Organizations are now distributing applications and APIs across more environments than ever before. More than one-third of respondents to F5’s State of Application Strategy (SOAS) report are hosting their applications in at least six environments including on-premises data centers, multiple clouds, and the edge.
However, this approach has created a highly complex landscape that has left organizations and IT teams unable to operate at the speed their business demands. At F5, we call this growing complexity the “Ball of Fire.”
Today’s enterprises are managing an exploding number of apps and APIs across an increasingly distributed environment—creating a tangled “Ball of Fire” reality.
Challenges of a hybrid, multicloud environment
Today, IT teams are tasked with managing hundreds of applications connected by an ever-expanding number of APIs that are distributed across a growing number of environments. While hybrid, multicloud environments can lead to greater flexibility, resilience, and access to advanced technologies, they can also create an unsustainable situation in terms of both efficiency and security:
- Siloed environments: With an ad hoc hybrid, multicloud IT landscape, organizations are required to deploy redundant core services across multiple environments. This sprawling, multi-environmental ecosystem has led to an inefficient process for IT teams, compounded by the number of manual tasks required to operate across different, diverse environments, and the operational silos that emerge within such a disparate operation. A consequence of this inefficiency is the increased cost to run such an infrastructure.
- An expanded attack surface: The greater complexity of a hybrid, multicloud environment increases the risk of security breaches, data loss, and regulatory non-compliance. Organizations are required to manage multiple security policies and access controls, leading to more potential vulnerabilities. As enterprises run more and more modern applications across an expanded ecosystem, securing the application layer has also become significantly more challenging. This is because this new web of connectivity has created an expanded attack surface for cybercriminals. In fact, 81% of the total attacks mitigated by F5 Distributed Cloud Services in the first quarter of 2024 were targeted toward APIs. As apps become the front door to cybercrime, APIs are increasingly seen as the key by bad actors.
- Lack of visibility: Differences in controls, logs, and tooling limit visibility across the entire landscape, making it difficult to troubleshoot and respond to incidents. It also makes it difficult to obtain the insights required to secure and optimize applications and APIs across the entire landscape.
AI is fueling the complexity
The rise of AI is only compounding this problem. Between 2023 and 2024, the number of companies working on AI-assisted business initiatives rose by 40%. As AI continues to be integrated into enterprise operations, it will accelerate today’s distributed environment, while unleashing a flood of new AI-driven apps and an even greater number of APIs.
Traditionally, organizations have used disparate tools to monitor, secure, and manage APIs throughout the app development lifecycle. In an AI-driven future, this approach is not sustainable. The increasing deployment of API gateways by F5 customers—95% in 2024 compared to 35% in 2019—indicates a shift towards comprehensive API security solutions has already begun.
A single-platform approach
At F5, we believe in meeting customers where they are so they can reap the rewards of a hybrid, multicloud environment today without succumbing to future challenges. By helping organizations to secure, deliver, and optimize every app and API across their hybrid and multicloud environments, they can tame the growing Ball of Fire.
Today, customers rely on too many point solutions. They may have a different solution and different vendor for every infrastructure environment. Not only does this lead to multiple management consoles, but it prevents them from implementing consistent policies across all of these different environments.
To simplify their increasingly complex environments, enterprises need an integrated and comprehensive suite of best-in-class capabilities delivered through a single platform.
A single-platform approach enables automated security reconnaissance and penetration testing capabilities so enterprises and IT teams can pinpoint and address application and API vulnerabilities. It also enables enterprises to implement unified management and uniform policies, while obtaining consistent visibility across all of their environments. Not only does this help companies get better control over their security, but it also simplifies operations, while reducing operational costs.
Extinguishing the Ball of Fire
Hybrid, multicloud is the key to delivering extraordinary digital experiences that businesses and their customers require. Yet these complex environments bring a tremendous amount of operational complexity, cost, and risk.
With an integrated platform for delivering, securing, and optimizing all of their apps and APIs across today’s increasingly distributed environment, organizations can tame the Ball of Fire—radically simplifying the complexity that holds their businesses back.
Ready to streamline and secure your hybrid, multicloud approach? Get in touch with an F5 sales rep.
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