Multi‑Cluster Kubernetes App Delivery Made Simple with F5 BIG‑IP CIS & Nutanix Kubernetes Platform

Organizations are increasingly deploying applications across multiple Kubernetes clusters to achieve greater resilience, scalability, and operational flexibility. However, as environments expand, so does the complexity. Managing traffic, ensuring consistent security policies, and delivering applications seamlessly across multiple Kubernetes clusters can quickly become operationally overwhelming.

F5 and Nutanix jointly address these challenges together by combining the application delivery and security capabilities of F5 BIG-IP with the simplicity and operational consistency of the Nutanix Kubernetes Platform (NKP).

See it in action—watch the demo video:

F5 BIG-IP Container Ingress Services (CIS) Overview

F5 BIG‑IP Container Ingress Services (CIS) is a Kubernetes‑native ingress and automation controller that connects F5 BIG‑IP directly to Kubernetes. F5 BIG-IP CIS watches the Kubernetes API in real time and translates native Kubernetes resources—including Ingress, Routes, VirtualServer, TransportServer, and AS3 declarations—into F5 BIG‑IP configurations. This transforms F5 BIG‑IP from an external appliance into a declarative, automated extension of the Kubernetes environment, enabling cloud‑native workflows and eliminating manual, error‑prone configuration. This tight integration ensures that application delivery, security, and traffic management remain consistent and automatically adapt as Kubernetes environments change.

Multi-Cluster Application Delivery with CIS

Multi-cluster architectures are rapidly becoming the enterprise standard. But delivering applications across multiple Kubernetes clusters introduces challenges, including:

Maintaining consistent security policies
Automatically routing traffic to the most appropriate cluster as workloads scale or shift
Avoiding configuration drift and fragmented visibility
Reducing operational friction caused by manual updates

Without the right tooling, these challenges can lead to operational sprawl and deployment delays.

F5 BIG-IP CIS addresses these challenges through its built‑in multi‑cluster capabilities, enabling a single BIG‑IP Virtual Server to front applications that span multiple Kubernetes clusters. This approach:

Consolidates application access behind one unified entry point
Automatically updates traffic routing as clusters scale or workloads migrate
Enforces consistent policies across environments
Significantly reduces operational overhead by eliminating per‑cluster configuration

F5 BIG-IP CIS supports both standalone mode and high‑availability (HA) mode for multi-cluster environments. In HA mode, the primary F5 BIG-IP CIS instance is responsible for managing F5 BIG‑IP configuration, while a secondary instance continuously monitors its health. If the primary instance becomes unavailable, the secondary automatically takes over, ensuring uninterrupted management and application delivery continuity.

Standalone CISHigh Availability CIS (Primary and Secondary)

F5 BIG-IP CIS + Nutanix Kubernetes Platform (NKP): Better Together

When F5 BIG‑IP CIS is combined with the Nutanix Kubernetes Platform (NKP), organizations gain a unified and automated approach to delivering, securing, and scaling applications across multiple Kubernetes clusters—a cohesive multi‑cluster application services solution. Key benefits include:

Unified North–South Control Plane
F5 BIG‑IP acts as the intelligent front door for all Kubernetes clusters, centralizing traffic management and visibility.
Consistent Security Policies
WAF, DDoS protection, and traffic policies can be applied uniformly across Kubernetes clusters to maintain a consistent security posture.
Automated Orchestration and Reduced Operational Overhead
F5 BIG-IP CIS’s event‑driven automation aligns with NKP’s streamlined cluster lifecycle management, reducing manual configuration and operational complexity.
Direct Pod Routing in Cluster Mode
Static route support in cluster mode enables CIS to automatically configure static routes on BIG‑IP using the node subnets assigned to Kubernetes cluster nodes. This allows BIG‑IP to route directly to Kubernetes pod subnets without requiring any tunnel configuration, greatly simplifying the networking architecture.
Flexible Deployment Topologies: Standalone or HA
CIS supports both standalone and high‑availability deployment in multi-cluster environments, enabling resilient application exposure across Kubernetes clusters.

Conclusion

As Kubernetes environments continue to expand, the need for consistent, secure, and efficient multi‑cluster application delivery becomes increasingly critical. Together, F5 BIG‑IP CIS and Nutanix Kubernetes Platform (NKP) provide a unified, automated, and future‑ready solution that removes much of the operational complexity traditionally associated with distributed architectures. This joint solution delivers consistent security enforcement, intelligent traffic management, and streamlined operations across any number of Kubernetes clusters.

Whether an organization is aimed at modernization, expanding into multi‑cluster architectures, or working to streamline and secure Kubernetes traffic flows, F5 and Nutanix jointly offer a forward-looking path. Multi‑cluster Kubernetes doesn’t have to be complex—and with F5 BIG‑IP CIS and Nutanix Kubernetes Platform (NKP), it’s never been simpler.