Application security and delivery company F5 Networks has struck a $500 million deal to acquire Volterra, a multi-cloud management startup. With the addition of Volterra’s technology platform, F5 is creating an edge platform called Edge 2.0 platform for enterprises and service providers.

The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of calendar year 2021. Upon closing of the acquisition, Ankur Singla, Founder and CEO, Volterra, and the Volterra leadership team will join F5 in key management roles.

Volterra will remain located in its current Santa Clara headquarters.

Volterra enables a new Edge 2.0 open edge platform that will transform F5’s position in enterprise application security and delivery, addressing the challenges inherent with first-generation edge solutions.

According to the company, F5’s Edge 2.0 platform will be security-first: delivering security instead of commodity security added to a CDN or cloud; app-driven: providing universal, “build once, deploy globally” app delivery; and unlimited in scale: Edge 2.0 breaks apps out of the “CDN jail” of closed edge platforms, running all services on any server, across all clouds and data centers.

In connection with the transaction, F5 raised its Horizon 2 (fiscal years 2021 and 2022) and long-term revenue outlook, and reiterated its Horizon 2 operating targets, including its commitment to achieving double-digit non-GAAP earnings per share growth.

The company also reiterated its commitment to return $1 billion of capital over the next two years, including the initiation of a $500 million accelerated share repurchase in fiscal year 2021.