F5 BIG-IP Next for Kubernetes on NVIDIA BlueField DPU provides a Kubernetes-native control point for AI traffic, tenant isolation, telemetry, and policy
SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--F5 (NASDAQ: FFIV), the global leader in delivering and securing every app and API, today announced that Telenor AI Factory has selected F5 BIG-IP Next for Kubernetes as an intelligent AI service plane for its NVIDIA-powered sovereign AI infrastructure. Telenor AI Factory is designed to help Norwegian and European organizations access secure, high-performance AI services while maintaining control over where data is processed, stored, and accessed.
Sovereign AI requires more than national GPU capacity. It requires an operational AI service plane that can govern where data flows, how tenants are isolated, and how policy is enforced in real time.
Telenor AI Factory addresses growing European sovereignty requirements by combining Telenor’s national infrastructure and connectivity with NVIDIA-powered AI infrastructure and F5’s intelligent traffic management, security, and governance capabilities.
With F5 BIG-IP Next for Kubernetes, Telenor can apply policy, visibility, tenant isolation, and traffic control directly in the AI service path. In the future, Telenor also plans to leverage F5 technology to expand the service plane with token-aware governance and more advanced inference traffic optimization as commercial AI services scale.
F5 BIG-IP Next for Kubernetes on NVIDIA BlueField DPU provides the following capabilities for Telenor AI Factory:
- Secure multi-tenancy and network isolation enable customers to share sovereign GPU infrastructure while mitigating the challenge of tenant interference, policy drift, and data exposure.
- Policy-based traffic control aligns ingress, egress, API interactions, and operational telemetry with sovereignty and compliance requirements.
- Real-time observability and telemetry provide visibility for operations, auditability, and compliance reporting.
- Planned token-aware governance and circuit breaking help manage AI consumption, enforce usage policies, and support entitlement, reporting, and billing workflows.
- Planned inference-aware traffic optimization improves utilization and maintains consistent performance across dynamic AI inference workloads.
Building digital sovereignty into AI Factory infrastructure
Sovereign AI is defined not only by where infrastructure is located, but also by how AI traffic, customer data, telemetry, and policy are controlled. Telenor AI Factory is designed to help Norwegian and European organizations meet these requirements while supporting the needs of highly regulated industries.
F5 BIG-IP Next for Kubernetes provides policy enforcement in the data path, enabling Telenor to apply consistent controls across ingress, egress, API interactions, observability, and AI inference traffic.
Extending the AI service plane as services scale
Telenor plans additional AI-specific capabilities as commercial services scale, including token-aware usage visibility and policy controls, circuit breaking, and more advanced inference-aware traffic management. These capabilities from F5 are intended to support greater control over AI consumption as well as entitlement, reporting, and billing workflows.
By running F5’s traffic-management data plane on NVIDIA BlueField-3, selected networking and security functions can be accelerated and isolated from host workloads. This preserves host CPU capacity for AI applications, strengthens the enforcement boundary between infrastructure and tenants, and helps reduce data-path bottlenecks as commercial AI services scale.
Supporting quotes
“At Telenor AI Factory, our purpose is to give Norwegian and European enterprises access to trusted, secure, and high-performance AI services. Sovereignty has to extend beyond where infrastructure sits to how AI services are operated and governed. F5 gives us a policy and traffic-control layer we can build on as we scale services for customers,” said Kaaren Hilsen, CEO of Telenor AI Factory.
“As AI factories move from infrastructure projects to commercial service platforms, service providers need a way to govern AI traffic, tenants, telemetry, and policy in real time. With BIG-IP Next for Kubernetes, Telenor is establishing an AI service plane that can grow with its sovereign AI services, including a path to deeper token-aware governance and DPU acceleration as requirements evolve,” said Kunal Anand, Chief Product Officer at F5.
“Together, NVIDIA-powered AI infrastructure and F5 BIG-IP Next for Kubernetes on BlueField-3 help service providers such as Telenor deliver high-performance AI services while maintaining the governance, control, and security required for sovereign AI,” said Ash Bhalgat, Sr. Director, AI Ecosystem and Marketing, at NVIDIA.
Supporting resources
- Learn more about F5 for sovereign AI
- Learn more about F5 BIG-IP Next for Kubernetes
- Learn more about Telenor AI Factory
- About Telenor
About F5
F5, Inc. (NASDAQ: FFIV) is the global leader that delivers and secures every app. Backed by three decades of expertise, F5 has built the industry’s premier platform—F5 Application Delivery and Security Platform (ADSP)—to deliver and secure every app, every API, anywhere: on-premises, in the cloud, at the edge, and across hybrid, multicloud environments. F5 is committed to innovating and partnering with the world’s largest and most advanced organizations to deliver fast, available, and secure digital experiences. Together, we help each other thrive and bring a better digital world to life.
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F5, BIG-IP, BIG-IP Next, and F5 ADSP are trademarks, service marks, or tradenames of F5, Inc. or its affiliates in the U.S. and other countries. All other product and company names herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.
The use of the terms “partner,” “partners,” “partnership,” or “partnering” in this press release does not imply that a joint venture exists between F5 and any other company.
This press release contains forward-looking statements, including statements about the planned capabilities, availability, and expected benefits of F5 BIG-IP Next for Kubernetes for Telenor AI Factory. Actual results may differ materially due to technical, commercial, and other factors, including the risks described in F5’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q. F5 undertakes no obligation to update these statements.
Source: F5, Inc.
Contacts
Dan Sorensen
F5
(650) 228-4842
d.sorensen@f5.com
Holly Lancaster
We. Communications
(415) 547-7054
hlancaster@wecommunications.com
