2024 revenue totaled $695 million, compared with $703 million in the third quarter of fiscal year 2023. Software revenue of $179 million grew 3% from the year-ago period. Systems revenue of $130 million represented a decline of 16% from the prior year. Global services revenue of $387 million grew 3% from the year-ago period.
GAAP gross profit for the third quarter of fiscal year 2024 was $559 million, representing GAAP gross margin of 80.4%. This compares with GAAP gross profit of $561 million in the year-ago period, which represented GAAP gross margin of 79.8%. Non-GAAP gross profit for the third quarter of fiscal year 2024 was $578 million, representing a non-GAAP gross margin of 83.1%. This compares with non-GAAP gross profit of $579 million in the year-ago period, which represented a non-GAAP gross margin of 82.5%, the company said.
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.
