Arbor DDoS Reviews

We are using Arbor as a DDoS protection infrastructure. It protects our both our company's infrastructure and also our customers' infrastructure. We are not using it to protect one website, we are protecting a lot of websites and a lot of customers' infrastructures including their websites, their web services, etc.

It protects our infrastructure. We are in a particular geography so we face a lot of cyber attacks, especially DDoS attacks. It's very beneficial for our infrastructure. It's a vital component for every provider network.

We are using it mainly for DDoS protection. Reporting functions provide good visibility. Also, API's helps us to improve our service. We are also using it by serving cloud signaling service to our customers for their on-premise APS devices.

Learning period for managed objects are too short; better to have auto-profiling based on learning.

As long as you don't touch it, it's very stable. But if you try to configure new features or some new deployment, sometimes that can be a problem. A few weeks ago we had an appliance that went down. 

It's very scalable. It has a central management platform that manages all appliances, so if you have a few sites, you can scale it to other sites with new devices and you can manage them from the central management platform.

Arbor has an engineer in our country and we try to solve our cases or our problems or our new feature configurations with him. Also we are able to do that by contacting tech directly. The guys in our country help us contact the tech team. They also have another contact in the tech team so they can speed up the resolution of our cases by communicating with him.

When issues arise, they're helpful, they're knowledgeable and responsive.

The last ticket we submitted was when one of our appliances went down while we were configuring it one night. They solved it within four or five hours after we opened the case. They sent the solution within that time. The appliance went back up and has continued to work properly.

The setup is very straightforward, not too complex. Their tech team is very helpful.

As far as I know, they are very successful in DDoS protection. Because they know it, their service prices are too high. They provide cloud DDoS protection for ISPs, but that is also too expensive. 

We are evaluating other options. We may apply one if we find an appropriate solution. As I mentioned before, Arbor DDoS prices are too high, it's very expensive. It would be better to have more than one vendor in our infrastructure, because there is no competition when you have one vendor or one solution.

Arbor is very good at what it does. If you have enough budget you can apply it to your infrastructure and use its flexibility and reporting features very well. But if you don't have the budget and you don't expand the budget for the coming next years, I suggest not getting in touch with Arbor.

Five or six engineers can log in to devices, but in our company two people are managing infrastructure. There are always ways to optimize it, but we have been working for two years to optimize it and it's in a good situation compared to two years ago.

I would rate it a seven out of ten. My rating is based on the general problems that we had and the solutions for them, as well as the daily stability of these devices.

We are using nearly all the features of Arbor. Currently, they are enough for us, but in the future, if there are different kinds of DDoS attacks I believe that Arbor DDoS will also take action against them.

Our company uses the solution to protect applications such as web DNS and file servers from DDoS attacks coming through the Internet's application layer. 

We also protect our devices and components such as firewalls, IPSS, and WAFs. 

The stateless device format means that the box is very strong for preventing DDoS attacks.

The solution is user friendly and the graphical user interface can be used for everything without logging into the CLI.

The box includes embedded bypass modules so bypasses can be performed without outages.

Hardware modules do not need to be changed when upgrading licenses for additional capacity.

A behavioral traffic analyzer and SSL inspection tool need to be added. 

The solution needs to enhance its features to compete with other tools. Lately, Arbor has made some improvements but they are not ones that are expected or ones that would better align the solution with competitors. 

For example, the solution announced it was releasing SSL inspection in 2020. After a while, they realized the feature was failing so they stopped mentioning it and instead provided another solution which required purchase of a different box. This created a complex topology that is not cost efficient. I have to set aside extra budget so this is not an improvement or a solution for me. Competitors handle the same feature within their own single box.

I have been using the solution for five years.

The solution is really stable. It is the most stable device in our topology. 

Technical support is very good and responds quickly. If I get any box faults, one phone call gets me to an engineer for troubleshooting. 

I rate support an eight out of ten. 

Positive

I did not use other solutions. 

The setup not complex and a simple configuration takes about one hour. 

An advanced configuration takes up to twenty days because I run simulations and check results. It is not constant work but provides useful results. 

Our team of one system architect and three system engineers implemented the solution in-house. 

The solution's pricing is based on a licensing model that is expensive when compared to other tools. 

The first option is a DDoS or throughput license that never expires after purchase. You can use the box until its end of life. 

The second option is a subscription license that is purchased for one, three, or five years. It includes some additional features and services that are optional. 

Product or technical support is a separate license that must be renewed every one or three years. 

I have evaluated other solutions in a demo environment. 

Radware is the leading DDoS solution right now and a strong competitor. I found that its graphical interface is complex and hard to handle. It takes time to configure properly, is hard to read, and is poor for reporting. 

I recommend the solution and rate it a seven out of ten.

If the solution adds a behavioral traffic analyzer and SSL inspection tool, then I rate it a nine out of ten. 

Arbor DDoS is used for network protection if you have a DDoS attack, it keeps the session or information moving.

Arbor DDoS is a combination of a physical appliance and the cloud, and it's combined in their subscription.

Arbor DDoS could improve out-of-the-box reporting, it could be better.

I have used Arbor DDoS within the last 12 months.

Arbor DDoS is highly stable.

Arbor DDoS is able to increase your bandwidth. You can scale less than 50 percent, but if you are scaling above 100 percent it will not be flexible. You have to get a bigger appliance, which will be at a discount rate. It is scalability in the technical and commercial sense.

The technical support of Arbor DDoS is good.

The initial setup of Arbor DDoS is straightforward, and it took approximately five days to implement.

The price of Arbor DDoS depends on many parameters. It depends on the physical capacity of the environment, and it is not a straight-line price. It's fairly competitive in the market on the price.

I would recommend this solution to others.

I rate Arbor DDoS a nine out of ten.

We use Arbor DDoS for network security defense.

The solution has blocked many attacks on our customer's systems that would have disrupted their operations.

Arbor DDoS is easy to use, provides effective blocking of DDoS attacks, and can be used for DNS, web, and main servers. Additionally, this solution is far easier to operate than others solutions, such as Fortinet DDoS.

I have been using Arbor DDoS for approximately four years.

The solution is very stable. In the time we have been using the solution we have not had any incidents.

We have not needed to scale the solution.

The regional support here in African could improve, such as marketing and account managers.

I have previously used Fortinet DDoS.

The solution is easy to deploy and takes approximately two days. It is easier to deploy than other solutions.

The price of this solution is a little high in the African market, it should be lower.

I rate Arbor DDoS an eight out of ten.

• Very user-friendly GUI
• Simplest way of mitigation
• Predefined filters/techniques to easily stop the attacks and start mitigation.

My last project was with the biggest banks of India (almost all of them) and MNC, so it helped us to protect their network from present DoS/DDoS attacks.

Auto mitigation is a feature provided when DDoS is observed on any of link/customer (configured under auto mitigation). It automatically starts mitigation with default filters. In default filter mode, there could be an impact on the customer’s link,

E.g., if we have enabled monitoring of internal traffic for that link/customer, it starts mitigation on legitimate traffic. It can also creates looping in the network for any misconfiguration, which can impact the ISP’s internal network and the customer's link utilization.

Two years.

No issues.

No issues.

No issues.

A seven out of 10, because response times from Arbor TAC are little higher.

An eight out of 10. Very good.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

The implementation was done by Arbor itself. They were excellent.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Be in direct contact with Arbor TAC rather than choosing a vendor in-between.

Our primary use case is developing threshold values for all groups. We use it to analyze packets to build a use-case for when a server group hits the limit of incoming traffic. In such a case we suspect traffic.

We use it to build use-case scenarios, based on the server input and a client's requirements. Some clients have a number of users accessing a given server which affects the bandwidth. In each case, we need to tell DDoS what is considered legitimate traffic.

It prevents all unwanted or malicious traffic, using the Threat Intelligence feeds.

There are a number of valuable features in this product, like Cloud Signaling and Threat Intelligence feeds.

There are two modes in the product: The first is a learning mode and the other is a production mode. First, we learn the traffic using the learning mode. We use it to fine-tune what is suspicious data and what is legitimate traffic.

Sometimes it blocks legitimate traffic. If a legitimate user is trying to access the server continuously, the product suspects that this is a DoS traffic file. That is a case where it needs to improve. It needs machine-learning. Self-learning would be an improvement.

The stability of Arbor DDoS is good. It's not that complex as a product and stability is not an issue.

The scalability is good. Configuration-wise, an administrator could create issues. But the product itself is good.

I have implemented it multiple times in industries like oil and gas, banking, and insurance.

The response from Arbor's technical support is good. They respond within two days.

The initial setup is straightforward. It's very simple. I have deployed the product for multiple clients. Implementation takes less than three to four hours, but the fine-tuning takes some time, based on the organization's needs. That can take more than a month.

Our implementation strategy is based on how many servers and groups there are and what kind of traffic is coming to/from the internet. These are the factors that affect how we deploy it. Deployment requires two to three consultants who are security architects. For maintenance, one administrator is fine.

Licensing is based on features, I believe.

Implementation is very easy but making the product work optimally is more difficult.

It's the best product. I would rate it at eight out of ten. There are some minor issues with blocking legitimate traffic and that's why it's not a ten.

The main focus was DDoS protection.

Some months ago, in Mexico, we had presidential elections. At that time it was very important to deny DDoS attacks, especially on the platform for counting votes in the election. This solution was good for our customers.

• AIF
• Cloud Signalling - In my previous environment, we worked with Arbor as a carrier but in my current company some of our customers have the solution on-premise and we have to synchronize the solution with the Arbor solution that our customers have in their enterprises. The ability to work with the Arbor solution on the carrier side and on-premise provides solutions for both types of customers.

The look and feel of the management console is a little old, excessively simple. If you compare it with other solutions, the look and feel of the console is like you're using technology from five or six years ago. It doesn't show all the technology that is actually behind it. It looks like an older solution, even though it is not.

The first impression needs to be more mature. It needs to be something that you would be proud to show someone. If you have a visitor to your SOC and you show him your installation, you need something more impressive. The look and feel of other brands is really nice, while Arbor is really simple. It's a good solution but not as spectacular as others. It's a matter of marketing, not performance.

The product is very stable. 

The scalability is really amazing. That was part of the equation for one particular customer. When they understood how the bandwidth can be shared between different branches of their backbone, that they could really grow by correctly re-routing traffic, they were really happy with the solution.

My interaction with tech support was really nice. I used to be part of HPE some time ago and I understand how those kinds of companies work. You have to have all the requirements before you make an appointment with the engineers. When we followed up with all the requirements that Arbor needed, the process was very straightforward.

In terms of submitting a ticket, they are responsive and knowledgeable. They are very experienced people.

My former company didn't have a previous solution. The company was new in Mexico and there were many considerations regarding government involvement in the industry, so security considerations were not there at that time.

Arbor is the official solution for my former company, worldwide. Also, Arbor was sold as OEM as part of Cisco, and Cisco has a very strong position in that company. Both of those facts helped push the Arbor solution there.

The setup is very straightforward, once the final architecture is decided. 

However, the decision regarding the final architecture was not very simple because the carrier environment is very complex. In addition, at the time, the carrier I was working for bought another small carrier and was doing the integration between both their installations and backbones. That was very complex. But once all those details were decided, the placement of the Arbor solution was very straightforward.

The setup work and testing of the Arbor solution took about three to four weeks, not including all the pre-planning and architecture discussions.

I played a part, but Arbor engineers do the whole installation process. I helped as much as I could but Arbor wants the implementation done by Arbor techs. I helped with some minor activities.

For the deployment, there was one senior engineer and one junior engineer. On our side, there were a number of people, me and a couple of other engineers. And when we tested the mitigation between different branches, there were three Arbor engineers with us.

Because the solutions from competitors are very different, it's not easy to compare. However, the licensing from Arbor is clear and understandable and the pricing is reasonable when looking at the market, in general.

Don't worry that it is complex because, out-of-the-box, it protects you from the basics. Just open it and connect, that's all you have to do. But if you are making an investment of this type because you have to be protected against all scenarios, you have two options: close support from Arbor or a specialized engineer. If you have those resources, all the rest is very straightforward. It becomes a simple solution that can give you good results.

I give the solution a nine out of ten. I try to put myself in the shoes of our company's owner. If a solution is simple to operate and gives good results, it's good for me. The solution needs to do what it's supposed to do and be simple to manage.

• As an ISP, it is important to know from where the traffic comes so as to neutralize any attacks.

• The Arbor Networks SP device provided great visualization of the network traffic.

• Arbor Networks TMS is for cleaning the DDoS traffic, which is used sparsely.

The Arbor Networks SP device allowed us to optimize the network traffic. For example, it helped us to find the best IP network route to reach certain countries with low latency.

My opinion is that these Arbor devices should be scalable, in terms of the hardware.

Network bandwidth is rapidly increasing. Therefore, it is not practical to predict the network traffic as what it will be in five years time and also, to accordingly plan the required hardware specifications.

I have been using this solution since 2009.

We have been using the Arbor Peakflow SP CP-5000 and Arbor Peakflow TMS 2700.

Both the devices were very stable at the operation.

Unfortunately, these devices are not scalable and we have to upgrade to the next model in order to increase the threat mitigation capabilities.

We’ve received technical support mainly from Thailand. The guy who supported us was very competent with the products.

We were not using any other solution before.

The initial IP configuration has to be done in a command line, but the rest you can do via the web interface.

As a comparatively medium-scale ISP, we struggled with the license restrictions. By default, the Arbor SP device has only five licenses, which means only five routers can be integrated.

At that time (2008-09), when we checked the other options, there was not even a single product vendor that had the ability to do both network traffic analysis and DDoS traffic cleansing.

There were other proposals such as Radware and Cisco Guard for DDOS protection.

It is vital to identify the number of routers that are going to be integrated and the scrubbing capacity required for the expected lifetime of the product, as it is not scalable once you have purchased it.

For others who expect to implement Arbor, the key prerequisite is to identify the network devices that are going to integrate, since it will dictate the licensing. Since it is not scalable, so users should have to get this right before purchasing the product.