Validated data delivery resiliency with F5 BIG-IP and Dell ObjectScale

AI and high-throughput data pipeline workloads depend on reliable movement between storage and compute. When S3 data paths slow, fail, or become unstable, model training can stall, RAG pipelines can degrade, and expensive GPU resources can sit idle.

F5 BIG-IP sits in front of Dell ObjectScale to provide a programmable control point for S3 traffic. It helps optimize transport behavior, monitor cluster health, route around failures, and maintain service continuity under adverse conditions.

SecureIQLab validated testing of F5 VELOS and BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager in front of Dell ObjectScale, showing that BIG-IP can be inserted into the S3 data path without compromising throughput when correctly tuned, while adding resiliency during fault and attack scenarios.

Download the report to review the test methodology, architecture, throughput results, and resiliency findings.

Key findings from the report

• BIG-IP met the “do no harm” baseline. With a properly configured BIG-IP and TCP profile, BIG-IP achieved near-parity with the no-BIG-IP baseline in most tested conditions, establishing a safe insertion point in front of Dell ObjectScale.
• BIG-IP helped control blast radius during disruptive traffic testing. During simulated disruptive traffic testing with live S3 traffic, BIG-IP provided a client-facing control point between S3 clients and Dell ObjectScale. This BIG-IP-enabled loose coupling helped prevent disruptive client-side traffic from directly propagating into the storage cluster while the normal S3 workload completed successfully.
• BIG-IP maintained S3 service continuity during attack simulation. During a simulated DDoS scenario with live S3 traffic, the BIG-IP virtual server continued processing high-volume S3 traffic without S3 client errors.
• BIG-IP maintained S3 traffic during node failure. After both 100G ports on an ObjectScale node were shut down, BIG-IP continued processing S3 traffic without S3 client errors while the failed node was confirmed unreachable.

Validated by:

What you’ll learn in this report

Why the results matter

The SecureIQLab-validated results show that BIG-IP can provide a resilient delivery tier for Dell ObjectScale environments. In optimized low-latency conditions, BIG-IP introduced only a small insertion cost. In latency sensitive scenarios, BIG-IP removed transport inefficiencies that limited throughput. Under failure and attack conditions, BIG-IP maintained service continuity for live S3 traffic. For AI infrastructure architects, the implication is clear: the storage-to-compute path should be engineered as a managed delivery layer, not treated as a direct connection between clients and object storage.

Technical implications

• BIG-IP can be inserted in front of S3-compatible object storage without materially impacting throughput, removing a primary architectural objection to placing a delivery tier between clients and storage.
• A delivery tier can improve resiliency by monitoring health, routing around failed nodes, and absorbing adverse traffic conditions.
• S3 data delivery should be observable and controllable. The value of BIG-IP extends beyond throughput to service continuity, failure handling, and operational control.

Note: Performance results are based on testing conducted by F5 in a controlled engineering lab environment and validated by SecureIQLab. Results may vary depending on workload characteristics, infrastructure configuration, TCP profile settings, and network conditions. Report originally published by SecureIQLab in May 2026.