Although we do most of our shopping online, some items require more investigation. For instance, very few people purchase new cars without a test drive – no matter what the advertisements or the salesperson tells you.
As a CIO or IT leader, you or someone on your team has done similar research online regarding the DDoS mitigation systems you are thinking of purchasing – a mitigation system with a price tag equivalent to 5 to 15 times the value of the car models we were discussing.
According to the latest statistics from Neustar, 84% of enterprises reported having experienced at least one DDoS attack a year. With chances of being attacked this high – you want to make sure that the new DDoS mitigation system you are purchasing is the best one for your network environment and that it’s working as expected!
Why ‘Test Drive’ a DDoS Mitigation System?
There are four main reasons for testing your DDoS mitigation before making a purchase decision:
1. DDoS Mitigation needs to Work With Your Network of Devices
A network environment generally contains a multitude of devices – a web application firewall, intrusion prevention system, routers, etc., and they all need to work in sync to protect against various attack vectors.
With more devices comes more possible points of failure, especially from a DDoS attack. DDoS attacks may force other protections to move into a “fail-open” state, leaving your assets exposed. DDoS attacks must not be allowed to traverse the network to those other security devices and should be blocked upstream.
2.Vendor Performance (Technical)
DDoS mitigation solutions don’t all work the same. Some are better at mitigating Layer 3 & 4 attacks; some vendors are better at mitigating Layer 7 (application) attacks; and some are good all-rounders.
3.Vendor Performance (Operational)
DDoS attacks are unpredictable and will strike at all hours of the day. You want to know that your vendor has the best people, processes and procedures to manage the DDoS attack event if the attack comes in the middle of the night.
4.Vendor Performance (SLA)
Every vendor has its standard Service Level Agreement (SLA) that dictates when and how fast they are committed to mitigating a DDoS attack. What’s right for your company might vary from others significantly. And even if the standard SLA does suit you, how well does the vendor meet it when under attack?
Remember: No two DDoS mitigation postures are identical. Vendor Evaluation Testing is the only way to verify the solution you are being offered is the best one for you
Once you have narrowed your DDoS mitigation choices down to two or three “Best” solutions we recommend starting the Vendor Evaluation Test. While DDoS mitigation vendors may not like your request to “try before you buy,” testing their solutions with real DDoS tests is the only way for you to understand:
(i) How well their DDoS mitigation solutions perform in your specific network set up?
(ii) How effective their mitigation is against different types of DDoS attacks from all three OSI layers?
(iii) How professional and proficient their personnel are at managing DDoS attack scenarios when tested?
(iv) Are their SLAs suitable for your needs, and how well do they live up to their commitments?
What is The DDoS Vendor Evaluation Test?
The Vendor Evaluation Test is applied to your “Best” DDoS mitigation solutions and is based on MazeBolt’s BaseLine DDoS Testing methodology that’s designed to validate the DDoS mitigation solution against more than 95% of the DDoS attack vectors in the wild.
