A10 Networks, Akamai, Cloudflare and NETSCOUT

About Akamai

Akamai sells cloud computing, security and content delivery products. Akamai Cloud has added more GPU capacity, an in-memory database and Kubernetes updates. Akamai Inference and Akamai Agent Sandbox extend Akamai Cloud to serve, run and secure AI applications and agents from core to edge. Akamai Functions is an edge native serverless platform that runs globally.^[2][3]

App & API Protector defends at the edge and blocks large-scale attacks, and App & API Protector Hybrid extends WAF defense to multicloud and on-prem environments. Akamai's all-in-one approach consolidates WAF, API security, bot management and DDoS protection in a single solution. Akamai Adaptive Security Engine delivers real-time, automated protection across edge, cloud and hybrid environments. The Behavioral DDoS Engine provides automated defense against volumetric attacks. An open API is available for automating App & API Protector configuration changes in a CI/CD pipeline. SMU turns to Akamai App & API Protector and Dynamic Site Accelerator for online shopping. Grupo Xcaret relies on Akamai for app and API protection, bot mitigation and site delivery.^[4]

Akamai Bot Manager detects bot traffic, mitigates malicious bots at the edge and manages good bots. Bot Manager generates a score from 0 (human) to 100 (bot) and looks at all anomalies, starting with the very first request. Bot Manager provides visualization and reporting tools that show the impact various types of bots have on a business and its infrastructure. Account Protector is a security solution designed to protect against account abuse across the lifecycle of an account, using machine learning and a dataset of risk and trust indicators. Account Protector uses a combination of user, device, IP, network, bot and reputation indicators to create a user risk score for each UUID. Account Protector includes all of Akamai Bot Manager's capabilities.^[5][6]

Akamai Guardicore Segmentation is used to gain visibility across an environment and limit lateral movement. SBI Holdings is working to achieve Zero Trust with Akamai Guardicore Segmentation. A water utility secured critical infrastructure and protected essential services for 1.6 million people with Akamai Guardicore Segmentation. Samsung Life Insurance protects hundreds of applications and thousands of workload servers with Akamai.^[2][7]

Akamai Firewall for AI protects enterprise AI apps and LLMs from prompt injection, data exfiltration and toxic output. Firewall for AI runs at the edge to inspect prompts and responses before they reach AI apps. Akamai Firewall for AI is model-agnostic and works with any LLM-based or AI-driven application. Edge DNS is built on Akamai's edge network. Akamai Shield NS53 is a reverse proxy solution that protects on-prem and hybrid DNS infrastructure. Edge DNS provides an availability SLA with guaranteed 100% uptime. Prolexic is Akamai's DDoS protection platform.^[4][8][9]

NodeBalancers is a fully managed load balancing solution. NodeBalancers support TCP, HTTP and HTTPS load balancing via HTTP/1.1. CloudTest is a load testing platform. CloudTest is offered as a fully managed or self-service solution and supports websites, apps, APIs and CI/CD processes. Akamai Inference is a fully managed inference service for running AI models in production. Pay-per-token Serverless Inference and Dedicated Inference with reserved GPUs are available, separately or together. AI models are called through an OpenAI-compatible API while Akamai handles GPUs, serving, autoscaling and model lifecycle management.^{[3][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12]}

About Cloudflare

Cloudflare sells one platform for apps, agents and workforce. Cloudflare describes one network for workloads and security, close to users and close to data. Cloudflare says security, connectivity and code run in 335+ cities around the world, within 50ms of 95% of the world's population. Cloudflare says DDoS protection, WAF, bot management and Zero Trust controls are built into the network and run on every request from day one. Cloudflare says every site gets the same DDoS mitigation, the same global CDN and the same network at every tier.^[1][11][21]

On DDoS defense, Cloudflare says its DDoS protection absorbs the largest attacks with 500 Tbps of network capacity. Cloudflare Spectrum provides DDoS protection for TCP/UDP applications. Spectrum covers applications built with any protocols, including custom protocols. Magic Transit protects networks, data centers and infrastructure against layer 3 and 4 DDoS attacks. Cloudflare says Anycast absorbs and auto-routes traffic, with mitigations that trigger in seconds and no manual tuning. Cloudflare offers 24/7 email and phone support, including an Under Attack hotline.^[12][13][21]

For application security, Cloudflare says customers can deploy WAF, rate-limiting, mTLS and Bot Management with a single DNS change, with no agents and no appliances. Cloudflare says one API and dashboard covers edge rules, logs and analytics, and integrates with CI/CD for policy-as-code. Cloudflare says schema validation and mTLS protect REST/GraphQL traffic and enforce client identity, with no SDK required. Cloudflare offers free, auto-renewed certificates and modern transport. Cloudflare provides real-time dashboards plus raw logs to R2/S3/SIEM. Cloudflare says it can detect Magecart-style client-side tampering before customers' card data leaks. Cloudflare says its security platform protects 20% of the Internet.^[21]

On bot defense, Cloudflare built a platform to deploy custom machine learning models for every bot management customer. Cloudflare says Super Bot Fight Mode includes bot protection for Pro, Business and all Enterprise customers, and Enterprise Bot Management is the other bot option named.^[22]

For workforce security, Cloudflare says internal apps and developer tools can be protected with identity-based access, device posture checks and single sign-on, with no VPN required. Cloudflare says its Zero Trust platform connects and secures users, devices and data, with the first 50 employees free and a flat per-user rate beyond that.^[11][21]

Cloudflare also serves developers who build applications. Cloudflare says customers can bring any JavaScript framework or build tool, connect a git repository and deploy a project to a single Worker serving both front-end and back-end. Cloudflare supports Next.js, Hono, React Router, TanStack, Remix, Astro, Nuxt and RedwoodJS. Cloudflare says it charges only for compute, not wall time, even during long agent workflows or hibernating WebSockets. RealtimeKit handles WebRTC complexities, connection management and global routing. RealtimeKit Agents supports building voice bots, interactive assistants and automated support systems.^[11][23][24]

Among customers, Shopify powers commerce for millions of merchants and businesses. Shopify uses the Cloudflare WAF, Bot Management, DDoS Protection and Gateway. Cloudflare says the log-only rules in that setup let Shopify preview the impact of security changes before they reach production. Cloudflare works with partners as well: it expanded its worldwide reseller partnership with Rackspace Technology to include managed services offerings. Cloudflare says the Rackspace service includes onboarding support for Cloudflare Managed DNS, Content Delivery Network, Advanced DDoS Protection and Web Application Firewall.^{[11][25][26][27]}

Cloudflare, Inc says its suite of products protects and accelerates any Internet application online without adding hardware, installing software, or changing a line of code. Cloudflare is headquartered in San Francisco, CA, with offices in Austin, TX, Champaign, IL, New York, NY, San Jose, CA, Seattle, WA, Washington, D.C., Toronto, Dubai, Lisbon, London, Munich, Paris, Beijing, Singapore, Sydney and Tokyo. Cloudflare Radar is powered by data from Cloudflare's global network and from aggregated and anonymized data from Cloudflare's 1.1.1.1 public DNS Resolver.^{[1][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][23][27]}

About NETSCOUT

NETSCOUT sells observability, cybersecurity, and AIOps solutions powered by the NETSCOUT Data Platform. NETSCOUT describes Smart Data as structured, enriched, AI-ready metadata that captures how services, applications, and users are performing. NETSCOUT analyzes network traffic using deep packet inspection and transforms observed AI communications into Smart Data. NETSCOUT presents its data foundation as the source for its own observability and cybersecurity applications and for broader AIOps and partner ecosystems.^[6]

The NETSCOUT portfolio includes products for cybersecurity, network and application performance, AIOps, service assurance, business analytics, DDoS protection, threat intelligence, and more. Arbor Edge Defense (AED) is an inline security appliance deployed at the network perimeter, between the internet router and firewall. Arbor Edge Defense (AED) provides stateless, on-premise DDoS protection. Arbor Cloud Web Application Firewall (WAF) covers threats including SQL injection, XSS, and DDoS attacks. Arbor Insight provides network traffic engineering and analytics for workflows in Arbor Sightline. Arbor Managed Services provides management of DDoS protection with 24x7 worldwide expert help and continuous threat intelligence. Arbor Sightline Mobile identifies security threats and traffic anomalies in 4G and 5G networks. Arbor Sightline with Sentinel provides automated DDoS protection to simplify incident response. Arbor Threat Mitigation System (TMS) filters out malicious traffic while allowing legitimate traffic to pass through.^[7][8]

On the monitoring side, InfiniStreamNG is an application and network monitoring software appliance from NETSCOUT. NETSCOUT's nGeniusONE solution offers visibility and real-time intelligence for IT troubleshooting of applications and networks across the enterprise. NETSCOUT's nGeniusPULSE performs 24x7 synthetic testing and monitoring of applications and business services. The nGenius Collector is an appliance that collects flow-based data from enabled instrumentation. The nGenius Collector then analyzes the data and generates insights for use by network teams. nGenius Business Analytics provides insights from the high volume of traffic data derived from the network. nGenius for Flows enables visibility throughout network infrastructure, beyond data centers. nGenius Cloud vTAP addresses visibility gaps in cloud environments. nGenius Session Analyzer provides visibility into end-to-end call flows for resolving subscriber trouble tickets.^[7]

NETSCOUT also sells hardware and software for packet access. NETSCOUT TAPs provide network monitoring devices with full access to network traffic. nGenius 5000 Series Packet Flow Switches have speeds from 1Gbps to 400Gbps and provide core packet broker functionality. nGenius 7000 Series Packet Flow Switches provide core packet broker functionality plus filtering, load balancing, and more, at speeds from 1Gbps to 400Gbps. nGenius PFS Fabric Manager provides a central management pane for orchestration of the packet flow switch fabric. nGenius Packet Flow eXtender is a software application that enables packet deduplication and NetFlow generation. Omnis CyberStream uses scalable deep packet inspection. Omnis Streamer includes a built-in Model Context Protocol (MCP) server.^[7]

For carriers and mobile networks, nGeniusONE for Carrier Service Providers is a service assurance solution covering voice, video, internet, OTT, and other carrier networks. InfiniStreamNG RAN enables data collection, correlation, ISMI and IMEI enrichment and storage, and more across radio access networks. MobileStream uses Smart Data technology to monitor both user and control plane traffic within 4G and 5G mobile networks. NETSCOUT provides service assurance and security for CSPs across all types of IoT devices. NETSCOUT offers end-to-end observability solutions for 5G fixed wireless access. NETSCOUT offers DDoS protection technology for mobile network operators running multi-access edge computing environments. Adaptive DDoS Protection lets service providers detect DDoS attacks at any granularity.^[1][7][8]

Adaptive DDoS Protection provides on-prem and cloud defense to create a hybrid DDoS mitigation solution. NETSCOUT sells DNS DDoS protection solutions powered by its Arbor DDoS mitigation. NETSCOUT firewall DDoS protection solutions deploy stateless measures. NETSCOUT's network detection and response solution enables teams to investigate activity before, during, and after an event. NETSCOUT can deploy network detection and response (NDR) into AWS environments. NETSCOUT offers shared datasets and instrumentation for collaboration between NetOps and SecOps teams. NETSCOUT uses Smart Data to surface shadow AI across the network. NETSCOUT Cyber Threat Horizon is a free tool of real-time global threat data used to visualize real cyberattacks.^[6][7][8]

NETSCOUT Visibility as a Service (VaaS) pairs a customer team with expert engineers to configure and manage a deployment. NETSCOUT offers compliance solutions for DORA aimed at financial entities. NETSCOUT has published updated versions of its SOC 2 report and its ISO 27001 / ISO 27017 certification documentation.^[3][7][8][9]