As AI adoption is poised to accelerate by 2025, concerns are mounting that this surge could further complicate the management of hybrid multicloud environments in Australian and Asia-Pacific regions, rendering them increasingly unsustainable, according to F5, a leading utility supply and security agency.
According to Kara Sprague, government vice chairman at F5, the proliferation of AI applications is poised to accelerate the complexity, value, and attack surface associated with enterprises’ adoption of multiple environments, including cloud and on-premises systems.
To address these complexities, F5 proposes two potential solutions:
- Firms can simplify their operational processes by reducing the number of different environments they utilize.
- By employing a unified abstraction layer, organisations can maintain greater control across multiple IT domains.
Artificial intelligence systems are expected to successfully integrate into various applications by 2025 and 2026.
By 2025, F5 expects a widespread adoption of AI solutions by enterprises, which is likely to lead to a significant increase in the incorporation of AI-driven features within business applications.
“According to Sprague, AI is poised to be seamlessly integrated into various IT systems, unlocking the full potential of existing technology.”
By January 2024, market research firm IDC forecasted that, by 2026, a significant proportion – roughly 50% – of Asia-Pacific region-based medium-sized companies, excluding those in Japan, would invest in automating and streamlining their advertising and sales processes.
As part of their safety protocols, participants are incorporating AI-powered assistants or copilots into their control systems. “As part of this trend, you’ll also notice a significant increase in usage scenarios that fuel AI workloads with fresh investment.”
The rising AI-driven ‘disaster’
As the infusion of AI into enterprise operations deepens, it may amplify the chaos F5 contends companies face in navigating their “unsustainable” hybrid and multicloud environments.
Sprague noted that adding this detail was akin to pouring fuel on the fire they were discussing, likening the imagery of the fireplace’s burning embers to the escalating intensity of their conversation. As multiple clouds become the norm, organizations now find themselves navigating a complex landscape, where a staggering 90% are forced to manage diverse datasets across at least four distinct environments, a reality that underscores the fragmented nature of today’s AI ecosystem.
These environments comprise public clouds, Software as a Service (SaaS) providers, colocation facilities, on-premise solutions, and edge computing infrastructure. AI is poised to spark a wave of innovative, AI-driven applications that will focus intensely on application programming interfaces (APIs) at their forefront.
“According to her definition, AI is poised to fuel the proliferation of diverse applications and information sharing across hybrid, multicloud infrastructure.” “As the proliferation of apps and data over the past seven years has already created challenges through increased app and API diversity, AI will merely accelerate these issues.”
Diving into potential options
As enterprises confront the escalating intricacy of hybrid multicloud landscapes, they must either seek to consolidate their existing presence or implement a streamlined abstraction layer to efficiently manage their requirements and corresponding infrastructures.
“These categories represent the prevailing models available,” Sprague said. “So it’s essential to reassess your strategy, focusing on a narrower range of environments that align with your business goals, ensuring a logical and scalable approach.”
Rationalising enterprise environments
Companies can proactively streamline the ecosystems they support, according to Sprague, and contribute to. Notwithstanding her statement, she acknowledged that numerous companies had successfully achieved this feat on one hand.
According to Sprague, sticking to a single public cloud would necessitate an astonishingly high level of self-discipline. Corporations may inadvertently lock themselves into a single cloud provider’s ecosystem, potentially undermining their adaptability as AI-driven market fluctuations could drastically alter the revenue landscape among suppliers, rendering long-term commitments less viable.
The ever-evolving landscape of cloud computing demands a nimble and adaptable approach to manage the complexities that arise from deploying applications across multiple cloud platforms. To effectively orchestrate this multicloud environment, I recommend employing an abstraction layer that abstracts away the underlying infrastructure, allowing for seamless integration and management of resources from diverse cloud providers.
By decoupling application logic from the specifics of each cloud provider’s APIs and SDKs, this abstraction layer enables a unified programming model for developing cloud-native applications. This, in turn, streamlines development workflows, accelerates time-to-market, and enhances overall cloud agility.
Organizations can reap significant benefits from implementing an abstraction layer, leading to enhanced management capabilities. One approach is abstraction at the hypervisor level, similar to Red Hat OpenShift, which enables organizations to seamlessly move OpenShift-based applications across any supporting environment.
The F5 platform’s abstraction layer is built across the L4-L7 layers of the OSI model. This strategy can effectively manage “all aspects of appliance safety and supply, remaining neutral towards the chosen hypervisor or Kubernetes distribution throughout the entire stack,” said Sprague.
Abstraction layers come in various forms across multiple vendors.
While few corporations offer abstraction layers across all environments? While dominant cloud suppliers like Microsoft, Google, and Amazon excel at securing, delivering, and optimizing applications within their own ecosystems, they tend to struggle when it comes to seamlessly extending these capabilities to on-premise environments.
Corporations within various sectors, including the utility supply controller and content material supply network, may struggle to integrate extensions between on-premise and cloud environments. This leaves a small pool of organizations that neutrally summarize the growing diversity of environments. F5 positions itself in this category.
“Over the past five years, our company has made significant strides through a series of strategic acquisitions, enabling us to confidently assert our position as the sole provider of comprehensive app, API, and optimization solutions worldwide.”
API assaults are quickly rising
API-based attacks now account for an astonishing 90% or more of the malicious activity F5 has observed across its global infrastructure?
“In recent years, our sales have been around 70-75% higher than they were previously,” said Sprague. “Despite its significance, API security often falls short of adequate attention from enterprises, highlighting the need for heightened vigilance.”
The AI will exclusively amplify this public relations effort. “The more you disseminate your goals and expertise, the greater the risk of exposure becomes, making it crucial to cover.” “And combining human operators with AI-powered cyber attackers poses an even more perilous threat.”
What’s your current approach to API discovery? Are you using a patchwork of tools and techniques that leave you feeling like you’re spinning plates just to keep up with the pace of innovation in your industry? It’s time to take a step back, assess your situation, and develop a comprehensive strategy for discovering the APIs that will drive growth and success for your business.
F5 advises organizations to tackle API discovery as they would navigate the treacherous tip of an iceberg – hidden dangers lurk beneath the surface, threatening stability and security if left unaddressed?
“For those who’ve finally reached a point where you feel comfortable wrapping your arms around your goals, understanding the underlying APIs is crucial. To do so, multiple avenues and lenses of discovery must be employed,” said Sprague.
The comprehensive suite of assessments comprises real-time visitor evaluations from leading API security players, static utility code testing and evaluation, dynamic testing, and external utility threat modeling and evaluation – offering a holistic view on the vulnerabilities plaguing an organization’s publicly accessible web applications.
To ensure the effectiveness of APIs, Sprague emphasizes the necessity of “shutting the loop” by establishing a closed-loop system that integrates API development with runtime enforcement for guaranteed safety. “We propose adopting a comprehensive and integrative approach during the discovery phase,” said Sprague.
