F5 (FFIV) Goldman Sachs Communacopia + Technology Conference 2026 summary

Key industry trends and positioning

• Hybrid multi-cloud adoption is widespread, with 90% of organizations operating across an average of 22 environments, creating complexity and driving demand for performance and security solutions.

• The expanding threat landscape, especially at the application layer, has seen attacks increase by 140% year-over-year, making security a top priority.

• AI inference and AI-powered applications are fueling both direct and indirect demand for performance tools and security, with organizations preparing for significant workload growth.

• Digital sovereignty is increasingly important, especially in Europe and Asia-Pacific, leading to renewed data center investments and on-premise capacity expansion.

• F5’s ability to support applications in any environment differentiates its offerings and drives portfolio expansion.

Financial performance and outlook

• Revenue growth guidance for the year is 9%-10%, supported by strong pipeline health and emerging growth vectors, particularly in systems and AI-driven workloads.

• The iSeries to rSeries migration is accelerating as customers prioritize timely refreshes for security updates, with a surge expected near the Q2 2027 end-of-support date and a long tail thereafter.

• Refresh cycles now include capacity expansion, with customers moving to higher-performance units and planning for future workload growth.

• Competitive takeouts are increasing due to sustained innovation, flexible pricing, and superior customer support.

Software and SaaS growth drivers

• Software revenue is expected to grow mid-single digits this year, double digits next year, and accelerate further in FY 2027, driven by expansion within the existing customer base and higher consumption rates.

• SaaS business, particularly Distributed Cloud Services, is gaining traction, with 1,700+ customers and 33% adoption among top 1,000 customers, up from 24% a year ago.

• Customers using multiple modalities (on-prem, SaaS, hybrid) grow 25% faster than others.

• AI security is an emerging software growth area, with new capabilities and acquisitions enhancing the portfolio.