Application programming interfaces, more commonly known by the acronym application programming interface (API), are at the foundation of connecting modern applications and artificial intelligence (AI) services.

In an effort to help protect APIs, F5 today announced a series of enhancements to its F5 Distributed Cloud Services platform with end-to-end API security and observability. In addition to API security advancements, F5 is making AI pervasive across its application delivery and security solutions portfolio. This includes the new F5 AI Data Fabric and an AI assistant coming later this year.

“Customers are telling us that AI is driving demand for a comprehensive API security solution,” Mike Rau, GM of distributed cloud at F5, told SDxCentral.

F5 has been advancing the development of its subscription-based Distributed Cloud Services software-as-a-service (SAAS) platform over the past year.

The new API security capabilities benefit in large part from F5’s recent acquisition of privately-held API security vendor Wib. The addition of API security technology acquired from Wib allows vulnerability detection during development, ensuring risks are addressed before APIs go into production.

F5's API security now spans the entire life cycle from build time to runtime, combining capabilities like discovery, testing, posture management and runtime protection in one integrated platform. Rau noted that F5's XC services already offered an API security solution prior to the addition of technology from Wib.

[caption id="attachment_138299" align="alignnone" width="817"] Image source: F5.[/caption]

“By integrating Wib’s technology, F5 is able to shift further left and provide more visibility, testing and context to APIs and their associated risks,” Rau said.

In addition to the API security advancements announced today, F5 expects to release its new F5 AI Data Fabric and an AI assistant later this year.

The basic idea behind the AI Data Fabric is that there is a unified data repository across F5 services. Rau explained that the F5 AI Data Fabric follows a data lakehouse architecture where all data is stored in cloud object storage and is used to apply compute to telemetry data for analysis.

F5 products have the ability to collect telemetry from customers’ applications. With F5 AI Data Fabric, the company will be providing a place to aggregate telemetry and give customers insights into performance, availability, and security posture of their applications.

It also has particular applicability for AI applications.

“One key difference of the AI Data Fabric is that it contains an ecosystem of tools that allow product groups at F5 to very quickly build AI-enabled apps,” he said. “These tools allow a subject matter expert to do things that were previously limited to data scientists.”

For example, Rau said they can use the AI ecosystem in the data fabric to label training data, or even train and deploy models.

The F5 AI Data Fabric will also be used to power the company's new AI assistant. Rau said the new assistant at its core is an extension of the company’s XC console.

“We provide a natural language interface for users to type in queries and receive information that leads to a clear actionable next step,” he said. “Users can query things such as how was the last attack, or give me recommendations. The interface lets users interact with the data to get better coverage. ”