F5 Recognized by KuppingerCole as a Leader in Web Application Firewall Market in 2024 Leadership Compass Report

F5 Showcased for its Overall, Product, Innovation, and Market Leadership

SEATTLE – F5 (NASDAQ: FFIV) today announced that it has been positioned as an Overall Leader in the 2024 KuppingerCole Leadership Compass Report for Web Application Firewalls (WAFs). The report provides an overview of the WAF market and assesses vendors based on innovation, market presence, and technology. F5 is spotlighted as a forerunner, setting the bar for excellence in cybersecurity defenses.

Applications are at the heart of all digital experiences, and when they are secure, they unlock value and potential. But just as apps have become critical for life online, they have also become harder to protect. Today’s apps are built on multiple architectures, distributed over various cloud environments, and connected by an exploding number of APIs – complexity that requires more skill and resources to manage, while creating more points of vulnerability for cybercriminals to attack. 

To address these challenges, F5 offers the most comprehensive WAF solutions on the market and is the only solution provider that secures, delivers, and optimizes any app, any API, anywhere. F5’s WAF capabilities -- across all of its product families -- are designed to solve its customers’ most difficult hybrid and multicloud pain points.

“F5 is well known for their application protection solutions, including F5 Distributed Cloud WAAP, NGINX App Protect, and BIG-IP Advanced WAF evaluated in this Leadership Compass,” said Osman Celik, research analyst at KuppingerCole and author of the report. “F5’s solutions offer versatile deployment models and integration with major platforms, making it a strong candidate for enterprises with complex, multicloud environments.”

The report covered multiple products within F5’s portfolio, and highlighted the leadership of F5 Distributed Cloud WAAP, noting that the solution distinguishes itself with an impressive suite of capabilities that deliver robust protection for any application. The Leadership Compass report identifies F5 as outshining competitors in multiple expanded critical areas including API security, bot management, and Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) defense.

The report also emphasizes F5’s sophisticated approach to integrating Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) within its WAF solutions. This strategic use of AI technology enables F5 to offer dynamic protection mechanisms that are both predictive and adaptive, safeguarding digital assets against a multitude of threats.

The Leadership Compass Report highlights F5’s strength in several areas:

• Comprehensive DDoS mitigation infrastructure designed to defend against sophisticated attacks.
• AI and ML-powered behavioral analysis that enhances threat detection and response.
• Scalable deployment models that support cloud, on-premises, containers, serverless platforms, and VM instances.
• Superior API security that safeguards against the OWASP Top 10 for APIs, addressing critical vulnerabilities with precision.

“We are honored to be recognized by KuppingerCole as an overall leader in the 2024 Leadership Compass Report for WAFs,” said Greg Maudsley, senior director, product marketing at F5. “Our WAF solutions stand at the forefront of safeguarding web applications as we continue to integrate advanced AI and ML technologies to deliver proactive, adaptable defenses in a rapidly changing cyber landscape. This acknowledgment reaffirms that our solutions deliver the capabilities that most effectively meet customers’ needs in protecting any application or API.”

For additional perspective on this news, please see a companion blog post from F5.