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

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

SEATTLE, JANUARY 16, 2018 ‒ F5 Networks (NASDAQ: FFIV) today announced the results of its 2018 State of Application Delivery report. The global customer survey shows accelerating multi-cloud deployments are enabling organizations to select the cloud platform that best meets the requirements of a specific application. However, this also increases the challenges many companies face in managing operations and security across multiple clouds as they transform their application portfolio to compete in the digital economy.

“In this year’s report, respondents made clear they are heavily focused on building the foundation necessary for application driven digital transformation,” said Cindy Borovick, Business Intelligence Director at F5. “As a result, many are moving toward multi-cloud environments that will enable them to reinvent themselves as platforms for competitive differentiation and innovation, helping create business success in the digital economy.”

In its fourth year, the State of Application Delivery report examines the vital role of application services, enabling enterprises to deploy applications faster, smarter, and safer. Over 3,000 IT, networking, application, and security 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.

Survey Highlights

Survey responses came from around the globe, spanning industries like government, financial services, technology, and education. 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 remains the primary driver for digital transformation projects, according to 72 percent of respondents, while nearly half said digital transformation is encouraging the delivery of applications from the cloud (49 percent). Furthermore, 47 percent stated that it is changing how they develop applications, and 41 percent reported exploring new application architectures such as containers and microservices.
   
• Multi-cloud enables the “best cloud for the app” strategy: Most organizations pursue a best-of-breed strategy for each application deployment, leading to multi-cloud architectures. Nearly nine in ten respondents reported using multiple clouds (87 percent), with 56 percent saying cloud decisions are made on a per application basis.
   
• Application services are the gateways to the future: On average, organizations take advantage of 16 different application services to keep their apps fast, safe, and available. Security is still the most important application service, but gateway services emerged as a critical need this year as IT organizations prepare for the digital economy. Four of the top five services organizations plan to deploy in the next 12 months are application gateway services, including SDN, API, IoT and HTTP/2.
   
• Security confidence falls as multi-cloud rises: Digital transformation drives 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, this year 28 percent said protecting applications is a top security challenge. This has led to an increase in organizations deploying Web Application Firewalls (WAFs), with 70 percent saying they have one deployed and another 19 percent planning to deploy in the next 12 months.
   
• Automation and orchestration: Full steam ahead: IT is embracing programmability—and standardizing on their automation and orchestration environments—to realize leaner IT with the goal of reducing OpEx. Nearly three in four (74 percent) of respondents declare the use of automation in the operation of IT infrastructure to be “somewhat” or “very” important. The majority (70 percent) are using automation to realize leaner IT with the goal of reducing OpEx, while over half (51 percent) are looking to scale to meet demand.

Additional Resources

• Download the full 2018 State of Application Delivery report at f5.com/SOAD
• SOAD 2018: Digital Transformation Driving Automation and Multi-Cloud Despite Security Concerns – F5 Blog Post
• Four Years in Review: What’s Changed in the State of Application Delivery – F5 Blog Post
• SOAD 2018: Security Again Edges Out Availability as Most Important App Service – F5 Labs Blog Post

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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