-A new point of presence (PoP) site in the UAE expands the global reach for F5 Distributed Cloud Services; a purpose-built cloud-native platform that connects and secures distributed applications, ensuring high performance and carrier-grade reliability.

By : Mohamed Elkholy

F5 is set to expand its global network presence with a new point of presence (PoP) in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Scheduled to launch in early 2024, the PoP is part of a purpose-built cloud-native platform that connects and secures distributed applications in multi-cloud and edge environments.  

“Apps deployed across distributed global environments are difficult to manage. Meanwhile, traffic from the public Internet is at risk of being compromised during transit. More than ever, optimizing and securing APIs can be challenging,” said Mohammed Abukhater, RVP for the Middle East, Türkiye and Africa at F5. “Optimized for app-to-app connectivity and security, our PoPs stand out in the market by consolidating multiple services across monolithic and microservices apps.

This significantly simplifies app management, security, and network connectivity across distributed infrastructures. The ability to manage and protect application workloads via an F5 PoP will be hugely beneficial for our existing, and future, customers across the region.”

Providing 15+ Tbps of peered capacity, all F5 PoPs are interconnected using a dedicated and redundant private backbone, multiple transit and peering connections for direct connectivity across multiple cloud providers, enterprise cloud and edge locations, and telecom operators.

It also gives customers the capability to offload high-performance or latency-sensitive workloads, and functions as a distributed control plane with software running on the customer’s edge or cloud site.

Furthermore, the Distributed Cloud Platform provides routing, SD-WAN termination, load balancing, multi-layer security, Kubernetes-based app orchestration, and a globally distributed app gateway – accessible from every PoP on the F5 global network.

Other notable PoP features include:

·       DDoS protection: Automatic security for infrastructure and apps across hybrid- or multi-cloud with global L3–L7+ DDoS protection.

·       Network security: Network firewall and AI-based anomaly detection to prevent attacks at the network level. All traffic between F5 PoPs is fully encrypted using IPsec and segmented using L3 VPNs.

·       Application security: Using a combination of threat feeds, signature matching, and advanced algorithmic + AI/ML techniques, we protect customer APIs and applications from attacks via the public Internet or within the enterprise.

·       Physical security: All F5 PoPs are built in major colocation facilities at Equinix, Telehouse, Cologix and Digital Realty with strict security procedures like video sensors, biometrics, and human verification to ensure secure platform access.