F5 Strengthening Cloud Security with $68 Million Threat Stack Acquisition

F5 is shelling out $68 million for Threat Stack, a privately held provider of cloud security and workload protection.

F5’s application and API protection solutions will combine with Threat Stack’s cloud security capabilities and expertise.

The acquisition, subject to customary closing conditions, should close by the end of the year. Mark Weiner is vice president of marketing in F5’s security product group.

F5 Networks’ Mark Weiner

“We will begin a lot of the work with partners after the acquisition closes,” he said. “We expect opportunities for our channel partners to build new areas of technology integration with cloud providers and vendor partners that will provide expanded visibility and protection for their customers, and further strengthen both their and F5‘s ecosystem and customer value. Once the acquisition closes, we will work closely and strategically to strengthen our combined partner ecosystem.”

Detecting and Mitigating Threats

F5 provides adaptive applications that enable customers to secure and deliver digital experiences. A core tenet of adaptive applications is detecting and mitigating threats in real time. The addition of Threat Stack will accelerate the delivery of this capability for F5’s customers, the company said.

“Threat Stack provides technology and talent to strengthen F5’s application security capabilities and accelerate our adaptive applications vision through broader cloud observability and actionable security insights for customers,” Weiner added.

The acquisition will strengthen both F5 and its partners’ competitive advantage, he said.

“F5’s application and API protection solutions combined with Threat Stack’s cloud security capabilities and expertise will enhance visibility across application infrastructure and workloads, making it easier for customers to adopt consistent security in any cloud,” Weiner said. “In addition, Threat Stack’s proactive risk identification and real-time threat detection combined with the breadth of F5’s application insights and controls will improve protection of mission critical apps and ease the burden on security teams.”

Haiyan Song is F5‘s executive vice president of security.

“Applications are the backbone of today’s modern businesses, and protecting them is mission-critical for our customers,” she said  “Threat Stack brings technology and talent that will strengthen F5’s security capabilities and further our adaptive applications vision with broader cloud observability and actionable security insights for customers.”