Evaluating DDoS Mitigation Solutions – 7 Key Factors

The rapid growth of the DDoS threats in recent years has been followed by an influx of mitigation solutions. Selection, however, can be tough. How do you assess, evaluate and differentiate between the DDoS mitigation service providers? What are the key factors to pay attention to? How can you ensure that a solution not only matches your business and technical requirements, but will also deliver on its promise on the day of an attack?

Many companies have relied in the past on traditional DDoS protection solutions, using complex hardware such as firewalls and load balancers. However, such solutions have proven costly and in many cases ineffective.

Here is a brief summary of seven practical guidelines that will help you evaluate solutions and assess
their capabilities;

To  read the complete guide  download  the full report: DDoS Protection – The Ultimate Buyer’s Guide.

Before you begin…

Before you begin to examine available DDoS solutions, clearly identify your needs. For example;

  • How critical is downtime for your business?
    For some companies a single hour of downtime can cost up to $20,000 and for others it can exceed $100,000 per hour. Will you need an “Always on” DDoS protection solution or an “On Demand” protection mode?
  • What is your network architecture?
    Is it a private network with on premise servers, does it include public cloud resources (AWS, Azure), a combination of both? This will determine the solution implementation flavor you need to look for (cloud protection, on premise appliance, or a combination of both). Naturally, a solution that can offer protection to a wide range of network implementation will save you time, training, and administration overhead.
  • What are your requirements
    in regards to monitoring DDoS related events and integrating data into your existing security/IT systems?

Here is a summary of the 7 key factors to help you choose the right DDoS Protection solution for your company;

1 – Attack coverage

Select a solution that provides protection against ALL major attack types – be it an attack on the application layer or SSL-based attack, a volumetric attack, or a multi-vector and continuous attacks.

2 – Mitigation capabilities

Drill down to examine mitigation details – Which attack volumes can the solution handle? What it its scalability? How quickly does it detect, notify and mitigate an attack?

3 – Mitigation capacity

Continuous DDoS protection will depend on the setup and availability of scrubbing centers, their distribution, connectivity and redundancy. Look for a DDoS solution that has worldwide coverage and enough total scrubbing capacity to handle several attacks simultaneously.

4 – Fully managed vs. self serve

DDoS requires highly specialized skills and expertise. Select a solution provider that will monitor your protected assets and provides a 24/7/365 response team capable of mitigating new zero-day DDoS attacks.

5- Self management

Make sure you have the flexibility and visibility to manage and control DDoS protection both from within the system itself, and if needed, from within your existing security systems.

6 – Support and SLA

Ensure the solution provides sufficient support and expert assistance during and following a DDoS attack and that you receive quantifiable assurances, such as a service level agreement.

7 – Total Cost of Ownership

Carefully examine the value vs. price balance so that you don’t compromise on protection quality due to  a cheaper price.  Select a solution that is priced based on legitimate traffic volume and that provides unlimited attack traffic capacity.

Here is a summary of the 7 key factors to help you choose the right DDoS Protection solution for your company;

In summary, selecting a DDoS solution cannot be done using a one-size-fits-all approach. You must adopt an informed process to choose a DDoS mitigation solution that fits your needs and can successfully defend you against ALL attack types, including massive network attacks, which compromise over 65% of today’s DDoS attacks.

To  read the complete guide  download  the full report: DDoS Protection – The Ultimate Buyer’s Guide.

About The Author

Azri Smolarchik

Director Product Management

Azri is the Director of Product Management at SecurityDAM. He has over 15 years of experience in the technology and information security industry and product management within cyber security companies and large enterprises. Azri leads the product management and pre-sales operations around the DDoS Protection solutions.

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