What is Managed DDoS Service

The case for a managed DDoS mitigation and protection service is well established. Partnering with a vendor who can monitor system operation eliminates a major IT problem, increases your team's resources, and provides access to the DDoS experience. But all managed DDoS services are not the same. How can you tell a good one from a good one? Here are the resources to search.

Flexibility to manage custom workflows

You may already have some processes and operating procedures in place to manage DDoS threats. A managed service provider should be able to adapt and align with you, instead of forcing you to modify their processes. For example, what is your contact and communication protocol? In what situations do you want the service provider to initiate a mitigation action or request your authorization? Can the provider take different measures based on different types of alerts or event levels? A great provider will have time to understand their processes and will have the flexibility to work within them. With many providers, even the right ones, it's your way or not.

Client-centric reporting and intelligence

A good DDoS provider will provide reports detailing the latest incidents and the actions taken in response to security events. A great person will have a more proactive and consultative approach that leverages global threat intelligence as the basis for recommendations to improve their security posture. A managed service provider must also be able to provide executive level reports that allow them to demonstrate return on investment and key metrics for the C suite.

Network size

DDoS attacks are increasing in scale and are rapidly approaching terabyte territory, largely due to amplification techniques and the emergence of Internet of Things (IoT) botnets. The ability to absorb and disperse the biggest known attacks is simply essential. An equally important distributed infrastructure makes it possible to mitigate as close as possible to the source of the attack. This not only avoids "bottlenecks", but also speeds up mitigation cycles.

While the absolute size of the network is an important factor, so too is the amount of capacity dedicated to DDoS mitigation. For example, some content delivery networks and web service providers, with huge network capacity, may offer protection against DDoS as a secondary activity. But it goes without saying that they devote most of their network capacity to their main activity, which puts their DDoS clients at risk.

That is why a dedicated provider is essential to mitigate massive attacks. That said, managed service providers support multiple clients and there is always a risk that more than one will be affected at the same time. Therefore, it is not enough to have equal capacity levels or even double the size of a potential attack. Rather, the network must be several orders of magnitude larger than the largest known attacks. Ten terabytes of capacity is fast becoming the standard that will define the modern, managed DDoS provider.

Team experience

A good supplier will depend a lot on automation. Automation plays an important role in effective DDoS protection, but it can't always tell good traffic from bad. If it is not checked, it is likely to block legitimate traffic and generate many false positives. Fighting harmful actors requires human intelligence: the ability to recognize and analyze a real attack, understand its origins, and quickly determine its objectives. A leading provider will have dedicated research teams with decades of experience studying, analyzing, and monitoring successful mitigation of DDoS attacks. You will also have a solid background in security, with diverse professional experiences and complementary skills.

Best practice hybrid solution

Many managed service offerings are entirely cloud-based. This means that 100% mitigation is done on a cloud-based system "always on", which can quickly get expensive. Increasingly, security experts agree that a hybrid solution, combining local and cloud resources, is the best defense against DDoS attacks. The local component can usually capture the vast majority of malicious traffic. If an attack threatens to exhaust the capacity of an existing device, the capacity of the cloud can be activated automatically.

Plus, a hybrid solution is cheaper and has better value than you might think. Currently, local defenses can be virtualized. With a fully managed service, costs are offset by a reduction in staff requirements. And you only pay for the cloud capacity you consume.

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