F5 Survey Reveals Digital Transformation Initiatives Driving Sudden Surge in Emerging Application Services for Government Organizations

State of Application Delivery report shows rise of multi-cloud architectures necessitating automation and application-centric security approaches

SEATTLE ‒ F5 Networks (NASDAQ: FFIV) today announced the global public sector results of its 2018 State of Application Delivery report. The customer survey shows that embracing multi-cloud deployments is enabling government organizations to select the cloud platform that best meets the requirements of a specific application. However, this also increases the challenges many government organizations face in managing operations and security across multiple clouds as they transform their application portfolio.

“Government respondents made it clear they are heavily focused on building the foundation necessary for application-driven digital transformation,” said Peter Kersten, Regional Vice President, Federal Sales at F5. “Around the world, government organizations are shifting towards digital government, and with that we see government organizations embracing the cloud, adopting automation and orchestration, and adjusting security strategies.”

In its fourth year, the State of Application Delivery report examines the vital role of application services, enabling organizations to deploy applications faster, smarter, and safer. For the first time, the report broke out the results from specific verticals, and almost 300 government IT professionals from around the world weighed in on application delivery topics ranging from public and private cloud and multi-cloud adoption, to rising security challenges, to automation, orchestration, and the future of enterprise application services.

“Public sector organizations overwhelmingly understand the strategic importance of the hybrid cloud and its ability to support mission critical applications,” said Terry Drinkwine, Vice President, Carahsoft, F5’s government distribution partner and GSA schedule holder. “However, security challenges are exponentially higher in the public sector and the survey results show that increasing security at the application layer is critical for government agencies. F5 brings much needed capabilities to the public sector marketplace that support our government customers and reseller partners in a unique way and help them to address this challenge.”

Survey Highlights

Survey respondents’ roles ranged from infrastructure, IT security, application development, and DevOps to the executive suite. Key takeaways include:

• Digital transformation inspires new architectures and IT optimization initiatives: Optimizing IT infrastructure and processes remain the most desired benefits driving digital transformation projects, according to 79 percent of respondents, while 42 percent said digital transformation is encouraging the delivery of applications from the cloud. Furthermore, 47 percent stated that it is changing how they develop applications, and one-third reported exploring new application architectures such as containers and microservices.
   
• Multi-cloud enables the “best cloud for the app” strategy: Governments in all regions agree cloud will have a strategic role, even if their specific focus is split between public and private cloud. Most organizations pursue a best-of-breed strategy for each application deployment, leading to multi-cloud architectures. While cloud adoption by government is lower (34 percent of government respondents reported over 25 percent of applications in the cloud compared to 45 percent of all respondents with over 25 percent of applications in the cloud), nearly eight in ten respondents reported using multiple clouds (79 percent), with 57 percent saying cloud decisions are made on a per application basis.
   
• Application services are the gateways to the future: Planned services deployments show government organizations embracing security and application engagement. Security is still the most important application service, but application engagement emerged as a critical need this year as IT organizations prepare for the digital economy. The top five services government organizations plan to deploy in the next 12 months are global server load balancing (GSLB), identity federation, API gateway, single sign-on, and content delivery network (CDN)
   
• Security confidence wanes as public cloud adoption waxes: Digital transformation drives government organizations to deliver more apps from the cloud, yet organizational confidence to withstand an attack has taken a hit due to lack of experience and expertise in securing applications deployed in public clouds. In fact, 33 percent said protecting applications is a top security challenge. When we asked organizations to let us know what technologies they use to protect applications, 65 percent reported they are using Web Application Firewalls (WAFs).
   
• Automation and orchestration: Full steam ahead: Nearly three in four (73 percent) respondents declare the use of automation in the operation of IT infrastructure to be “somewhat” or “very” important. The majority (62 percent) are using automation to realize leaner IT with the goal of reducing OpEx, while just under half (43 percent) are looking to scale to meet demand.

About F5

F5 (NASDAQ: FFIV) makes apps go faster, smarter, and safer for the world’s largest businesses, service providers, governments, and consumer brands. F5 delivers cloud and security solutions that enable organizations to embrace the application infrastructure they choose without sacrificing speed and control. For more information, go to f5.com. You can also follow @f5networks on Twitter or visit us on LinkedIn and Facebook for more information about F5, its partners, and technologies.

F5 is a trademark or service mark of F5 Networks, Inc., in the U.S. and other countries. All other product and company names herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.

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