F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition on Equinix Network Edge

AI and hybrid multicloud are straining application delivery models

The rapid evolution of AI and the increasing complexity of hybrid multicloud environments are pushing traditional application delivery models to their breaking points. With 86% of enterprises running applications across on-premises, public cloud, and colocation environments according to the F5 2026 State of Application Strategy Report, this presents challenges. Each environment typically runs its own delivery and security stack, creating configuration sprawl and policy gaps.

Three challenges reshaping application delivery

When it comes to delivering applications, most organizations face three common challenges managing hybrid multicloud IT environments and AI adoption.

• Operational complexity: Distributed environments create a heavy “operational tax,” with infrastructure and network operations teams forced to manage fragmented application delivery controller (ADC) stacks, disparate security configurations, and siloed observability tools.
• AI-specific delivery demands: AI adoption introduces fundamentally different application delivery and security requirements. Data volumes are orders of magnitude larger, requiring massive throughput for model training, fine-tuning, and retrieval-augmented generation (RAG). Inference endpoints require low-latency, predictable routing for better performance.
• Application and AI security: Most organizations can secure public-facing applications. However, AI multiplies the attack surface: internal APIs, model-serving endpoints, data pipelines, and autonomous agents operate outside the reach of traditional perimeter tools.

Better application control and performance without more hardware

F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition (VE) on Equinix Network Edge provides a single control point to deliver, secure, and observe every traditional and AI application from data center to cloud.

BIG-IP VE is the industry’s most scalable virtual application delivery controller, facilitating high-performance application delivery and security processing across all leading hypervisors and cloud platforms. BIG-IP VE supports the same market-leading app services suite as physical BIG-IP appliances, enabling configurations and policies to be replicated, reused, and centrally managed anywhere within your multicloud ecosystem.

Equinix Network Edge provides a private, metro-based interconnection fabric that lets infrastructure, security, and application teams deploy F5 BIG-IP VE wherever the business needs a new point of presence. Teams provision BIG-IP VE instances on demand Network Edge-enabled metros worldwide, so a point of presence can be added, changed, or retired as the business needs it—without requiring a long-lived physical commitment—while private, SLA-backed interconnection keeps traffic off costly public paths for better application delivery and performance.

With BIG-IP VE on Equinix Network Edge, you can benefit from:

• BIG-IP Automation Toolchain (AS3, Declarative Onboarding): Drop into existing CI/CD and infrastructure as code (IaC) workflows to accelerate deployment speed, eliminate manual ticket backlogs, and ensure consistent, repeatable, and error-free security policy propagation.
• Equinix Network Edge VNFs: Replace upfront CAPEX with agile, on-demand OPEX and deploy secure points of presence in minutes instead of months.
• Equinix Fabric Private Interconnection: Cut cloud egress fees, eliminate traffic backhauling, and deliver low, predictable latency for critical transactions and AI inferences.
• Full-stack consolidated security: Eliminate point-product sprawl and administrative overhead while enforcing identical security policy intent across hybrid landscapes.
• AI-optimized traffic profiles: Accelerate heavy data movement for model training and RAG pipelines and secure the connectivity between AI models and data sources, tools, and apps.

Figure 1. BIG-IP Virtual Edition deployed on Equinix Network Edge

Completing the F5 Application Delivery and Security Platform

The F5 Application Delivery and Security Platform (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 for the most intensive workloads.

F5 and Equinix have already partnered around NGINX Plus and more recently, F5 Distributed Cloud Services with the Network Edge and F5 AI Guardrails with Equinix Distributed AI Hub.

With BIG-IP VE now available on Equinix Network Edge for application delivery control customers can choose the components of the F5 Application Delivery and Security Platform (ADSP) that best fits your deployment strategies, AI security, and application delivery control needs.

Secure AI, modernize hybrid multicloud, and reduce egress costs with F5 and Equinix

Working together, F5 and Equinix allow you to rapidly deploy AI security at strategic edge metros while providing virtual application delivery control that replaces aging ADCs without hardware procurement or new physical build-outs. Avoid centralized architectures that force traffic through hub data centers to reach clouds and partners, driving up latency and egress costs.

Learn more about F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition or sign up for a free 14-day trial of Equinix Network Edge to test F5 BIG-IP VE in your own environment.

Learn more about the F5 and Equinix partnership.

Key benefits

Expand, adapt, and accelerate growth with less risk

Reduce time-to-value when standing up new digital points of presence without the friction or risk of requiring heavy upfront infrastructure investment.

Standardize control across environments

Use the same policies, automation, and observability across on-premises, multicloud, and edge environments.

Secure application surfaces

Apply consistent web application firewall (WAF), API security, and zero-trust controls across public apps, internal APIs, and AI pipelines.

Leverage pre-existing BIG-IP investments

Avoid rip and replace by mixing physical and virtual infrastructure to benefit from existing BIG-IP policies, iRules, and operational knowledge.

Reduce application delivery costs and improve experiences

Use private, low latency Equinix Fabric interconnection to avoid backhauling traffic through centralized hubs that drive up latency and egress fees.