F5 Networks, Inc. - Experts & Thought Leaders

F5, the global pioneer in delivering and securing every app and API, introduces significant enhancements to the F5 AI Gateway and integrated the solution into the F5 AI Security Platform. The enhanced F5 AI Gateway seamlessly enforces policies on every AI request, giving enterprises a unified control plane to govern how AI models, agents, and tools are accessed and used, while optimising the economics of AI at scale. Enterprises have moved past AI experimentation, but governance has not kept pace. AI traffic still moves through a patchwork of standalone proxies and monitoring tools that were never built for AI, with no guardrails in between. Unified control plane According to F5’s 2026 State of Application Strategy Report, 77% of organizations say inference, rather than model training or tuning, is now their dominant AI activity, and organizations are managing an average of seven AI models. As inference scales, tokenomics is becoming an increasingly important consideration, with every model request carrying implications for cost, performance, and security. Yet the piecemeal approach to standalone tools to secure AI traffic leaves enterprises without consistent control over how models and agents are accessed and used. Customers accelerate innovation "We're watching enterprises race to deploy AI while struggling to control it," said Kunal Anand, Chief Product Officer at F5. "Every AI request carries economic, security, and governance implications, yet most organizations are relying on fragmented tools that address only part of the problem. The result is rising costs, increased risk, and operational complexity. F5 AI Gateway, integrated into the F5 AI Security Platform, provides a single control point for managing AI across models, clouds, agents, and applications. We believe every enterprise will need an intelligent control layer for AI. F5 is building that foundation, helping customers accelerate innovation while maintaining visibility, security, and control." F5 AI Gateway brings three critical functions together in a single integrated solution: Model Gateway for model access and cost optimization MCP Gateway for agent-to-tool governance AI Guardrails for prompt and response protection Single integrated solution Budgets, model routing policies and agent access controls are set once centrally and enforced across distributed environments wherever the models, agents and AI apps run, providing a single operations pane for AI platform ops, AI Security ops and finance teams. Rapid adoption of AI is fueling the need for AI gateways. According to a recent Gartner® report, "AI gateways have emerged as a critical part of AI infrastructure, as enterprises need tools to support safe, efficient and controlled access to AI models and MCP servers. Adoption of AI gateways will continue to accelerate among large enterprises." Fine-grained access controls Organizations that cannot see which teams, models, and providers are consuming tokens cannot assess the value and costs of using AI. F5 AI Gateway puts tokenomics under control: the Model Gateway function attributes every token by provider, model, team, and user, per-team budgets enforce limits as spend occurs rather than after the invoice arrives; and automated optimization — smart routing and model tiering, semantic caching, and GPU-aware load balancing — routes each request to the right model at the right cost. The solution is designed to reduce token spend by up to 60 percent, with no application changes. As agents multiply, so do the MCP servers they call, usually with no central registry, no per-tool authorization, and no record of what agents are doing. The MCP Gateway function of F5 AI Gateway provides fine-grained access controls that limit agents to the resources they are explicitly authorized to use, including APIs, data sources, and RAG systems. Redacting sensitive data A complete audit trail captures what was accessed, when, by which agent, and on whose behalf. MCP server registry gives teams a single source of truth for approved MCP servers, thereby removing friction for developers who would otherwise find it challenging to discover which servers and tools exist. Personal data, health records, and intellectual property move through AI applications every day, and that data usually reaches external models uninspected while injection and jailbreak attempts go undetected. F5 AI Guardrails inspect every prompt and response, redacting sensitive data before it reaches the model, blocking injection and jailbreak attempts, and failing closed when a request cannot be evaluated. Full audit trails, SIEM export, data residency controls, and alignment with SOC 2, ISO, and HIPAA frameworks give regulated industries the evidence they need before putting AI into production. Hybrid multicloud environments F5 introduced the F5 AI Security Platform earlier this year to give teams continuous visibility, governance, and protection across enterprise AI applications, models, agents, and the APIs connecting them. Four integrated pillars — AI governance, AI usage control, AI security testing, and AI runtime protection — plus an overarching observability layer, create a persistent security lifecycle rather than a one-time compliance exercise. F5 AI Gateway is where those pillars meet live traffic, putting policy into force at the point of interaction and controlling what AI can access, what it can expose, and, crucially, what it can cost the business. F5 AI Gateway is deployable across SaaS, hybrid SaaS, and hybrid multicloud environments, with air-gapped support planned for regulated and sovereign use cases.

F5, the pioneer in delivering and securing every app and API, introduces the F5 AI Security Platform to give CISOs continuous visibility, governance, and protection across enterprise AI applications, models, agents, and the APIs connecting them. F5 also announced the acquisition of SurePath AI, a pioneer in network-based AI discovery, intent classification, and shadow AI detection, as a key component in the launch of the new F5 AI Security Platform to safeguard enterprise AI deployments. Public cloud environments Through a continuous, adaptive loop approach to governing, discovering, testing, and protecting enterprise AI workloads, the new platform is designed to extend F5’s Application Delivery and Security Platform (ADSP) strategy to enterprise AI. As a global cybersecurity pioneer, F5 recognized the AI deployment realities of large enterprises, building the F5 AI Security Platform to support on-premises, air-gapped, private cloud, hybrid, and public cloud environments. This is intended to give organizations greater control over AI security where data residency, sovereignty, and operational requirements are non-negotiable. AI systems now operate with more access, autonomy, and speed than even the most over-privileged human users, creating new risks for security teams and business leaders. A prompt injection, data leak, or agent acting beyond its authorized scope can expose sensitive information, disrupt operations, and erode customer trust. Adopting unauthorized tools At the same time, employees are adopting unauthorized tools and unsanctioned integrations, creating shadow AI footprints that most security teams cannot see, let alone govern. According to F5’s 2026 State of Application Strategy (SOAS) Report, 88% of organizations report at least one AI-related operational or security challenge. “Most AI security today is a wrapper around a chatbot. That is not security,” said Kunal Anand, Chief Product Officer, F5. “Enterprises run AI inside regulated networks, behind APIs, and across agents that authenticate and act on their own. The F5 AI Security Platform gives CISOs and security leaders what they have been missing: continuous control over every model, agent, and API, wherever the AI runs, delivered on the same F5 platform that has secured and delivered enterprise applications for three decades.” Unified visibility layer The addition of SurePath AI powers the F5 AI Security Platform’s approach to network-based AI discovery, identifying AI usage across the enterprise, including shadow AI, without requiring direct application integrations. With frictionless deployment through network redirects and out-of-band analysis, SurePath AI gives security teams a unified visibility layer that detects unauthorized AI activity, classifies the intent behind each workflow, and continuously traces agent tool calls and MCP server connections. This visibility feeds directly into the F5 AI Security Platform, informing the risks to be tested by F5 AI Red Team and mitigated by F5 AI Guardrails. Application-level integration The F5 AI Security Platform addresses AI risk through four integrated pillars and an overarching observability layer that creates a persistent security lifecycle rather than a one-time compliance exercise. Features include: AI governance: Translate specific risk tolerances, privacy requirements, and regulatory obligations into enforceable boundaries for AI prompts, outputs, tool use, and data access. AI discovery: Gain continuous visibility into every AI application, agent, and MCP tool call running across the enterprise, whether sanctioned or not. The platform classifies activity by use case and intent, so teams know not just what is running but why. SurePath AI’s network-based discovery does this passively, with no application-level integration required. AI security testing: Stress-test AI systems against more than 140,000 attack patterns from the deepest AI threat database in the industry before those systems reach production, converting findings directly into enforceable defences. AI runtime protection: Define guardrails in plain language and deploy them at the point of interaction, where the platform has demonstrated up to 98.2% security efficacy in independent testing, blocking prompt injection, excessive agent autonomy, and data leakage. AI observability: Provide a complete audit trail across every AI interaction on the platform, maintaining the accountability and traceability that regulated industries require. AI security capabilities With this new solution, F5 uniquely combines AI security capabilities with flexible deployment options, enabling enterprises to operate across on-premises, air-gapped, private cloud, hybrid, and public cloud deployments. This is especially valuable to CISOs in highly regulated industries with exacting data residency and sovereignty requirements. SurePath AI’s lightweight network-based deployment model reinforces this flexibility, requiring no changes to existing application architectures. Heightened visibility is increasingly critical as AI agents proliferate. F5’s 2026 SOAS Report states 98% of organizations are preparing for agentic AI, but the speed of agent adoption is outpacing the controls designed to manage it. When agents can authenticate, call tools, access data, and take actions autonomously, the blast radius of a single misconfiguration or exploit grows exponentially.

F5, the pioneer in delivering and securing every app and API, has officially opened its new EMEA headquarters at Building 100 in Addlestone, Surrey, marking a significant investment in its regional operations and long-term commitment to the UK. The new office spans 23,627 sq ft and will accommodate more than 155 employees, providing a modern, collaborative workspace designed to support F5's continued growth across Europe, the Middle East and Africa. F5 has signed a 10-year lease at the site, underscoring its commitment to the region. Company-wide events Located within the Thames Valley region, one of the UK's pioneer technology and innovation hubs, the new headquarters places F5 close to customers, partners and a highly skilled talent pool. The office has been designed around hybrid working, with flexible collaboration areas, touchdown desks, focus rooms, quiet spaces and technology that supports seamless working across devices and locations. It also features an extensive theatre-style space for training and company-wide events. Accessibility and inclusion were central to the design, with features including gender-neutral facilities, a multifaith room, a mothers' room and dedicated quiet spaces.   Conscious acoustic solutions The office is based in Building 100 at Bourne Business Park, part of the award-winning development that was named Commercial Development of the Year at the 2025 Thames Valley Property Awards. Reflecting F5's commitment to sustainability, Building 100 has achieved a NABERS UK Design for Performance rating of 5.5, making it one of the UK's highest-rated office refurbishments for energy efficiency. It operates as a fully electric building and is powered in part by a roof-mounted solar array. The building has also achieved BREEAM Excellent accreditation, reflecting high standards in sustainable design, construction and operation. The fit-out incorporated recycled and recyclable materials throughout the workspace, including recycled plastics and environmentally conscious acoustic solutions. Creating positive social impact The opening reflects F5's commitment to making a positive contribution to the communities in which it operates. Recent examples in Addlestone include working with workplace transformation partner Area to fund a Mini Medics programme at The Holy Family Catholic Primary School, which provided first aid training to more than 120 pupils. The initiative forms part of F5’s wider commitment to creating positive social impact alongside its investment in Addlestone. Cathy Walkington, F5’s VP for People and Culture, EMEA, LATAM and Canada, said: “The opening of our new EMEA headquarters represents an exciting new chapter for F5 in the region. Addlestone provides an excellent base for our regional operations, offering access to talent, customers and partners, while enabling us to provide a modern, sustainable workplace for our employees. We're also committed to continuing to make a positive contribution to the communities around us as we grow our business.”