Akamai Prolexic Now Offers Cloud, On-Prem, and Hybrid DDoS Protection
Executive summary
Akamai has entered into a strategic partnership with Corero, a leading specialist in on-premises distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) solutions, to extend the Prolexic DDoS protection platform. Customers can now utilize Prolexic On-Prem (powered by Corero) and Prolexic Hybrid — in addition to Prolexic’s cloud-based DDoS solutions — to protect their network infrastructure and internet-facing assets from motivated DDoS attacks.
This blog post outlines the evolving industry trends and presents some use cases in which customers can benefit from comprehensive new solutions from Akamai.
An era of horizontal, multi-vector, and sophisticated DDoS attacks
Since 2020, there has been a significant evolution in how cybercriminals and motivated hacktivists utilize DDoS attacks as an easy, relatively inexpensive, and highly effective method of targeting vulnerable organizations and internet assets.
There has not only been an uptick in the number and types of DDoS attacks, but the scale and the sophistication of these attacks have also broken previous records:
Eight of the top 10 DDoS attacks mitigated by Akamai took place in the past 18 months.
The year 2022 witnessed a record number of high-packet-rate DDoS attacks, and 2023 is on its way to breaking that record (Figure 1).
Fig. 1: In 2022 and 2023, Akamai Prolexic mitigated some of the largest global high-packet-rate DDoS attacks (Source: Akamai internal threat research)
Increased horizontal and multidestination DDoS attacks
Since 2022, attackers have been persistently hitting everything online, all at once via horizontal and multidestination attacks. According to a recent threat intelligence report published by Corero Network Security, a leading provider of on-premises DDoS protection solutions, DDoS carpet bombing attacks rose by 300% in 2022, while IPv6-based attacks increased by 500%.
This surge in attacks is further evidenced by the recent headlines about DDoS attacks on businesses; on financial services companies; on critical public infrastructure, like schools, healthcare centers, and transportation and logistics centers, among others; and on other institutions (Figure 2).
Fig. 2: Headlines about the rise in cybersecurity attacks (Source: Akamai Prolexic presentation at BlackHat 2023)
Akamai and Corero partner to extend Prolexic with on-premises and hybrid DDoS protection
Akamai Prolexic, the industry pioneer in cloud-based DDoS protection, has been one of the most trusted platforms for global enterprises and critical institutions for more than two decades. Similarly, Corero is a globally leading specialist in offering on-premises DDoS protection with its SmartWall One solutions. Corero’s patented mechanisms accurately detect and automatically stop volumetric and state-exhaustion DDoS attacks to prevent downtime.
The strategic partnership between Akamai and Corero brings together two innovative technology platforms to deliver world-class, full line-rate performance to help customers protect their internet-connected assets with the fastest on-premises, cloud, and hybrid DDoS defense.
On-Prem, cloud, or hybrid: Prolexic provides options that best fit your needs
Organizations of all sizes that require robust DDoS defenses can now choose Akamai Prolexic in the way that best fits their business requirements:
Prolexic — cloud-based
Prolexic On-Prem — on-premises protection powered by Corero that provides physical or logical inline and datapath DDoS protection that natively integrates with edge routers to stop attacks at the edge of your network without requiring traffic backhaul
Prolexic Hybrid — combines on-premises with cloud-based protection
Offer DDoS protection as a value-added service
Prolexic On-Prem and Prolexic Hybrid are particularly beneficial for network service providers, hosting and cloud service providers, and businesses offering software as a service (SaaS), platform as a service (PaaS), and/or infrastructure as a service (IaaS) solutions. These businesses can now not only protect their own platforms, but also offer DDoS protection as a value-added service to their customers.
With automated surgical mitigation in less than one second, Prolexic On-Prem and Prolexic Hybrid do not require any manual intervention for more than 98% of the attacks.Those who need fully managed expert services can rely on Akamai’s global Security Operations and Control Center team — a formidable force comprising 225+ experts who are on guard and always available to step in.
Address small and fast attacks locally
A key advantage offered by Prolexic On-Prem is that customers can easily address the vast majority of the small and fast attacks locally without having to transfer traffic to the cloud. At the same time, Prolexic’s cloud offers a safety net that will continue to defend the network against the most sophisticated, volumetric, multi-vector DDoS attacks.
Those businesses that require ultra-low latency DDoS protection — such as data-intensive real-time services, like video conferencing, gaming, voice, or multimedia applications — will benefit significantly from Prolexic On-Prem and Prolexic Hybrid. It’s especially beneficial for such organizations as they’ve been regularly attacked by cybercriminals in the past few years.
Our partnership with Corero allows us to enable organizations to select the most optimal DDoS solution for their individual use cases whether it be on-demand, always-on, cloud, on-premises, or in a hybrid environment.”
— Sean Lyons, SVP and GM, Infrastructure Security, Akamai
Protect critical infrastructure and reap the benefits of continuous innovation
Industry analysts have repeatedly recognized Akamai Prolexic as a leader in offering world-class DDoS protection. To deliver value to customers, Akamai has taken a continuous innovation and investment approach.
In October 2022, Akamai launched Prolexic’s latest sixth-generation platform with a completely software-defined architecture that lets customers protect their edge-computing assets, Internet of Things devices, and other critical infrastructure. This is particularly empowering in an era marked by rapid digital transformation and highly motivated cybercriminals using DDoS attacks as a smokescreen for other malicious activities, including malware, data exfiltration, and triple extortion ransomware attacks.
With the addition of several new scrubbing centers globally, Akamai Prolexic now offers a staggering 20+ Tbps dedicated defense capacity to protect customers from even the largest and the most sophisticated attacks. To put this in perspective, the largest volumetric DDoS attacks would take up less than 5% of the capacity offered by Prolexic.
In fact, Akamai has extended the Prolexic platform “beyond DDoS” with Prolexic Network Cloud Firewall — a firewall outside a customer’s firewalls — which empowers customers to easily, quickly, centrally, and globally block malicious traffic at the edge of their network.
Choose the right cyber defense strategy
And now, with Prolexic On-Prem and Prolexic Hybrid solutions, Akamai has raised the bar for what customers have come to expect from a global cybersecurity leader. Whatever your business needs and use cases are, and however sophisticated the attacks get, Akamai stands as a fortress of cyber defense between you and your legitimate customers on one side, and the relentless tide of cybercriminals on the other.
In this ever-evolving landscape of cyberthreats, where DDoS attacks have reached unprecedented levels of complexity and scale, your choice of defense strategy can make all the difference. Will you settle for less than the best in DDoS protection, or will you secure your digital future?
The answer is simple: Join us where security meets innovation — and where your peace of mind is our top priority. Choose Akamai Prolexic.
Learn more
Want to learn more about how Prolexic On-Prem or Prolexic Hybrid can help your business? Talk to us today!
