CISO Tribune

Vendor comparison · 2 companies

Act Security vs Akamai

Act Security sells a cloud security platform that eliminates unnecessary access at the infrastructure layer. Akamai sells cloud computing, security and content delivery products. CISO Tribune files both under Microsegmentation. This page sets the two records side by side: what each sells, where it is based, who owns and funds it, the customers it names and its recent news, each fact numbered to its source.

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  • Act Security
  • Akamai
Act Security vs Akamai: Products, Customers and Funding Compared
Act SecurityAct Security sells a cloud security platform that eliminates unnecessary access at the infrastructure layer.act.securityAkamaiAkamai sells cloud computing, security and content delivery products.akamai.com
What it sells
  • Amphi[1][9]A free and open-source suite for managing cloud access policies.
  • App & API Protector[1][4]A web application firewall solution that identifies vulnerabilities and mitigates threats across web and API architectures.
  • Bot Manager[3][5][6]Detects bot traffic and mitigates malicious bots at the edge.
  • Prolexic[9]Akamai's DDoS protection platform.
  • Firewall for AI[8]Protects enterprise AI apps and LLMs from prompt injection, data exfiltration and toxic output.
  • Edge DNS[9]A DNS service built on Akamai's edge network.
  • Account Protector[6]A security solution that protects against account abuse across the lifecycle of an account.
  • Akamai Functions[3]An edge native serverless platform that runs globally.
Categories
Headquarters
Not stated on its pagesNot stated on its pages
Founded
Not stated on its pagesNot stated on its pages
Ownership and funding
Not stated on its pagesNot stated on its pages
Named customers
Not stated on its pagesNot stated on its pages
Recent news
Not stated on its pages
  • October 27, 2026Akamai launched Akamai Inference and Akamai Agent Sandbox, two AI stack products for its cloud platform.[13]
  • July 2, 2026Akamai completed its acquisition of LayerX, a secure enterprise browser provider.[14]
G2 and Gartner Peer Insights
  • G2: Not stated on its pages
  • Gartner Peer Insights: Not stated on its pages
  • G2: listed, seen November 10, 2026[15]
  • Gartner Peer Insights: Not stated on its pages
Who it fits
Act Security's platform draws boundaries across multi-cloud environments. Organizations deploying AI agents and AI workloads in production are a stated focus, since Act enforces access boundaries around every AI workload. Act Security also addresses organizations that must meet requirements such as HIPAA and GDPR through access and data boundaries.From its own pages, Akamai sells security for enterprise AI apps and LLMs through Firewall for AI. App & API Protector Hybrid is sold for on-prem, hybrid cloud and multi-CDN environments. Akamai describes organizations that keep some on-prem DNS nameservers and GSLBs for administrative or compliance requirements. Akamai Guardicore Segmentation is applied by an organization in the financial industry working toward Zero Trust. A water utility secured critical infrastructure with Akamai Guardicore Segmentation.
Last verified
October 29, 2026November 6, 2026

Where they overlap

  • Act Security and Akamai are both filed under Microsegmentation.

Where they differ, field by field

  • Act Security's primary category is Cloud identity entitlements (CIEM); Akamai's is WAF and WAAP.
  • Akamai is also filed under DDoS protection and Bot and abuse management.
  • Act Security lists Amphi. Akamai lists App & API Protector, Bot Manager, Prolexic, Firewall for AI, Edge DNS and 2 more.

What it sells: Act Security

What Amphi does[1][9]
Amphi builds on Cloud Copilot, an open-source AWS IAM tool that Act acquired earlier in the year. Amphi integrates with a team's existing workflows and requires no account or login. Amphi gives the infrastructure and platform engineers who run the cloud a way to manage access policies.

What it sells: Akamai

What App & API Protector does[1][4]
App & API Protector Hybrid extends security off the Akamai platform for on-prem, hybrid cloud and multi-CDN environments. Akamai's all-in-one approach consolidates WAF, API security, bot management and DDoS protection in a single solution. An open API is available for automating App & API Protector configuration changes in a CI/CD pipeline.
What Bot Manager does[3][5][6]
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.
What Prolexic does[9]
Prolexic is Akamai's DDoS protection platform. Edge DNS and Shield NS53 can be used with Prolexic to protect digital infrastructure across all layers, ports and protocols.
What Firewall for AI does[8]
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. Incoming prompts are analyzed to detect and block threats like prompt injection attacks, jailbreaks and policy violations. Deployment options include the Akamai edge or a REST API.
What Edge DNS does[9]
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.
What Account Protector does[6]
Account Protector uses a combination of user, device, IP, network, bot and reputation indicators to create a user risk score for each UUID. Block, alert and allow actions are performed based on the user risk score. Account Protector includes all of Akamai Bot Manager's capabilities. User information can be passed to a SIEM using the Akamai SIEM Integration connector.
What Akamai Functions does[3]
Rust, Go, JavaScript, Python and other languages that compile to WebAssembly can be used. Applications are packaged and deployed using open tooling like Spin and SpinKube, locally, in Kubernetes or directly to the edge. Bot Manager can be combined with Akamai Functions so that identified bots are routed to a function that generates bot-specific responses.

Questions about Act Security and Akamai

What do Act Security and Akamai sell?
Act Security sells Amphi. Akamai sells App & API Protector, Bot Manager, Prolexic, Firewall for AI, Edge DNS and 2 more.
Are Act Security and Akamai in the same category?
They share Microsegmentation. Act Security's primary category is Cloud identity entitlements (CIEM) and Akamai's is WAF and WAAP.
Who are Act Security and Akamai sold to?
Act Security's platform draws boundaries across multi-cloud environments. From its own pages, Akamai sells security for enterprise AI apps and LLMs through Firewall for AI.
What have Act Security and Akamai announced recently?
October 27, 2026: Akamai launched Akamai Inference and Akamai Agent Sandbox, two AI stack products for its cloud platform.

About Act Security

Act Security sells a cloud security platform that eliminates unnecessary access at the infrastructure layer.[2][3]

Act describes the problem as AI-assisted development creating services, identities and agents faster than governance can review, while autonomous agents operate in production with real authority. Act Security is a Tel Aviv startup whose cloud security platform targets AI agents inheriting bloated cloud permissions. Act Security maps the full identity-to-agent-to-downstream chain across a customer's cloud and applies preventative controls.[7]

Act maps every cloud construct into boundaries that reflect how a business operates, by organization, environment, application or data. Act brings identity, network and AI access controls together into one unified access map. Act analyzes and enforces identity, network and AI access as a single model. Act examines access as configured and as observed. Configured access is everything current configuration allows to be reached and acted on, and observed access is what is actually being used to keep the business running.[2][5]

One campaign type uses broad explicit-deny policies that block entire attack categories, including unauthorized cross-environment movement, data exfiltration and external overexposure. Act simulates each recommended change before enforcement to show what it would block. Act lets teams test changes against a digital twin before enforcing them, and run changes in audit mode as long as needed to confirm no legitimate access is revoked. Act gives automated exception recommendations based on observed access and intent.[2]

Act enforces boundaries through a cloud's own native controls, using Infrastructure-as-Code, with no agents and no new infrastructure to maintain. Act deploys changes as pull requests to a customer's existing Infrastructure-as-Code, Terraform and CloudFormation, using the cloud-native controls the customer already owns. Act manages violations and exceptions directly in a customer's own tools. Act lets users request blocked access within their existing tools, so security can approve or deny it in one click. Act shows every policy change with the investigation already done, and supports rollback when needed.[2]

Act places six contextual boundaries across a cloud, continuously reducing attack paths as the environment evolves. Act rightsizes human access and removes standing privileged access. Act locks down access to production and management environments and keeps sandbox environments isolated from everything else. Act ring-fences each application, secures its data and compute, and blocks attackers from moving laterally between applications. Act contains endpoint AI agents, governs the infrastructure they run on, and ring-fences cloud AI agents so they cannot reach beyond their intended scope. Act isolates tenants to protect customer data, enforces geo-fencing for regulations like GDPR, and restricts access to regulated data. Act closes off unintended inbound access from outside an environment and eliminates the paths attackers use to exfiltrate data. Act enforces tightly defined access boundaries around every AI workload.[1][2][5]

Act Security's founders have years inside critical infrastructure and healthcare. Act Security's research team found that Azure's object replication, a normal feature for copying blobs between storage accounts, can be turned into a quiet data exfiltration or poisoning channel.[3][5]

Act Security released Amphi in September 2026, a free and open-source suite for managing cloud access policies. Amphi builds on Cloud Copilot, an open-source AWS IAM tool that Act acquired earlier in the year. Amphi integrates with a team's existing workflows and requires no account or login.[1][2][8]

Act Security on the record

Sources

Act Security full record

  1. [1]act.securityAct Security · act.security · undated page, accessed October 29, 2026 · Tier A
  2. [2]Platform | Act SecurityAct Security · undated page, accessed October 29, 2026 · Tier A
  3. [3]Black Hat USA 2026 | Act SecurityAct Security · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  4. [4]Act Security raises $60M and exits stealthAct Security · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  5. [5]Act SecurityAct Security · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  6. [6]About | Act SecurityAct Security · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  7. [7]Secure Your AI Agent's Full Access ChainAct Security · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  8. [8]Act: Proactive cloud securityAct Security · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  9. [9]Act Security press releaseAct Security · published October 8, 2026 · Tier A

Akamai full record

  1. [1]akamai.comAkamai · akamai.com · undated page, accessed November 6, 2026 · Tier A
  2. [2]Cloud Computing, Security, Content Delivery (CDN) | AkamaiAkamai · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  3. [3]Akamai Functions | Serverless | WebAssembly | AkamaiAkamai · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  4. [4]App & API Protector — Website Application Protection | AkamaiAkamai · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  5. [5]Bot Manager | Bot Detection, Protection, and Management | AkamaiAkamai · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  6. [6]Account Takeover and Identity Theft Protection | AkamaiAkamai · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  7. [7]Akamai Guardicore Segmentation for Hybrid Cloud | AkamaiAkamai · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  8. [8]Protection and Security for AI and LLM Applications | AkamaiAkamai · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  9. [9]DNS security | Edge DNS | Shield NS53 | AkamaiAkamai · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  10. [10]NodeBalancers | AkamaiAkamai · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  11. [11]CloudTest | Real-Time Load Testing Tool | AkamaiAkamai · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  12. [12]Akamai Inference | AI Inference | AkamaiAkamai · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  13. [13]Akamai Launches AI Inference Service and Agent Execution Environment | AkamaiAkamai · published October 27, 2026 · Tier A
  14. [14]Akamai Completes Acquisition of Secure Enterprise Browser Provider LayerX | AkamaiAkamai · published July 2, 2026 · Tier A
  15. [15]Akamai Cloud Computing Reviews & Product DetailsG2 · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier C

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