In today’s hyperconnected digital landscape, distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks have evolved into sophisticated, multivector threats capable of crippling even the most resilient infrastructures. While content delivery network (CDN)-based DDoS protection offers scalable mitigation for volumetric attacks, it’s not a silver bullet. To truly safeguard critical services and maintain operational continuity, organizations must adopt a multilayered defense strategy—and that’s where NETSCOUT Arbor Edge Defense (AED) comes in.
The limitations of CDN-based DDoS protection
CDN providers offer robust cloud-based DDoS mitigation that is effective against large-scale volumetric attacks. These services reroute traffic through global scrubbing centers, filtering out malicious traffic before it reaches the origin server. However, CDN-based solutions often fall short in detecting and mitigating:
- Low-volume, stealthy application-layer attacks
- Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) state exhaustion attacks
- Outbound threats from compromised internal hosts
- Attacks that bypass CDN routing (for example, direct-to-IP attacks)
These gaps leave critical infrastructure vulnerable, especially when attackers use dynamic, multivector techniques designed to evade upstream defenses.
Arbor Edge Defense: The first and last line of defense
NETSCOUT’s AED is uniquely positioned between the internet router and the firewall, acting as an inline, always-on shield. AED uses artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML)-powered stateless packet processing and real-time threat intelligence from NETSCOUT’s ATLAS infrastructure, which monitors up to 50% of global internet traffic spanning more than 200 countries and territories and 398 industry verticals and representing two-thirds of the routable IP space.
Key capabilities include:
- Automatic mitigation of all DDoS attack types, including encrypted traffic and Domain Name System (DNS) water torture attacks
- Protection against outbound threats, preventing data exfiltration, and botnet communications
- Firewall preservation, reducing operational load by as much as 80%
- Adaptive DDoS protection, which learns and adjusts to evolving attack patterns in real time
The power of a hybrid approach
Combining AED with CDN-based DDoS protection creates a defense-in-depth architecture that covers the full spectrum of attack vectors:
- Arbor Cloud DDoS protection handles high-volume attacks far from the target, preserving bandwidth and upstream resources
- AED provides surgical, on-premises mitigation for application-layer and state-exhaustion attacks that cloud solutions often miss
Real-world impact
According to IDC, 41% of organizations report that online attacks—including DDoS—have caused damages exceeding $100,000, with 5% suffering losses of more than $1 million. As attackers increasingly leverage AI to launch dynamic threats, organizations must respond with intelligent, automated defenses that adapt in real time.
In isolation, CDN-based DDoS protection and Arbor Edge Defense each offer valuable capabilities. But together, they form a comprehensive, adaptive, and resilient security posture that’s essential for modern enterprises facing relentless cyberthreats. By integrating these solutions, organizations can ensure their networks remain available, secure, and performant—no matter what the threat landscape throws their way.
Learn more about NETSCOUT’s Arbor Edge Defense.
