Forrester Wave report: what the experts say about choosing an anti-DDoS service provider

BY Editor

There was once a time when protecting your business meant waving a shotgun in the doorway of your saloon. But enough about Texas in 2012. For many businesses these days, the first line of defense against attacks and intrusions that seek to do financial harm as well as cause other kinds of damage absolutely has to be online.

DDoS attacks have become a big topic for business owners over the last five years. But what started out as attacks that simply took websites offline or disrupted online services have mutated into virtual weapons of actual destruction. According to DDoS service provider Imperva Incapsula, 45% of organizations are targeted by DDoS attacks, 74% are targeted more than once, and the average cost of an unmitigated attack is a staggering $40,000 per hour.

As recently as even a couple of years ago, the predominant question for business owners regarding DDoS attacks was should you invest in professional DDoS mitigation. That is no longer the case. The question now has to be which anti-DDoS service provider is the best choice for your business. A report by Forrester Research has answered that exact question. Read on for a look at the 2015 Forrester Wave for DDoS Service Providers and what it means for your business.

Riding the Forrester Wave

If you’re unfamiliar with Forrester Wave reports, they are analyst-published evaluations of vendors in hardware, software or services markets. These reports are highly regarded and widely trusted, helping to inform important buying decisions.

In the case of the 2015 Forrester Wave for DDoS Service Providers, analysts used 36 different criteria to evaluate nine of the most significant DDoS service providers to determine which service provider best protects their clients’ businesses from the disruption of online services, theft of intellectual property, customer information and financial data, and damage to hardware, software and consumer trust that so often accompany today’s DDoS attacks.

Takeaways, rankings and criteria, oh my

A key takeaway from the report is that anti-DDoS services are, at their core, quite similar and it’s the features of the leading DDoS service providers that set them apart. Forrester’s analysts found that the top DDoS service providers:

• Can automatically detect both application and network DDoS attacks and can deal with them accordingly
• Defend both applications and networks, even though network attacks are considerably more common
• Focus on a broad set of protocols in order to thwart creative attack methods
• Employ a talented staff and maintain quality networks of service partners

The nine DDoS service providers included in the report were selected because they offered a full suite of DDoS security services, including both on-demand and always-on, have a strong presence in North America as well as around the world, have a large base of customers, and had already attracted a good amount of interest from Forrester customers.

These nine companies were then evaluated based on the strength of their current DDoS mitigation offerings, their DDoS strategy, and their market presence.

The results are in

The nine companies evaluated were split into two distinct categories. F5 Networks, DOSarrest, Neustar and Level 3 Communications were deemed ‘strong performers.’ While they are all considered competent service providers, they fell short of the rest of the companies included in the report.

Imperva Incapsula, CloudFlare, Akamai Technologies, Verisign and Century Link were all deemed ‘leaders’ by Forrester Wave, lauded for their strong current offerings as well as strong strategies that address both current market needs as well as future market needs.

While all of these companies boast a robust set of anti-DDoS capabilities and can defend against even the largest amplification attacks and the most destructive application-layer attacks, Imperva Incapsula in particular was singled out by the report for having the highest possible scores for SSL traffic inspection, IP location maps and defended network protocol.

Imperva Incapsula also earned top marks for adeptness at serving both small and medium business clients and enterprise clients, having a large customer base and a strong global presence, excellent customer service capabilities including responding well to customer feedback, and positive feedback from customer references.

Consider the outsource

One of the key takeaways of the Forrester report is that it’s worthwhile to rely on the DDoS services market for your DDoS protection than to try and implement your own anti-DDoS solution. Professional DDoS service providers offer all manner of protection – always-on, on-demand, and even a hybrid solution that allows security professionals to handle as much as they can with before handing the reins over to the pros – so there already exists an ideal solution for every business or organization.

Whether you go with one of the Forrester Wave’s favorite DDoS service providers or you go with a lesser-known company, it is imperative that your business or organization is professionally protected from these potent, omnipresent and incredibly destructive threats.