This blog post is the first in a series about AI data delivery.
Data is the new fuel for artificial intelligence. As AI and analytics workloads explode in volume and velocity, enterprises need storage and delivery systems capable of transporting data efficiently across clouds, data centers, and edge environments.
S3-compatible object storage is now the industry’s preferred foundation for this monumental storage task. Once a niche cloud feature, S3-compatible storage has become the standard, offering massive scalability, interoperability, and freedom from vendor lock-in.
Any platform that supports the same API as Amazon’s Simple Storage Service (S3) qualifies as “S3-compatible,” allowing AI and analytics workloads to use consistent tools and protocols across clouds and data centers. That compatibility removes friction, enabling teams to scale, migrate, and manage data without rewriting code or re-architecting applications.
“When S3-compatible storage is paired with F5 BIG-IP, organizations can ensure their data pipelines stay fast, secure, and always flowing at peak performance.”
By decoupling compute from storage, organizations can fluidly scale each independently, expanding capacity as data grows or moving workloads between environments with no downtime or redesign. Leading S3 storage platforms such as MinIO AIStor, Dell ObjectScale, and NetApp StorageGRID embody this model, offering exabyte-scale capacity, strong durability, and full API compatibility for enterprise AI and analytics pipelines.
As demand for AI solutions continues to accelerate, however, storage alone isn’t enough. Massive volumes of data must flow reliably and securely between users, models, and storage nodes, without bottlenecks or latency spikes.
That’s where the F5 Application Delivery and Security Platform (ADSP) comes in. The ADSP acts as the control plane that keeps the data pipelines efficient, resilient, secure, and forever in motion.
When S3-compatible storage is paired with F5 BIG-IP, organizations can ensure their data pipelines stay fast, secure, and always flowing at peak performance, whether for AI model training and fine-tuning, implementing retrieval augmented generation (RAG), or other use cases.
Let it flow, let it flow, let it flow
In many ways, managing AI data is like transporting and refining crude oil[AC1] (#_msocom_1) : It must be carefully extracted, securely moved, efficiently processed, and reliably delivered before it can fuel innovation.
Raw data, scattered across sensors, applications, and environments, has enormous potential—but only if it can be securely transferred, refined, and delivered to the right place at the right time.
That’s where the synergy between S3-compatible object storage and key F5 BIG-IP solutions applies, including BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM), BIG-IP DNS, BIG-IP Advanced Firewall Manager (AFM), BIG-IP Advanced WAF, and BIG-IP DDoS Hybrid Defender.
Just as oil pipelines handle extraction, transport, storage, and distribution, F5 BIG-IP and S3-compatible storage providers perform a similar function across the AI data lifecycle:
- Extraction—raw data capture: Extract-Transform-Load (ETL) tools act as the pumps where vast amounts of unstructured “crude data” are extracted from edge devices, IoT sensors, or enterprise applications.
- Secure transport: F5 BIG-IP ensures that every byte of data in motion—like oil flowing through a pressurized pipeline—moves efficiently and securely, using intelligent routing, SSL/TLS offload, and adaptive traffic control to prevent leaks or contamination.
- Reliable storage: Within S3-compatible object stores, data is preserved with high durability and integrity, just as crude oil is stored in tanks protected from impurities. F5’s global load balancing maintains availability even as data volumes surge or nodes fail.
- Refinement and processing: AI training and analytics workloads then process this raw data into usable intelligence, the digital equivalent of refining crude oil into fuel. F5 accelerates this stage by optimizing data delivery to compute resources, reducing latency, and maximizing throughput for AI model foundry pipelines.
- Distribution and use: Finally, refined data, like finished fuel, is delivered wherever it’s needed, across clouds, data centers, or edge sites. F5 BIG-IP LTM, DNS, and traffic-management policies direct users, applications, and AI models to the fastest, healthiest data sources for real-time decision-making.
Together, this ecosystem forms a data pipeline engineered for the AI era, one that keeps information flowing smoothly from capture to consumption. F5 provides an intelligent control plane that turns massive, unwieldy data flows into a clean, optimized stream of value for your business.
AI deployments power a burgeoning S3-compatible storage market
The oil pipeline analogy isn’t just a convenient way to illustrate how AI data delivery works. It’s also relevant because of the expected massive volumes of data flowing through AI pipelines now and in the years ahead.
The S3-compatible object storage segment, supported by robust enterprise adoption and increasing data storage needs across industries, is growing at double-digit CAGRs (15% to 20%+), according to many reports).
According to recent research by Dataintelo, for example, the global S3-compatible object storage software market size reached USD 6.7 billion in 2024 and is projected to expand at a CAGR of 15.2% from 2025 to 2033, propelling it to USD 23.4 billion by 2033.
At the same time, however, it must be noted that an AI learning curve is still in place. According to 2025 research from MIT Media Lab’s Project NANDA, so far only about 5% of enterprise generative-AI pilots are delivering immediate business value. According to the research, most fail due to “brittle workflows, lack of contextual learning, and misalignment with day-to-day operations.”
“F5 ensures organizations can move beyond fragile pilots and into AI that delivers value at scale.”
F5 ensures organizations can move beyond fragile pilots and into AI that delivers value at scale. Most enterprises already rely on BIG-IP at the center of their daily operations, handling traffic, enforcing policies, and keeping applications reachable across hybrid multicloud infrastructure. That proximity to real production workflows is exactly where AI initiatives typically break down. BIG-IP helps eliminate brittle data paths by abstracting storage endpoints, normalizing traffic behavior, and enforcing consistent, context-aware policies directly in the data plane, giving AI systems a stable, predictable pipeline, regardless of where data lives or how storage clusters change.
F5 integrates well with MinIO, Dell, and NetApp S3 platforms
F5 BIG-IP, a key component of F5 ADSP, supports all S3-compatible object storage platforms today. But F5 has deep alliances with three particular storage vendors, MinIO, Dell, and NetApp.
These technology alliance partnerships enable F5 to provide broad market coverage across the enterprise landscape and offer strong interoperability plus deployment guides and support. MinIO brings cloud-native speed and developer agility, Dell ObjectScale delivers enterprise-class performance and control, and NetApp StorageGRID anchors hybrid and regulated environments.
Together, they represent the core of modern AI and analytics data infrastructure, and F5 unifies them with an intelligent traffic management layer that keeps data moving securely, efficiently, and without interruption.
F5 delivers and secures AI applications anywhere
For more information about our AI data delivery solutions, visit our AI Data Delivery and Infrastructure Solutions webpage. Also, stay tuned for the next blog post in our AI data delivery series focusing on reliability and resiliency.
F5’s focus on AI doesn’t stop with scaling data ingestion and delivery. Explore how F5 secures and delivers AI apps everywhere.
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