S AL E S P L AY

Secure Multi-Cloud Networking

What’s the Play?
Customers are looking for a comprehensive solution to the multi-cloud networking challenge. They want a
solution that covers networking from L3 through L7. While our competitors view this as a challenge at the
Network (L3) layer, we know that app connectivity is the key differentiator.
F5 is the only multi-cloud networking vendor to provide services beyond standard (traditional) multi-cloud
connectivity, offering industry trusted security and application delivery services — while meeting customer
platform demands — and providing unified services anywhere you deploy.
Why Your Customer Need Help Benefits of Selling Distributed Cloud WAAP
• Extreme delays in onboarding new • Seamless attach to the WAAP selling motion: Adding
environments due to lack of cloud F5XC CE to a WAAP deal adds a layer of security and
expertise. operational simplicity to the customer.
• Difficulty scaling due to legacy app • Support the LBaaS in Cloud use-case by delivering
architectures not optimized for cloud. SaaS operations for App Delivery in any cloud with
• Complex operational seamless attach to App and API Security reinforces
environments caused by numerous point the LBaaS
products used to connect to, and secure, • Increase deal size by including F5XC CEs, and cross-
distributed environments. selling multiple products to provide a full solution.
• Out of control costs driven by the • Create a stronger differentiator in the security space
licensing and use of multiple standalone against Cloudflare and Akamai.
products without an operational model to • Establish the foundation for expansion plays by using
support them. F5XC CE to extend into Edge scenarios.

What to Know
Market Dynamics
Customers are experiencing a shift in how apps are deployed, delivered, and secured. Apps are now
divided into micro-services, deployed in heterogeneous environments (cloud and on-prem), and
communicate with each other via APIs. While this approach originally promised agility, it resulted in a huge
operational burden.

There are 4 basic steps to achieving a connected app environment:

• Create a network that connects multiple environments
• Deliver your apps on this network
• Secure your apps at the network, app, and API layer
• Operate your environment in collaboration with NetOps, SecOps, and DevOps teams.

While this seems simple, the solution is not. Currently, customers are building custom solutions across
multiple traditional network vendors, each with their own portals and tools. This make is difficult and
complicated to provision and operate network & app connectivity across environments.

Net result? It takes months to deploy and deliver an app in a traditional network landscape.

What is F5XC Secure MCN?

F5XC Secure MCN is a SaaS-based platform design to connect, deliver, secure, and operate both networks
and apps across any environment. Secure MCN allows customers to enforce intent -based policies across
environments, monitor and troubleshoot your networks and apps through a single console, and enable
collaboration across NetOps, SecOps, and DevOps teams. With Secure MCN, you can provision and
orchestrate across tools and environments in minutes, automatically. You can also connect your Customer
Edge locations to the F5 global backbone with an integrated L3-L7 service gateway.

© 2023 F5
Ideal Customer Accounts:
•Enterprise accounts with >$1B revenue.
•Target verticals: SLED, Fintech, eComm, High Tech.
•Customers who have rapidly growing, distributed footprints with applications hosted across multiple clouds.
Customers who are modernizing applications through microservices, API-first software development, CI/CD,
and other modern DevOps practices.
•Customers who need observability and mapping of their network infrastructure and application footprint.

Target Buyers

NetOps SecOps DevOps Platform Ops

Responsible for overall
infrastructure strategy and
delivery. Cares about
interoperability, simplicity,
and automation.
Responsible for overall Implements tools and
security strategy. Cares processes to build, deploy,
about security, identity, and deliver apps using
reliability, visibility, code pipelines. Cares
governance, and about performance,
compliance reliability, and
automation.
Cross-functional group
that architects the tools
and platforms required by
engineering teams. Cares
about removing friction,
scaling security, and
gaining visibility.

What to Say
• With F5, you can connect, deliver, secure and operate your networks and applications across any
environment (public cloud, on-prem or edge) in minutes.
• Reduce Complexity - F5 makes it ridiculously easy to connect, deliver, and secure your networks
across hybrid/multi-cloud environments
• Reduce Costs - Consolidate multiple point products into an integrated L3-L7 gateway via CE to
provide routing, segmentation, network security with 3rd party service insertion, app delivery &
security, API discovery and security
• Reduce Time-To-Value - Streamline operations Day0 & Day2 via centralized intent-based policies,
end-to-end visibility and a platform build for collaboration across NetOps, DevOps and SecOps
teams

Qualifying Questions
• How many different cloud providers does your organization deal with?
• How many private clouds, co-lo datacenters, or on-prem sites?
How is your organization handling securing connectivity to cloud providers and distributed workload
locations?
• How are you securely and performantly connecting applications architectures?
• What challenges are you encountering as you connect to multiple cloud Providers?
• What is the business impact of an app outage or breach?

Additional Resources
FY24 Secure Multi-Clloud Marketing Sales & Marketing Kit

© 2023 F5