SKT Partners with Global Security Firm F5 to Strengthen AI Security Business

[Financial News] SKT is joining forces with global security firm F5 to strengthen its artificial intelligence (AI) cloud security business.
SKT announced on the 16th that it had signed a partnership with F5 to strengthen cooperation in the AI cloud security business. The two companies will pursue a dual partnership encompassing value-added reseller (VAR) and managed service provider (MSP) roles for F5 solutions.
F5, headquartered in Seattle, is a security company specializing in multicloud applications and application programming interface (API) security. It provides solutions to more than 90% of Fortune 500 companies worldwide.
The partnership was formed to address security needs in increasingly complex cloud environments as the AI market expands. In particular, the spread of agentic AI, which can make decisions and perform tasks autonomously, is increasing connections between AI systems and external services as well as collaboration among multiple AI systems. As a result, the importance of securing these connection points is also growing, the companies explained.
Through the partnership, SKT has secured technologies including F5’s distributed cloud-based web application firewall (WAF), API security, distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack protection, and bot attack protection. This will enable the company to strengthen its security framework for protecting applications and APIs in multicloud and hybrid cloud environments.
SKT plans to expand its business into integrated managed services covering deployment, operations, and security by combining its existing expertise in operating AI cloud infrastructure with F5’s security portfolio. It will also strengthen its competitiveness in the AI cloud business for enterprise customers by linking these capabilities with its existing infrastructure, including AI data centers (AIDCs), GPU as a service (GPUaaS), and network circuits.
Heo Min-hoe, head of AI Cloud at SKT, said, "SKT is expanding its enterprise AI infrastructure business based on its AI cloud capabilities and infrastructure assets, including AI data centers, GPUaaS, and network circuits. By combining these with F5’s technology and expertise, we will be able to offer significantly enhanced solutions to large enterprise customers."
[email protected] Yoon Hong-jip Reporter