To improve AI efficiency and security in sovereign cloud environments, NVIDIA and F5 are integrating NVIDIA BlueField-3 DPUs with the F5 BIG-IP Next for Kubernetes for application delivery and security.The collaboration, announced today at the NVIDIA AI Summit in Mumbai, India, is ideal for industries with strict data governance, privacy or compliance requirements and addresses the growing demand for scalable AI infrastructure.Were working with NVIDIA to enable industries to deploy scalable, secure AI solutions faster, with better performance, all while ensuring data remains protected, said Ahmed Guetari, vice president and general manager, service provider at F5.The collaboration aims to help governments and industries manage sensitive data while accelerating AI application delivery. The sovereign cloud market is projected to reach $250 billion by 2027, according to IDC. Meanwhile, ABI Research projects the market for foundation models will be $30 billion by 2027.Sovereign clouds are built to meet strict data privacy and localization requirements. Theyre critical for industries handling sensitive data, such as telecommunications and financial services, as well as government agencies.F5 BIG-IP Next for Kubernetes deployed on NVIDIA BlueField-3 DPUs offers a secure and compliant AI networking infrastructure, allowing industries to adopt advanced AI capabilities without compromising data privacy.By offloading tasks like load balancing, routing and security to the BlueField-3 DPU, F5 BIG-IP Next for Kubernetes efficiently routes AI prompts to LLM instances and reduces energy use. This ensures scalable AI performance while optimizing GPU resource utilization.NVIDIA NIM microservices, which accelerate the deployment of foundation models, will also benefit from the collaboration thanks to more efficient AI workload management.The combined solutions from NVIDIA and F5 promise enhanced security and efficiency, key for industries transitioning to cloud-native infrastructures. With these innovations, industries in highly regulated sectors can scale AI applications securely and confidently, meeting the highest standards for data protection.Editors note: The figures on the global sovereign cloud market come from IDCs Worldwide Sovereign Cloud Market Forecast, 20222027 report, Doc # US49695922, published in November 2023. The data on the generative AI software market are courtesy of ABI Researchs Gen AI Software report, MD-AISG-101, published in July 2024.