Akamai API Security for Global Enterprises
Protect every API — from legacy to GenAI — with continuous discovery, testing, analytics, and response. Akamai API Security is platform‑agnostic and built for large, distributed environments with multiple clouds, CDNs, gateways, and both north–south and east–west traffic.
What you can do
- Discover your complete API estate
- Continuously inventory and tag shadow and zombie APIs, plus AI‑related integrations to LLMs, GenAI services, and Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers.
- Natively tap Akamai Cloud traffic for instant visibility without added latency.
- Identify and prioritize risk
- Assess APIs for OWASP API Security Top 10 risks, misconfigurations, and data exposure.
- Detect APIs handling PII and other sensitive data; traffic samples are automatically obfuscated to simplify privacy and compliance.
- Shift left with automated testing
- Integrate into CI/CD and automatically run 200+ API‑specific dynamic tests that simulate malicious traffic and business logic abuse.
- Monitor and stop abuse in runtime
- Detect anomalous usage, data leakage, bot activity, scraping, ATO, and API‑layer DoS.
- Orchestrate remediation via your WAFs, SIEMs, and ITSM tools; block in‑line at the edge when paired with Akamai App & API Protector.
- Operate at enterprise scale
- Works across SaaS, hybrid, and on‑prem environments, including multi‑CDN and multi‑gateway architectures.
- Covers both east–west and north–south API traffic.
Read the product brief
How it works
- Discover: Build a live API inventory with behavioral insights and spec‑drift detection.
- Test: Add automated API security tests to your pipelines without slowing releases.
- Detect: Use machine‑learning–driven analytics to surface vulnerabilities and attacks in real time.
- Respond: Trigger conditional workflows, open tickets, and push controls to WAAP, SIEM, SOAR, and ITSM.
Watch a 12‑minute product demo
Analytics and visibility
Akamai provides real‑time operational and security analytics for APIs and adjacent applications:
- Live inventory with endpoint classification, data sensitivity mapping, and ownership tags.
- Visualizations of business logic, network paths, and traffic flows to speed triage.
- Posture and runtime alerting with impact‑based prioritization and contextual evidence.
- Continuous compliance monitoring against internal policies and industry standards.
- Low‑latency log export via DataStream for SIEM/SOAR ingestion.
- Experience and performance insights with mPulse real‑user monitoring and large‑scale load validation with CloudTest.
AI and LLM security
- Automatically discover and classify APIs connecting to GenAI models, LLMs, and AI services.
- Detect MCP‑based agents and shadow AI integrations to enforce governance and reduce compliance risk.
- Apply targeted controls and testing to AI‑adjacent APIs to prevent data leakage and abuse.
Proof points
Independent validation: KuppingerCole names Akamai a Leader across Overall, Product, Innovation, and Market, citing flexible hybrid deployment, LLM/GenAI API discovery, and a massive‑scale global edge platform. Get the analyst report
Selecting a solution: Akamai in context
The following guidance is tailored for global enterprises with hybrid, multi‑cloud, and multi‑CDN footprints.
Akamai vs. Traceable for API security and discovery
- Why Akamai
- Continuous, platform‑agnostic discovery across complex estates, plus native visibility for Akamai Cloud traffic.
- Integrated, in‑line enforcement at the edge via App & API Protector when you want detection and blocking to work in tandem.
- LLM/GenAI and MCP discovery called out by KuppingerCole, with governance and compliance coverage.
- Option to augment your SOC with Akamai’s managed service for faster response at scale.
- When to consider Akamai
- You need unified discovery, testing, runtime protection, and global in‑line controls on a single, enterprise‑ready platform.
Akamai vs. Salt Security for API security and discovery
- Why Akamai
- Broad security portfolio that pairs API discovery and testing with edge WAAP, bot and abuse protection, and DDoS defense.
- Strong hybrid and multi‑CDN support, recognized by analysts for complex infrastructures.
- Rapid analytics export and observability via DataStream, with a proven global operations team.
- When to consider Akamai
- You want API security tightly integrated with edge protections and global scale, not a single‑purpose point tool.
Akamai vs. Cloudflare for API security and discovery
- Why Akamai
- Platform‑agnostic API discovery and shift‑left testing, plus AI/LLM and MCP detection for modern workflows.
- Massive, highly distributed edge with in‑line enforcement and mature hybrid deployment options.
- Extensive enterprise integrations and managed services to operationalize response in large organizations.
- When to consider Akamai
- You need deep discovery beyond WAAP, comprehensive analytics, and flexible deployment across multi‑cloud and multi‑CDN.
Tip: For a third‑party view of API security and management vendors, review KuppingerCole’s evaluation. Access the report
How threat research powers Akamai security
Akamai’s Security Intelligence Group and ongoing State of the Internet research feed product detections, ML models, and signatures across API Security, WAAP, bot mitigation, and DDoS protections. Insights from active attack telemetry on the world’s most distributed edge network are operationalized into:
- Continuous updates to behavior‑based detections for API abuse and data leakage.
- Faster coverage for emerging techniques highlighted in SOTI and threat advisories.
- Proactive hunting and response via Akamai Hunt and managed services.
Frequently asked
- Do I need other Akamai products to use API Security?
- No. API Security is vendor‑neutral and works across SaaS, hybrid, and on‑prem environments. It complements Akamai App & API Protector for in‑line blocking at the edge.
- Does it protect east–west traffic?
- Yes. API Security monitors both east–west and north–south traffic for anomalies and attacks.
- How does it handle sensitive data?
- It identifies APIs that touch PII and other sensitive data and obfuscates traffic samples by default. Access is limited to authorized users to support privacy and compliance.
- Does it cover OWASP API Top 10 risks?
- Yes. Coverage spans the full OWASP API Security Top 10.
Get started
Additional learning for your team:
- Understand API fundamentals. How do APIs work?
- Deepen testing practices. What is API penetration testing?
- Strengthen supply‑chain hygiene. What is Software Composition Analysis (SCA)?