A CDN (Content Delivery Network) makes applications and data quickly and easily available worldwide exactly where the users are. Can a CDN infrastructure also protect you effectively against cyberattacks - and if so, how? CDN Edge Security provides intelligent solutions.
For hundreds of internationally active companies with Swiss headquarters, CDN Edge technology is indispensable. They use it to distribute their content from their “origin servers” to the global network of edge servers. Their proximity to local employees and customers shortens loading times and significantly increases the performance of applications. In short: CDN guarantees efficient content delivery and high web performance worldwide.
The advantages of the CDN do not come for free. Security must also play an important role. This is proven by the unfortunately true story of a Swiss watch manufacturer: no sooner had it launched its new model worldwide than its web shops were attacked by a botnet. Hundreds of thousands of bots logged into the sales platforms and ordered 60 million watches. Per hour. The DDoS attack paralysed the shops for days. By the time the bots could finally be redirected with considerable effort, the company had suffered considerable damage.
If the watch manufacturer had had “insurance” in the form of a CDN Edge Security solution in operation, the attack would most likely have been detected and averted in time. As a Software as a Service (SaaS) model – implemented in the cloud – CDN Edge Security works in the domains and the applications instead of in the network, for example in logins and e-shop applications. This means that threats and attacks are intercepted and blocked right where they originate – directly at the edge server – before they can reach and infiltrate the company's origin server. Further developments of the security solution, updates and adaptations to changed threats or new requirements from the business can be implemented quickly and efficiently thanks to the cloud model. With Akamai and Cloudflare, Swisscom is counting on the two leading product partners worldwide for its CDN Edge Security offering.
Would you like to learn more about CDN Edge Security? And how you can improve the performance of your global applications and websites while protecting them from cyberattacks? Our free whitepaper provides you with in-depth insights and practical tips.
The protective shield for applications and servers can also be established with firewall boxes installed in the data centres. Some disadvantages offset their robustness. Purchasing, maintaining and updating the hardware can be costly. Fast reactions to changing threat situations are not always possible, and adjustments to the protection of applications, host names and domains take time. In addition, many hardware firewalls are no longer being developed. And how do you manage not to install too many resources and not too few? Can the performance to cope with traffic peaks be scaled up within a reasonable period of time?
A cloud-based, fast-reacting CDN edge security solution is far more flexible than a hardware model, and not only in this respect. This is embedded as an important component in a zero-trust architecture, which in turn is part of the Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) philosophy. For many companies – not only watch manufacturers – the time is ripe to work towards the modern security gold standard. Why not start with CDN Edge Security?
Get on the safe side
Would you like to protect yourself effectively against cyberattacks? We will be happy to support you in this.
Get in touch with our CDN Edge Security experts.