DevCentral News articles

Mohamed - July 2026 Featured F5er

Melissa_C — Tue, 07 Jul 2026 19:00:00 GMT

Welcome to our Featured F5er Series. For July we are spotlighting momahdy, an exceptional contributor to our DevCentral community.

DevCentral: To start, please introduce yourself and tell our community a little about yourself. What you do and why is it important?

Mohamed: Hello everyone! My name is Mohamed Mahdy and I've been with F5 for the last 8 years, 4 of them in Consulting and the past 4 years in Technical Marketing team. Through the 8 years I covered different sectors whether Government, Defense, Services Providers, Financial or Education sectors. Why I got into security in general; I always loved learning everything, and one major part of our work involved understanding every deployment and project, not just the technical elements but the impact it leaves on every person involved.

Few seconds delay, a breach or even a complex solution can be the difference between critical systems and efforts being protected or wasted. In addition to the actual work, I really enjoy educating the community because that's how I learn the best; The moment I meet a friend who says that he used any of the articles or any of our conversations and those were helpful, I feel the message is well delivered.

Away from Work, I'm leading ISC2 chapter in West Midlands and participating in multiple community activities for security education.

DevCentral: As a Principal Technical Marking Engineer at F5, what is your typical workday like?

Mohamed: Big part of it connecting with my colleagues in Product team and field team to explore how can we get more end-to-end use cases to the community to help customers get familiar with the use cases and try them out. In some cases we are engaged with our colleagues in the field to help accelerate troubleshooting activities or solutions enhancement.

One of the interesting areas of Technical Marketing Engineering team, is that we set at the cross roads between Technical and Business, that allows us to speak both languages and understand both; So, we help getting the end-to-end solutions use cases those actually help our customers and contribute to the field.

DevCentral: What do you do to maintain a work life balance?

Mohamed: Having great colleagues sometimes make work time feels like home, in addition to this I would say running and family time is what keeps the spark

DevCentral: Can you give us a glimpse into your technical expertise?

Mohamed: My approach is why not give it a try ? It's not working, let's roll up our sleeves. I started in Service Providers where packet captures solve your most critical issues, moving into F5 I got exposed to everything from L1 up to L7, whether it's a deployment, design or troubleshooting. F5 products are unique, you don't need to know F5 configurations only but also understanding the underlying protocols.

DevCentral: What’s the most exciting thing you’re working on right now?

Mohamed: Currently I'm focusing on BIG-IP Service Providers technologies and Kubernetes offerings (BNK / CNF / CIS ). Also leading the hybrid integrations with BIG-IP security products in general.

I'm working on more articles to introduce those topics in an easy way to our community and make sure we are not lost in the new terms, and we are actually focusing on what works.

DevCentral: What has been your most memorable achievement at F5?

Mohamed: I would say every time a field colleague mention that any of the labs or articles helped I consider that a memorable moment. The most memorable one would be participating in AppWorld Vegas preparations. Seeing all those technical content in booths and customers talking and asking our SMEs after months of preparation, that was awesome.

DevCentral: As an F5er who participates in the DevCentral community how has it helped or influenced your work?

Mohamed: DevCentral community was special not just when I joined F5 but even before being part of F5; the ease of discussing solutions, raising queries and talking to peers in different industries in such community spirit really helped.

DevCentral: Are there any challenges that community has helped you overcome? If so, what was it and how did community help? (Does not have to be DevCentral related)

Mohamed: I would start with iRules, the other one would be learning to find different ways to deliver the information to suite different audiences.

DevCentral: What does community mean to you?

Mohamed: A group of diverse background persons crowdsourcing their knowledge to get the best outcome, the community acts as incubator for ideas

DevCentral: What is your favorite or best piece of advice someone has given you?

Mohamed: Security shouldn't be forced; Through my career I found this is the best advice, talking to the business and application teams to first understand their needs and then walk them through how security can be an enabler not a gate keeper proved to be the best approach.

DevCentral: If you weren't in your current profession what would be your dream job?

Mohamed: I would go for farming, I've been doing random trials here and there to plant mint and other plants, and I would say it's fun and very comforting

DevCentral: What are your favorite or go to comfort foods?

Mohamed: Yam yam yam! I would go for the Egyptian Koshari

DevCentral: Now that we have entered summer, what are your favorite summer activities?

Mohamed: I would say if I'm in Egypt, going to the sea at Marsa Matrouh.

DevCentral: Lastly, what motivates you?

Mohamed: New challenges, problems we need to find solutions for.

Connect with Mohamed on LinkedIn

Thank you Mohamed for all of your contributions to DevCentral and for being July's Featured F5er!

SSO Login Update Coming to DevCentral

LiefZimmerman — Tue, 16 Jun 2026 00:17:38 GMT

Kevin - June 2026 Featured F5er

Melissa_C — Tue, 09 Jun 2026 19:00:00 GMT

Welcome to our Featured F5er series. This week we are spotlighting , an excellent contributor to our DevCentral community!

Building and scaling AI apps with the F5 AI Summit

Rebecca_Moloney — Mon, 01 Jun 2026 14:30:00 GMT

The F5 AI Summit (June 23–25) is focused on one thing: what it takes to run AI in production without things falling apart.

If you’re building or operating AI apps, expect practical sessions around the parts that usually cause problems—data flow, security, and scaling.

Registration is free and if you follow DevCentral, you’ll be sure to see some familiar faces presenting!

TL;DR

Here are a few things you'll learn at the AI summit:

How to design AI architectures that connect data, models, and traffic in a way that actually works at scale
Where performance bottlenecks really live (hint: the data path, not just the model)
How to secure AI systems with guardrails, policies, and continuous testing
What it takes to scale inference—including GPU utilization and traffic control
How to run AI on Kubernetes with routing, observability, and policy built in

Agenda Highlights

Here are details for some of the sessions you won't want to miss... especially the ones from rockstar DevCentral contributors!

The Right Ecosystem for Secure AI

Buu Lam will moderate a discussion with Ugur Tigli (CTO of MinIO) and Leon Derczynski (Principal Research Scientist at NVIDIA) to break down how cross-vendor architectures are shaping real-world AI deployments.

Find out how integrating storage (MinIO), compute (NVIDIA), and application delivery/security layers enables faster data pipelines and more controlled inference flows.
Get insights into AI data movement, system interoperability, and runtime security, especially how partnerships can help close gaps between infrastructure components.

Reliability Between Compute and Storage

Hunter Smit and Mark Menger walk through why data delivery is now the critical layer in AI infrastructure, especially as workloads shift from training to production inference.

Learn how keeping pipelines efficient under load—covering how to optimize data paths so GPUs stay utilized and avoid idle time.
See the role of application delivery controllers (ADCs) as a control point for storage traffic (including S3), acting as a front door for AI data movement.

Delivering AI on Kubernetes: Model-Aware Routing and Traffic Control with NGINX

Michael Kingston focuses on how to run AI workloads on Kubernetes with routing and traffic control designed specifically for inference workloads, highlitings capabilities like model-aware routing and policy enforcement, along with updates to NGINX Gateway Fabric and alignment with Gateway API standards.

Get a practical look at how to add observability and control at the ingress layer, giving teams better visibility into AI traffic and more consistent behavior in production environments.
See how to turn Kubernetes into a reliable control plane for AI inference.

Conclusion

Expect a more complete picture of the AI stack—from infrastructure and networking to security and runtime behavior.

Registration is free! If you’re responsible for making AI systems reliable, fast, and secure in production, this will give you information you can actually apply.

Tyler - May 2026 Featured Member

Melissa_C — Tue, 02 Jun 2026 14:39:24 GMT

Welcome to our Featured Member Series. This month we shine the spotlight on one of our newest MVPs .

AppWorld LATAM 2026 - "Write Your First iRule" Contest

heo — Fri, 12 Jun 2026 17:51:25 GMT

Este anuncio ha sido actualizado para incluir una traducción al español. Puede encontrar las instrucciones en español al final de la publicación.

The iRules from Las Vegas and Berlin showcased incredible expertise. For this third iRules Contest, we're shifting focus to encouragement and education for the theme:

"Write Your First iRule" Community Contest.

We're challenging DevCentral community members attending AppWorld LATAM 2026 to design and build an iRule in a welcoming environment. Whether you are a first time iRules writer, or finding your footing, we can't wait to see what you create.

(And don’t worry, it doesn't have to be your literal first iRule ever. It's the spirit of trying something new that counts.)

The Challenge

Plan out and write an iRule that tackles a use-case for BIG-IP's capabilities. You can:

Create a new iRule
Reimagine existing codeshare iRules from DevCentral
Adapt a 20-lines-or-less iRule from the GitHub iRules Toolbox

We value your fresh perspective and newer eyes. As this is a learning opportunity, we also encourage having fun with it.

Prizes

The submissions will be judged for category awards. All participants receive an exclusive contest t-shirt.

Place	Prize
Category Awards	$200/each
Technical Excellence Award	$500
Participation	t-shirt

What Makes for a Winning Entry?

The 100-point scale judging criteria for submissions is defined below across four categories:

Technical Excellence (25 points)

Is it well-built and production ready? Consider

Works correctly
Performance-conscious (efficient, minimal resource impact)
Follows security best practices
Clean, readable code

User Impact (25 points)

Would you and other users actually use this? Consider:

Solves a real operational problem or technical need need
Practical applicability and potential adoption
Clear business value
Thorough documentation

Innovation & Creativity (25 points)

Does this solution show original thinking? Consider:

Fresh perspective on common challenges
Unique approach solving a modern problem
Does it inspire collaboration and progress?

Theme & Alignment (25 points)

Does this iRule reflect your learnings from AppWorld LATAM 2026 and community resources? Consider:

Applying the knowledge and skills you've learned
Approachable to other new iRules writers
Shows your effort to try something new to you

Important Dates

Contest Opens: June 8th, 2026 at 12:00am Pacific Time

Submission Deadline: July 31st, 2026 at 11:59pm Pacific Time

Winners Announced: August 14th, 2026

How to Enter

The contest is open to all F5 partners, customers, and DevCentral members registered for and in attendance at the contest at AppWorld LATAM 2026, except as described in the Official Rules. Please see the Official Rules for complete terms, including conditions for participation and eligibility.
Sign up for DevCentral and join the Community Contests group. Find Hannah or Buu at the Community area if you need any assistance.
Build and submit before 11:59pm Pacific Time JULY 31, 2026. Edit your draft entry as much as you like, but once you submit, that’s what we’ll review. Here an example entry pinned at the top of the Contest Entries page you should follow. Make sure to add these tags to your entry: "appworld 2026", "latam", and "irules" as shown on that example. IMPORTANT - You need to join the Contests group to submit your entry.

New to iRules?

Perfect! We welcome participants at all skill levels. If you’re just getting started, check out our Getting Started with iRules: Basic Concepts guide. This contest is a great opportunity to learn by doing. Feel free to bring your favorite colleagues and AI buddies to help craft your entry.

Final Thoughts

Post any and all of your contest-related questions in comments below.

The iRules Contest has a rich history of surfacing creative solutions from the community. Approaching problems differently inspires some of the best ideas we've seen. We're looking forward to seeing and celebrating what you build.

Learn it. Build it. Share it.

See you at AppWorld LATAM 2026!

AppWorld LATAM 2026 - Concurso “Escribe tu Primer iRule”

¡Hola querida comunidad! El Concurso de iRules está de regreso, con un nuevo estilo.

Los iRules de Las Vegas y Berlín demostraron una experiencia increíble. Para este tercer Concurso de iRules, cambiaremos el enfoque hacia el estímulo y la educación con el tema:

Concurso Comunitario “Escribe tu Primer iRule”.

Estamos desafiando a los miembros de la comunidad DevCentral que asistan a AppWorld LATAM 2026 a diseñar y construir un iRule en un entorno acogedor. Ya sea que estés escribiendo un iRule por primera vez, o apenas estés encontrando tu ritmo, no podemos esperar a ver lo que crees.

(Y no te preocupes, no tiene que ser literalmente tu primer iRule. Lo que cuenta es el espíritu de intentar algo nuevo.)

El Desafío

Planea y escribe un iRule que aborde un caso de uso de las capacidades de BIG-IP. Puedes:

Crear un nuevo iRule

Reimaginar los iRules existentes del codeshare de DevCentral

Adaptar un iRule de 20 líneas o menos del GitHub iRules Toolbox

Valoramos tu perspectiva fresca y tu mirada renovada. Como es una oportunidad de aprendizaje, también te animamos a divertirte con ello.

Premios

Las presentaciones serán evaluadas para los premios por categoría. Todos los participantes reciben una camiseta exclusiva del concurso.

Puesto	Premio
Premios por Categoría	$200/cada uno
Premio a la Excelencia Técnica	$500
Participación	camiseta

¿Qué Hace a una Entrada Ganadora?

Los criterios de evaluación de 100 puntos para las presentaciones se definen a continuación en cuatro categorías:

Excelencia Técnica (25 puntos)

¿Está bien construido y listo para producción? Considera:

Funciona correctamente

Consciente del rendimiento (eficiente, impacto mínimo en recursos)

Sigue las mejores prácticas de seguridad

Código limpio y legible

Impacto en el Usuario (25 puntos)

¿Tú y otros usuarios realmente lo usarían? Considera:

Resuelve un problema operativo real o una necesidad técnica

Aplicabilidad práctica y potencial de adopción

Valor de negocio claro

Documentación exhaustiva

Innovación y Creatividad (25 puntos)

¿Esta solución muestra un pensamiento original? Considera:

Perspectiva fresca sobre desafíos comunes

Enfoque único para resolver un problema moderno

¿Inspira colaboración y progreso?

Tema y Alineación (25 puntos)

¿Este iRule refleja tu aprendizaje de AppWorld LATAM 2026 y de los recursos de la comunidad? Considera:

Aplicar el conocimiento y las habilidades que has aprendido

Accesible para otros nuevos escritores de iRules

Demuestra tu esfuerzo por intentar algo nuevo para ti

Fechas Importantes

Apertura del Concurso: 8 de junio de 2026 a las 12:00 a.m. Hora del Pacífico

Fecha Límite de Presentación: 31 de julio de 2026 a las 11:59 p.m. Hora del Pacífico

Anuncio de Ganadores: 14 de agosto de 2026

Cómo Participar

El concurso está abierto a todos los socios y clientes de F5, y miembros de DevCentral que estén registrados y asistan al concurso en AppWorld LATAM 2026, excepto como se describe en las Reglas Oficiales. Por favor consulta las Reglas Oficiales para los términos completos, incluidas las condiciones de participación y elegibilidad.

Regístrate en DevCentral y únete al grupo Community Contests. Busca a Hannah o Buu en el área de la Comunidad si necesitas ayuda.

Construye y envía antes de las 11:59 p.m. Hora del Pacífico del 31 de JULIO de 2026. Edita tu borrador tanto como quieras, pero una vez que lo envíes, eso es lo que revisaremos. Aquí tienes un ejemplo de entrada anclado al inicio de la página de Contest Entries que deberías seguir. Asegúrate de agregar estas etiquetas a tu entrada: “appworld 2026”, “latam” e “irules” como se muestra en ese ejemplo. IMPORTANTE - Necesitas unirte al grupo Contests para enviar tu entrada.

¿Nuevo en iRules?

¡Perfecto! Damos la bienvenida a participantes de todos los niveles de habilidad. Si recién estás comenzando, consulta nuestra guía Getting Started with iRules: Basic Concepts. Este concurso es una gran oportunidad para aprender haciendo. Siéntete libre de traer a tus colegas favoritos y a tus compañeros de IA para ayudarte a crear tu entrada.

Reflexiones Finales

Publica todas tus preguntas relacionadas con el concurso en los comentarios a continuación.

El Concurso de iRules tiene una rica historia de hacer emerger soluciones creativas desde la comunidad. Abordar los problemas de manera diferente inspira algunas de las mejores ideas que hemos visto. Esperamos con ansias ver y celebrar lo que construyas.

Apréndelo. Constrúyelo. Compártelo.

Announcing the first F5 NGINX Commercial Long-Term Support release

seanm-nginx — Thu, 18 Jun 2026 22:18:39 GMT

Today, we’re introducing a major change in how NGINX delivers software to enterprise customers: the first F5 NGINX Commercial Long-Term Support (LTS) release. 

Due to 2026's intensifying threat landscape, platform teams are under increasing pressure to keep critical infrastructure secure while minimizing operational disruption. Frequent upgrades, short support timelines, and constantly evolving features make that challenge harder than it needs to be. NGINX recognizes this burden. For the first time, NGINX customers can now choose: an annual, feature-frozen release with three years of guaranteed support, or the frequent updates they’ve always relied on to stay at the “cutting edge”. 

Why we introduced LTS  

Modern application environments, especially Kubernetes and API-driven platforms, demand both reliability and velocity. Until now, achieving that balance has often required trade-offs; frequent upgrades, shorter support windows, or unclear lifecycle expectations. The new NGINX LTS track eliminates those tradeoffs for production environments that value long-term stability.  

What is in the first LTS Release 

The inaugural NGINX LTS release launches with F5 NGINX Plus. F5 NGINX Ingress Controller. This is just the beginning-the LTS program is designed to grow, with more NGINX products joining in 2027.

A clear support lifecycle model 

Each NGINX LTS release is supported for 36 months from General Availability and includes critical and high-security fixes, stability bug fixes, maintained third‑party dependencies, and full technical support. LTS releases are feature-frozen to protect production stability.  

Two Release Paths 

Long‑Term Support (LTS)

Annual, feature‑frozen releases designed for production environments that demand stability. Each LTS release is supported for three years with security patches, stability fixes, and full technical support. 

Frequent Updates

The release path customers have always known- delivering new features and improvements on a regular cadence throughout the year. Only the latest release is supported, and fixes are delivered by upgrading forward. 

Versioning Model 

The versioning format follows this structure:  

Examples:  

LTS Patch Release: 

PLS.37.0.0.1 -> PLS.37.0.1.2 

37.0 Stays the same since this is still the same LTS

Patch increments 0 -> 1, a fix has been added

Package increments 1 -> 2, a new build or image is produced

Security Release: 

PLS.37.0.1.2 -> PLS.37.0.2.3 

A critical CVE was identified

Fixed delivered as another patch release

Same LTS Release is used in this case

Frequent Update Release: 

PLS.37.1.0.1 

Continuous-release version

Bump in minor versions showing new features added

The next frequent release version would be 37.2.0.1

LTS (Major) Release

PLS.37.0.0.1 -> PLS.38.0.0.1 

Major increment 37 -> 38

New LTS Release

Feature frozen at GA

New 3 year support window

Security without forced upgrades 

All supported LTS releases receive timely fixes for critical and high‑severity CVEs, without requiring customers to adopt new features or breaking changes. 

Easier planning 

Customers can standardize on LTS for production, adopt frequent updates for innovation, and align upgrades with annual planning cycles.  

Getting started 

You can begin using the first NGINX LTS release today by deploying LTS images and following updated installation and upgrade guidance in NGINX documentation.  

NGINX Long-Term Support (LTS)  

Our commitment 

NGINX LTS delivers enterprise‑grade predictability without slowing innovation. Customers can confidently standardize on LTS for production while continuing to adopt new capabilities on their own terms through continuous releases.  

Jeff - May 2026 Featured F5er

Melissa_C — Tue, 12 May 2026 19:03:21 GMT

Welcome to our Featured F5 Series. Our spotlight for May is on , a F5 who is an exceptional contributor to DevCentral!

AppWorld Berlin 2026 – iRules Contest Winning Results

heo — Thu, 07 May 2026 14:20:26 GMT

The second iRules Contest of the year wrapped up at AppWorld Berlin this week.

This contest was looking towards the future, challenging participants to write an iRule that goes beyond BIG-IP’s built-in capabilities. The theme, using WebSockets or the Message Routing Framework, inspired iRules preventing abuse and intrusion.

At the heart of it, we’ve loved the creative innovation of the iRules written for this years’ contests. The AppWorld Berlin iRules Contest submissions were inspiring. Across the board, judges’ feedback on the top contenders shared a common theme: these solutions are interesting. The winning iRules were well-documented, easy to understand, with clear potential value for production use.

Without further ado, we’re proud to announce the winners of the AppWorld Berlin iRules Contest:

Grand Prize Winner - Goerle_dev

Rule: WS-Exfil-Shield: Catching What WAFs Miss After the 101 Handshake

Summary

This iRule addresses gaps in traditional WAFs by extending session-level, behavior-based threat detection to WebSocket traffic using real-time inspection within F5 BIG-IP.

Detection operates in two stages; an initial timing-based heuristic is followed by payload validation using AI. Malicious actors are either blocked or routed to a honeypot for isolation and further observation.

This iRule closes the gap that openly documented by major WAF vendors, post-handshake Websocket blind spot, with a practical, SIEM-ready enforcement.

2nd Place - Injeyan_Kostas

Rule: WS-Shield: WebSocket Abuse Detection & Adaptive Enforcement Gateway

Summary

This iRule addresses securing WebSocket traffic by enabling real-time, behavior-based enforcement in F5 BIG-IP to proportionally mitigate abusive patterns without application changes.

It introduces a behavioral enforcement engine designed to secure WebSocket traffic with adaptive, real-time mitigation without requiring application changes.

Rather than relying on static thresholds, the system dynamically responds to behavior. Clean traffic naturally recovers, while abusive patterns escalate through enforcement tiers until they are cut off. This allows it to detect subtle, persistent attacks that traditional rate limiting often misses.

In testing, the iRule identified and disconnected a bot sending repetitive payloads every half second, without triggering a rate threshold.

The iRule adds an extensible, behavior-driven security layer that enables adaptable defenses with minimal investment, despite optional external dependencies.

3rd Place - Robb-Fr

Rule: Generic iRule Based on Datagroup Parsing

Summary

This iRule addresses the complexity of migrating large numbers of Apache virtual hosts by centralizing flexible traffic routing and redirection logic within F5 BIG-IP using simple, extensible datagroups.

It turns input into a simple form into a datagroup entry that CREATES iRULES for things like redirects, pools, error pages, rewrites, and more. This iRule is accessible to a wide range of F5 practitioners, as F5 expertise is not required. There are no direct iRule edits, and no way for them to break the device.

This iRule lowers operational friction by enabling non-NetOps teams to manage complex traffic flows, improving agility during large-scale migrations.

Category Awards

The 20 Lines or Less Award - Kai_Wilke

In honor of Colin Walker - short on lines, long on legend. The scroll bar never stood a chance.

Rule: SUPER-WEBSOCKET-HANDSHAKE-LOGGER™® (SWHL) iRule

The Layered Defense Award - ChristianEssel

For elegant use of nested virtual servers to solve problems the apps won't.

Rule: Layered Virtual ICAP Scanning Solution

Gratitude

A big thank you to all contestants who participated in the AppWorld Berlin iRules Contest. Your creativity, innovation, and willingness to share your ideas continue to push the community forward.

Thank you to our judges:

Thank you to the DevCentral community. We learn together, grow together, and inspire each other every day.

What's Next?

Innovation and Creativity have been a key part of the contest rubric. We’re leaning into it, too. As we plan more contests for the year, we’re looking beyond iRules, with potential to expand to all programmability. The future is coming for us all; let’s greet it and move forward together.

AppWorld Berlin iRules Contest!

JRahm — Thu, 23 Apr 2026 16:07:05 GMT

Jonathan - March 2026 Featured Member

Melissa_C — Tue, 17 Mar 2026 22:39:05 GMT

Welcome to our Featured Member series. This months spotlight is on Jonathan, a spectacular contributor to our community!

F5 partners with Chainguard to offer NGINX Plus in security-hardened containers

jgardner — Tue, 17 Mar 2026 17:36:36 GMT

Cloud-native applications demand container images that are both efficient and secure. To help enterprises meet these expectations, F5 NGINX is partnering with Chainguard to deliver NGINX within their Commercial Builds ecosystem.

F5 has long been synonymous with scalable, reliable application delivery and security solutions. Partnering with Chainguard allows us to extend this trust into the world of secure container images.

F5 NGINX Plus is available in Chainguard-built containers, enabling organizations to simplify security and compliance while focusing on what matters most: running their applications with confidence.

Delivering software in containers requires consistency across security, compliance, and operational reliability—areas where traditional methods, like distributing binaries, fall short by creating inefficiencies and manual maintenance burdens.

Chainguard takes the complexity out of container management with secure, hardened images that minimize vulnerabilities and accelerate compliance processes. This collaboration empowers F5 NGINX Plus users to deploy production-ready images effortlessly, providing peace of mind and improved operational efficiency.

Why Chainguard Commercial Builds?

Chainguard Commercial Builds introduces a modern model for packaging commercial software.

We work directly with Chainguard, who packages and maintains our commercial software in the Chainguard Factory – a secure, SLSA Level 3-compliant system, designed to deliver minimal attack surface, zero CVEs, full provenance, SBOMs, and predictable vulnerability response.

This partnership means we can deliver the security, compliance, and ease of use our customers demand while letting Chainguard handle the burden of securely building and maintaining container images with the latest dependencies – so you can have wall-to-wall coverage across your stack.

Why NGINX Plus?

NGINX Plus powers scalable application delivery through advanced proxying, load balancing, API gateway, and caching features. It offers dynamic configuration updates, robust observability, and integrated security tools, making it ideal for modern architectures.

Now delivered with Chainguard images, NGINX Plus combines its core capabilities with enterprise-grade security and compliance features.

F5 NGINX in F5’s Application Delivery & Security Platform

NGINX One is part of F5’s Application Delivery & Security Platform. It helps organizations deliver, improve, and secure new applications and APIs. This platform is a unified solution designed to ensure reliable performance, robust security, and seamless scalability for applications deployed across cloud, hybrid, and edge architectures. NGINX Plus, a key component of NGINX One, adds features to open-source NGINX that are designed for enterprise-grade performance, scalability, and security.

Better Deployment, Reduced Overhead

NGINX Plus packaged in Chainguard images provides:

Minimal attack surfaces

Zero CVEs and complete provenance

Built-in SBOMs for compliance

FIPS readiness and fast vulnerability remediation

This partnership simplifies deployments, reduces operational work, and helps teams unlock NGINX Plus’s full performance.

Get Started

NGINX Plus with Chainguard images is available now. Learn more here.

NGINX Plus documentation can be found here.

F5 AppWorld 2026 Las Vegas - iRules Contest Winners!

JRahm — Thu, 12 Mar 2026 23:49:43 GMT

Grand Prize Winner - Injeyan_Kostas

Rule: LLM Prompt Injection Detection & Enforcement

Summary

This iRule addresses the emerging threat of prompt injection attacks on AI APIs by implementing a real-time detection engine within the F5 BIG-IP platform. This iRule operates entirely within the data plane, requiring no backend changes, and enforces a configurable security policy to prevent malicious content from reaching language models. By utilizing a multi-layer scoring system and managing patterns externally, it allows security teams to fine-tune detection and adjust thresholds dynamically.

2nd Place - Marcio_G & svs

Rule: AI Token Limit Enforcement

Summary

This iRule addresses the critical challenge of resource control in on-premise AI inference services by enforcing token budgets per user and role. By leveraging BIG-IP LTM iRules, it validates JWTs to extract user and role information, applying role-based token limits before requests reach the inference service. This ensures that organizations can manage and protect their AI infrastructure from uncontrolled usage without requiring additional modules or external gateways.

3rd Place - Daniel_Wolf

Rule: JSON-query'ish meta language for iRules

Summary

This iRule addresses the complexity and inefficiency of JSON parsing in F5's BIG-IP iRules by introducing a framework that simplifies the process. It provides a set of procedures, [call json_get] and [call json_set], which allow developers to efficiently slice information in and out of JSON data structures with a clear and concise syntax. This approach not only reduces the need for deep JSON schema knowledge but also improves performance by approximately 20% per JSON request.

Category Awards

The (Don’t) Socket To Me Award - mcabral10

Because not every AI agent deserves a socket to speak into.Rule: Rate limiting WebSocket messages for Agents

The Rogue Bot Throttle Jockey Award - TimRiker

Wrangling distributed egress so your edge doesn't have to beg.

Rule: AI/Bot Traffic Throttling iRule (UA Substring + IP Range Mapping)

The Don't Lose the Thread Award - Antonio__LR_Mex & rod_b

Session affinity for the age of streaming intelligence.

Rule: LLM Streaming Session Pinning for WebSocket AI Gateways

The 20 Lines or Less Award - BeCur

In honor of Colin Walker - short on lines, long on legend. The scroll bar never stood a chance.

Rule: Logging/Blocking possible prompt injection

The Budget Bodyguard Award - Joe Negron

Security hardening for those who write TCL instead of checks.

Rule: Poor Man's WAF for AI API Endpoints

Gratitude

Tnanks to buulam for championing the return of iRules contest, this would not have happened without his grit and tenacity.
Thanks to our judges:
- John_Alam
- Joel_Moses
- Moe_Jartin
- Chris_Miller
- Michael_Waechter
- dennypayne
- Kevin_Stewart
- Austin_Geraci
Thanks to Austin_Geraci and WorldTech IT throwing in an additional $5,000 to the grand prize winner! Amazing!
Thanks to the contestants for giving up their evening to work on AI infrastructure challenges. Inspiring!
Thanks to the F5 leadership team for making events like AppWorld possible.

What's Next?

Stay tuned for future contests, we are not one and done here. Could be iRules specific...or they could expand to include all programmabilty. Can't wait to see what you're going to build next.

2026 F5 DevCentral MVP Announcement

heo — Mon, 09 Mar 2026 17:28:43 GMT

DevCentral exists as a thriving community for, and because of, our members. Every single day, talented people visit with a curiosity and desire to solve problems and share their expertise. This brings technical excellence to us all, and their spirit of generosity is what weaves together our individual threads into the tapestry of a global community. Some individuals stand out, demonstrating an extraordinary commitment.

For over 15 years, DevCentral MVPs have represented the heart and soul of our community and year after year, we are in awe of the way these MVPs cultivate connections, both locally and globally. They are the most active voices, exemplary leaders, and the embodiment of a community-mindset. This dedication deserves credit and the F5 DevCentral MVP award is presented annually to recognize these most outstanding contributors.

We are therefore proud to announce the 2026 F5 DevCentral MVP cohort.
Many continue a legacy of sustained dedication while others are new this year.

Please join us in celebrating our new and returning the 2026 DevCentral MVPs:

Congratulations

Congratulations and thank you to the F5 DevCentral MVPs for your acts of community.
You make us all better.

—

Learn more about the F5 DevCentral MVP program and how to get involved.

Vishnu - March 2026 Featured F5er

Melissa_C — Tue, 03 Mar 2026 21:41:05 GMT

Welcome to our Featured F5 Series where we will be spotlighting the F5ers who contribute to our DevCentral community. To kick this series off we have . Vishnu was nominated by for the contributions he makes to both F5 and DevCentral.

Win Big in Vegas: The iRules Contest is back with $5k on the line at AppWorld 2026

JRahm — Wed, 22 Apr 2026 16:56:47 GMT

Hey there, community, iRules Contest here...did you miss me? Well I’m back in business, baby, in Vegas, no less!

At AppWorld 2026, we’re challenging DevCentral community members in attendance to design and build innovative iRules that solve real-world problems, improve performance, and enhance customer experiences. Whether you’re a seasoned iRules veteran or just getting started, we can’t wait to see what you create.

Note: participation in this edition of the iRules Contest is limited to AppWorld 2026 attendees. But fear not! We’re hitting the road this year as well.

The Challenge

Plan out and write an iRule that go beyond BIG-IP’s built-in capabilities. Think of the future: the possibilities are wide open. We’ll drop a couple hints leading up to the event, and you’ll have a final hint in your registration swag bag, so keep your eyes peeled. There might even be a hint in an iRules related article to release this week, who knows?

$5,000 to the Grand Prize Winner -- Are You In?

Total prize money is $10,000, with the other $5,000 distributed across 2nd place, 3rd place, and five category awards.

Place	Prize
Grand Prize	$5,000
2nd Place	$2,500
3rd Place	$1,000
Five Category Awards	$300/ea

What Makes for a Winning Entry?

The 100-point scale judging criteria for submissions is defined below across five categories:

Innovation & Creativity (25 points)

Does this solution show original thinking? Consider:

Novel use of iRule features or creative problem-solving
Fresh perspective on common challenges
Unique approach that stands out from typical solutions

Business Impact (20 points)

Would customers actually use this? Consider:

Solves a real operational problem or customer need
Practical applicability and potential adoption
Clear business value

Technical Excellence (25 points)

Is it well-built and production-ready? Consider:

Works correctly and handles edge cases
Performance-conscious (efficient, minimal resource impact)
Follows security best practices
Clean, readable code

Theme & Requirements Alignment (20 points)

Does it address the contest theme using required technologies (to be announced at the event)? Consider:

Relevance to the specified theme
Effective use of required technology
How well the chosen technology fits the solution

Presentation (10 points)

Can you understand what it does and why it matters? Consider:

Clear explanation of the problem and solution
Quality of demo or presentation
Documentation sufficient to implement

Important Dates

Contest Opens: 6:00PM Pacific Time MARCH 10, 2026
Submission Deadline: 11:59PM Pacific Time MARCH 10, 2026
Winners Announced: MARCH 12, 2026 during general sessions

How to Enter

Register for AppWorld 2026 — You must be a registered attendee
Register for the Contest — Registration will open on the AppWorld event app soon. The contest is open to all f5 partners, customers, and DevCentral members registered for and in attendance at the contest MARCH 10, 2026 at F5 AppWorld 2026, except as described in the Official Rules. Please see the Official Rules for complete terms, including conditions for participation and eligibility.
Build and submit — During the 6-hour window on contest night before 11:59PM. Edit your draft entry as much as you like, but once you submit, that’s what we’ll review. There is an example entry pinned at the top of the Contest Entries page you should follow. Make sure to add these tags to your entry: "appworld 2026", "vegas", and "irules" as shown on that example.
This contest is BYOD. Bring your own device to develop and submit your iRules submission. However, a lab environment in our UDF platform will be provided if you need a development environment to test your code against.

New to iRules?

No problem. We welcome participants at all skill levels. If you’re just getting started, check out our Getting Started with iRules: Basic Concepts guide. This contest is a great opportunity to learn by doing. Also, feel free to bring your favorite AI buddy with you to help craft your entry. The goal is innovation and impact, not syntax expertise.

Questions?

Post any and all of your contest-related questions to the pinned thread in the Contests group on DevCentral. We’ll monitor, but allow for a business day to receive a response leading up to AppWorld.

The iRules Contest has a history of surfacing creative solutions from the community. Some of the best ideas we’ve seen came from people who approached problems differently, and we’re looking forward to seeing what you build this year.

Register. Prepare. Compete.

See you at AppWorld!

Jürgen - February 2026 Featured Member

Melissa_C — Tue, 17 Feb 2026 20:00:00 GMT

Welcome to our Featured Member series. This months spotlight is on Jürgen, one of our amazing MVPs and marvelous contributors.

ICYMI - Steve Wozniak at AppWorld 2026

LiefZimmerman — Tue, 10 Feb 2026 21:46:00 GMT

Dropping a quick note to let you all know that Woz himself
(yes Steve Wozniak) will join us as a keynote speaker at AppWorld26.

You may register here.
'nuff said

Bram - January 2026 Featured Member

Melissa_C — Tue, 20 Jan 2026 20:03:45 GMT

Welcome to our Featured Members Series. We are starting 2026 off with Bram, a wonderful contributor to our community!

F5 Architecture Track Sessions - AppWorld 2026

LiefZimmerman — Mon, 29 Dec 2025 17:22:37 GMT

AppWorld 2026 in Las Vegas introduces a new type of Academy Session: The F5 Architecture Track. Six, two hour sessions provided by some of the most recognizable faces on DevCentral.

DevCentral News articles

Mohamed - July 2026 Featured F5er

SSO Login Update Coming to DevCentral

Kevin - June 2026 Featured F5er

Building and scaling AI apps with the F5 AI Summit

TL;DR

Agenda Highlights

The Right Ecosystem for Secure AI

Reliability Between Compute and Storage

Delivering AI on Kubernetes: Model-Aware Routing and Traffic Control with NGINX

Conclusion

Tyler - May 2026 Featured Member

AppWorld LATAM 2026 - "Write Your First iRule" Contest

The Challenge

Prizes

What Makes for a Winning Entry?

Technical Excellence (25 points)

User Impact (25 points)

Innovation & Creativity (25 points)

Theme & Alignment (25 points)

Important Dates

How to Enter

New to iRules?

Final Thoughts

Learn it. Build it. Share it.

See you at AppWorld LATAM 2026!

AppWorld LATAM 2026 - Concurso “Escribe tu Primer iRule”

Concurso Comunitario “Escribe tu Primer iRule”.

El Desafío

Premios

¿Qué Hace a una Entrada Ganadora?

Excelencia Técnica (25 puntos)

Impacto en el Usuario (25 puntos)

Innovación y Creatividad (25 puntos)

Tema y Alineación (25 puntos)

Fechas Importantes

Cómo Participar

¿Nuevo en iRules?

Reflexiones Finales

Apréndelo. Constrúyelo. Compártelo.

Announcing the first F5 NGINX Commercial Long-Term Support release

Jeff - May 2026 Featured F5er

AppWorld Berlin 2026 – iRules Contest Winning Results

Grand Prize Winner - Goerle_dev​

Rule: WS-Exfil-Shield: Catching What WAFs Miss After the 101 Handshake

Summary

2nd Place - Injeyan_Kostas​

Rule: WS-Shield: WebSocket Abuse Detection & Adaptive Enforcement Gateway

Summary

3rd Place - Robb-Fr​

Rule: Generic iRule Based on Datagroup Parsing

Summary

Category Awards

The 20 Lines or Less Award - Kai_Wilke​

In honor of Colin Walker - short on lines, long on legend. The scroll bar never stood a chance.

Rule: SUPER-WEBSOCKET-HANDSHAKE-LOGGER™® (SWHL) iRule

The Layered Defense Award - ChristianEssel​

For elegant use of nested virtual servers to solve problems the apps won't.

Rule: Layered Virtual ICAP Scanning Solution

Gratitude

What's Next?

AppWorld Berlin iRules Contest!

Jonathan - March 2026 Featured Member

F5 partners with Chainguard to offer NGINX Plus in security-hardened containers

Why Chainguard Commercial Builds?

Why NGINX Plus?

F5 NGINX in F5’s Application Delivery & Security Platform

Better Deployment, Reduced Overhead

Get Started

F5 AppWorld 2026 Las Vegas - iRules Contest Winners!

Grand Prize Winner - Injeyan_Kostas​

Rule: LLM Prompt Injection Detection & Enforcement

Summary

2nd Place - Marcio_G​ & svs​

Rule: AI Token Limit Enforcement

Summary

3rd Place - Daniel_Wolf​

Rule: JSON-query'ish meta language for iRules

Summary

Category Awards

Grand Prize Winner - Goerle_dev

2nd Place - Injeyan_Kostas

3rd Place - Robb-Fr

The 20 Lines or Less Award - Kai_Wilke

The Layered Defense Award - ChristianEssel

Grand Prize Winner - Injeyan_Kostas

2nd Place - Marcio_G & svs

3rd Place - Daniel_Wolf

The (Don’t) Socket To Me Award - mcabral10

The Rogue Bot Throttle Jockey Award - TimRiker

The Don't Lose the Thread Award - Antonio__LR_Mex & rod_b

The 20 Lines or Less Award - BeCur