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F5 Networks, the network traffic management company, announced that it would be acquiring Volterra, an edge-as-a-service company. The deal is valued at $500 million and will be settled using $440 million in cash and $60 million in future consideration.

Volterra was founded in 2017 and launched out of stealth in November 2019. It offers a service-based infrastructure platform used to help enterprises distribute apps across the public cloud, the private cloud, and the network edge.

The platform is valuable to DevOps and NetOps teams, as it makes it easy to deal with problems in operations, security, and performance, by distributing apps and data across clouds or edge environments.

Relieving the pains of complex multi-cloud environments

DevOps teams use Volterra to manage large sets of apps with less complexity and NetOps teams use it to simplify networking app to app and security across all cloud environments. Volterra users are both small businesses and Fortune 100 companies.

Some of the customers include Softbank Group, Kindred Group, Cdiscount, Digital Virgo, Net One Systems, and Cyber Test Systems.

F5 Networks hopes that the acquisition will bring a new Edge 2.0 open edge platform that will ensure the company can gain a strong foothold in enterprise application and delivery by solving challenges that are inherent in Edge 1.0 solutions.

It is time for Edge 2.0

F5 Networks’ president and CEO, François Locoh-Donou, says that current edge solutions are not adequate for modern enterprise customers. He believes that it is time to leave the closed edge systems that make it hard to build, run, and secure apps.

With Volterra, F5 can push forward its Adaptive Applications vision with an Edge 2.0 platform that will solve the challenges faced by customers who use complex multi-cloud environments.

Volterra had raised $75 million in two funding rounds before the acquisition.