An ADSP converges the critical services required for ensuring every app, API, and component, from the edge to the cloud, has consistent, comprehensive security, high availability, and intelligent orchestration designed for the most intensive workloads.
What an ADSP does
Today’s digital environments span on‑prem, multicloud, SaaS, and edge, which were historically managed by separate tools for load balancing, security, access, and performance. An ADSP unifies the capabilities of disparate tools into one platform for scalable delivery, traffic management, and security across any environment. Centralized app and API security enforces lifecycle policies—update once, apply everywhere—for legacy and modern workloads.
Resilience becomes a platform feature: intelligent load balancing, traffic controls, and automatic failover boost uptime and simplify operations. Centralized observability provides end‑to‑end visibility, reducing blind spots, complexity, and overhead. ADSPs support microservices, APIs, and cloud‑native and AI apps, optimizing high‑throughput, low‑latency traffic for real‑time inferencing and model serving.
Why ADSPs exist
Traditional point tools—load balancers, WAFs, API gateways, DDoS—were built for static, centralized architectures. Modern apps span distributed environments and rely on microservices, APIs, and third‑party integrations, driving complexity, higher traffic volume, stricter performance needs, and evolving threats. Delivering and securing apps across hybrid multicloud environments requires consistent policies and centralized visibility and control.
ADSPs unite delivery and security: traffic optimization and threat protection operate in tandem under one policy framework applied everywhere, with centralized observability, analytics, and unified control for governance, compliance, and efficiency. They cut operational overhead by consolidating capabilities, reducing tool sprawl, and aligning teams on one platform.
Traditional tools and point solutions can’t keep up with the requirements of AI workloads that demand high‑throughput, low‑latency flows for training and real‑time inference. ADSPs efficiently handle massive volumes of data required for scaling AI systems, providing a strong foundation for enterprise AI.
How an ADSP differs from point products
ADSPs unify application delivery and security on a single platform, replacing standalone tools for load balancing, API protection, availability, and WAF. Centralized visibility, control, and automation reduce the complexity of multiple interfaces, policies, and workflows, enabling efficient scale and greater flexibility.
Unlike isolated point products tied to specific environments for specific use cases, ADSPs enable consistent traffic management and enforce security policies across on‑prem, cloud, and edge—critical for modern architectures, preventing policy drift and visibility gaps. They integrate performance, availability, and security to boost operational resilience and efficiency beyond standalone tools. Built for distributed and AI workloads, ADSPs handle high‑volume APIs, dynamic scaling, and low‑latency flows that are beyond the capabilities of traditional tools.
Is F5 the only vendor that offers an ADSP?
No. An ADSP is a category-level concept similar to SASE or CNAPP platforms, and is not an F5-exclusive product, platform, or trademark. Any vendor that delivers tightly integrated application delivery and security capabilities across on-premises, cloud, and edge environments could be considered part of the ADSP category.
F5 is the first mover in this evolving category, helping organizations modernize infrastructures for the AI era. The F5 Application Delivery and Security Platform (F5 ADSP) delivers high-performance traffic management, advanced security, and unified operations across hybrid and multicloud environments to support modern applications and AI workloads at scale.
Deployable in any form factor and built on 30 years of experience, the F5 ADSP provides consistent security policies, unified management, and AI-driven insights for apps running across hybrid multicloud environments.
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