Is your network protected from Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attacks?
If you answered “No,” you’re not alone.
An intelligence system detected 91,052 DDoS attacks in the first quarter of 2022.
You need reliable DDoS mitigation services to help keep your organization from experiencing the same cyber-attacks.
However, choosing the best-fitting solution can be challenging.
You’ll need essential information on what makes a DDoS mitigation service great and why you should choose it.
Before that, you must know what your organization needs from DDoS mitigation services and how they can address your requirements.
Your best option?
Determine what you need to know before investing in DDoS mitigation services—which we’ll cover in this guide.
Let’s jump right in.
Why a DDoS mitigation service is important
While you can follow a reliable cyberattack guide with simple steps to keep your website secure, they don’t always guarantee robust protection from DDoS attacks.
Any business and organization is vulnerable to DDoS attacks, especially if you host customer information, business-critical data, and financial records.
This is where DDoS mitigation services come in.
Proper DDoS mitigation services help your organization implement a seamless risk mitigation process while saving you time and resources and getting effective protection.
DDoS mitigation services can reduce risks from a wide spectrum of modern attack methods impacting your organization and customers and, in turn, seriously hurt your reputation and revenue.
Some ways to tell if your server or network is experiencing DDoS attacks include the following:
- Your website becomes unavailable that result in error notices
- You can’t access your app or website from your networks
- You experience low network performance, preventing you (and users) from accessing your website’s pages and opening normal files
- The inbox associated with your network gets flooded with spam emails
Proper detection technologies and tools via mitigation services can detect DDoS attacks at all layers.
The right DDoS mitigation solution can help your organization scale your security protection against the attacks, including the following benefits:
- Reduce web-security-related costs without compromising quality
- Defend your organization against new and existing threats by relying on security rules, which DDoS mitigation service providers update consistently
- Minimize business risks and downtimes with robust mitigation solutions, helping prevent even the largest DDoS attacks
- Preserve your application and website performance throughout DDoS attacks
DDoS mitigation deployment options
There are four fundamental DDoS protection solution models you can choose:
- Premise-based appliance. A premise-based appliance is a hardware-based app located directly within your organization’s data center.
- On-demand cloud service. Cloud-based services that only get activated when your organization comes under a DDoS attack are known as on-demand cloud services.
Detection and diversion with an on-demand cloud service can take longer than other DDoS deployment options. It can be better if your organization gets infrequent attacks or has a limited budget.
- Always-on cloud service. This DDoS protection deployment model always diverts traffic through your DDoS protection provider. It can provide constant and uninterrupted cloud-based DDoS protection.
However, it can add request latencies since all traffic gets routed through your provider’s scrubbing network.
An always-on cloud service is best if your apps are hosted on public clouds or if your organization comes under frequent DDoS attacks.
- Hybrid protection. Hybrid DDoS protection combines hardware (premise-based) and cloud-based components.
It can give you uninterrupted protection and low latency on top of the high capacity needed to mitigate large-scale volumetric attacks.
A hybrid option is best if you want data center protection and run mission-critical and latency-sensitive apps.
Considerations when choosing a DDoS mitigation solution
Assess your organization’s objectives, needs, constraints, application, and network before evaluating DDoS mitigation service providers.
The factors can help define your criteria for choosing the optimal solution that meets your organization’s requirements.
Consider the following:
1. How does your threat profile look?
The best protection model for you depends heavily on your organization’s threat profile.
If your organization gets a constant attack of streams of non-volumetric DDoS attacks, a premise-based solution can be an effective solution.
However, a cloud-based or hybrid solution can be better if your organization faces large-scale volumetric attacks.
2. What are your plans for your data center?
If you migrate your data center workloads to cloud-based deployments, it only makes sense to use a cloud service or invest in new equipment.
A cloud service might be the appropriate option if you are downscaling or completely eliminating your data centers.
However, if you are maintaining your physical data centers for future use, investing in a DDoS mitigation appliance can be your best bet.
3. How sensitive are your apps to latency?
Determine your organization’s apps’ sensitivity to latency.
If latency is a concern, an on-premise solution deployed out of path or in-line can be a better option since cloud-based services can add latency to your application traffic.
4. Are your apps mission-critical?
Some DDoS mitigation services and protection models provide faster protection and response time than others.
Most apps can absorb short-period interruptions without causing significant harm.
However, if your service can’t afford a moment of downtime, factor in whether your apps are mission-critical.
5. How vital is having control over your DDoS protection deployments?
Consider how much control your organization requires over your DDoS mitigation deployment—whether you want more control or would rather delegate most of it to your provider.
Physical or premise-based options can give you more control but require additional overhead expenses and tasks, while cloud-based services offer the opposite.
6. OPEX or CAPEX?
DDoS mitigation services with hardware devices, such as premise-based DDoS appliances, are typically accounted for as a Capital Expenditure (CAPEX).
Ongoing subscription options, including cloud-based DDoS protection services, are often considered Operating Expenses (OPEX).
Determine which one you prefer depending on your organization’s procurement and accounting process.
7. Is your organization under heavy regulation?
If your organization operates under a regulated industry handling sensitive user data, you could be prevented from (or try to avoid) migrating data and services to the cloud.
In this case, you might be compelled to use an on-premise DDoS appliance for compliance purposes.
8. What is your budget?
Deciding on a DDoS mitigation solution typically comes down to the costs and your organization’s available funds.
However, you can’t go for the cheapest option, compromise the protection quality, and not meet your DDoS mitigation needs.
Understand the total cost of ownership, including infrastructure, overhead, staff, training, and support.
Do a cost-benefit analysis if necessary. It can help you decide on a DDoS mitigation service that can address your organization’s unique business needs without breaking the bank.
Find the best DDoS mitigation solution for you
Not all DDoS mitigation services are created equal.
However, it’s vital to understand your organization’s needs, budget, and other critical factors before looking at available solutions.
Assess your organization using the essential factors in this guide to help you develop criteria. It can give you all the necessary information to aid your efforts in finding the best-fitting DDoS mitigation service for you.
