Kasm Technologies and F5: Redefining secure, zero trust virtual desktop access

In a world where hybrid work has become the new standard, enterprises and public sector organizations face the challenge of providing fast, reliable, and secure access to applications and desktops—without sacrificing scalability or performance.

Kasm Technologies and F5 have partnered to deliver a zero trust, high-performance virtual desktop access solution that meets these demands head-on.

This integrated solution combines:

• Kasm Workspaces: A modern, container-native platform for streaming desktops and applications directly to the browser—enabling flexible, secure, and scalable remote work environments.
• F5: A market-leading platform for advanced application delivery, traffic management, and security, including web application firewall (WAF), SSL inspection, and identity-aware proxy capabilities.

The joint solution from F5 and Kasm Technologies offers the following benefits:

1. Zero trust security: F5 BIG-IP enforces zero trust network access (ZTNA) policies with advanced security features, including SSL offloading, WAF inspection, and identity-aware access controls. Each session is authenticated, authorized, and encrypted, ensuring that only verified users access Kasm Workspaces.
2. Optimized performance & delivery: F5’s intelligent traffic steering and global load balancing ensure that users experience minimal latency and consistent performance, no matter their location. The platform accelerates content delivery and maintains availability during peak loads.
3. Secure, simplified access: Through integration with identity providers via SAML, OAuth, and OpenID Connect, organizations can centralize authentication, implement role-based access controls, and streamline user logins—whether for containerized desktops or traditional workloads.
4. Scalable architecture: Kasm’s container-native design allows for quick provisioning of desktops and apps, while F5 manages policy-based routing, distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) mitigation, and network segmentation. This setup is perfect for enterprises needing secure and fast scalability.

The solution is more than a high-level concept; it’s built for real-world deployments such as SSL offloading and load balancing, identity federation via SAML, and flexible workload support.

Using F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) and F5 BIG-IP Application Security Manager (ASM), organizations can deploy a secure, SSL-offloaded load balancer in front of Kasm Workspaces. This configuration includes WAF protection, health checks for Kasm backend nodes, and intelligent load distribution to ensure uptime and optimal performance.

With F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) acting as a SAML identity provider, organizations can integrate with Active Directory or other identity stores. Users can authenticate to Kasm Workspaces using their existing enterprise credentials, and administrators can centrally manage access policies—ensuring a streamlined and secure login experience.

Beyond browser-based Linux desktops, the joint architecture supports brokering RDP, VNC, and SSH sessions to non-containerized workloads, enabling a single access gateway for diverse environments.

The Kasm–F5 solution is especially suited for highly regulated industries where compliance, security, and performance are critical:

• Government – Secure remote access for distributed teams without exposing internal networks.
• Financial services – Protection of sensitive financial data with encrypted, authenticated sessions.
• Healthcare – Compliance with HIPAA and other regulations while enabling access to critical systems.
• Other regulated sectors – Any environment requiring rigorous access controls and system segmentation.

With Kasm Technologies and F5 working together, organizations get a future-proof, zero trust platform that not only meets today’s hybrid work needs but also prepares for tomorrow’s challenges. Whether you’re protecting sensitive government systems, enabling compliant healthcare access, or supporting high-performance trading environments, this partnership offers the scalability, security, and performance you require.

You can read more about the partnership and joint solution here. To learn more, contact Kasm Workspaces or F5.