Rethinking DDoS Defense: Why Scale Isn’t the Only Metric That Matters

Modern DDoS campaigns overload not only bandwidth but also network infrastructure, meaning that success goes not to those with “the biggest backbone,” but to those who can stop malicious traffic at its source. Imperva solutions demonstrate exactly this approach: distributed attack mitigation with minimal reaction time and high-quality scrubbing that protects real services, not just statistics.

Why the “biggest network” approach is flawed

DDoS attacks are inherently distributed. They leverage thousands or even millions of compromised devices (botnets) across various geographic locations to send malicious traffic. Logic suggests that if the attack is distributed, the protection must be distributed as well.

The key to effective protection is not just having a massive centralized “pipe” to absorb traffic, but having a globally distributed network of Points of Presence (PoPs) that can filter traffic as close to the source as possible. That changes the game.

Advantages of a distributed network

• Proximity to attack sources: Intercepting packets before they traverse global backbones and cause congestion.
• Early detection of malicious traffic: Identifying floods within seconds, not minutes — critical for avoiding downtime.
• Isolation and removal of “bad” traffic: Efficient elimination of malicious packets without interrupting legitimate users.

Even small PoPs play a big role

This explains why the absolute size of a PoP is actually less important than its ability to efficiently divert attack traffic away from the intended target. The real challenge is ensuring that, for example, in Johannesburg, attack traffic is cleanly separated from legitimate customer traffic using the same PoP.

If a protection provider relies only on a few large scrubbing centers, malicious traffic must travel halfway around the world before it can be filtered. This is inefficient and leaves windows for network saturation. In such cases, effective mitigation requires more than just bandwidth. Modern defense demands a sophisticated blend of technologies working in tandem to accurately filter traffic at the network edge.

Requirements for high-quality filtering

• Inline inspection at line rate: Ability to analyze every packet without degrading performance.
• Detection of hidden attack patterns: Identifying complex Layer 7 (L7) or slow-rate attacks within seconds.
• Real-time response: Adapting to changing attack vectors on the fly.
• Preservation of legitimate traffic: Ensuring real users are not impacted during an attack.

Terabit-scale attacks are rare — most threats are more complex

While multi-terabit-per-second attacks make headlines, they remain extremely rare. According to analysts, only about 0.1% of attacks exceed several Tbps or 1 billion packets per second (PPS). Most threats organizations face daily are far more targeted, sophisticated, and exploit application-level vulnerabilities (L7), rather than simply trying to saturate the pipe (L3/L4).

Focusing solely on Tbps metrics ignores the overwhelming majority of real threats. When evaluating a DDoS provider, do not be misled by statements like “X Tbps mitigated” or “hundreds of Tbps capacity.”

Instead, ask: How distributed is the network? How quickly can malicious traffic be stopped at its source? How accurately does the system distinguish bots from legitimate users?

How Imperva delivers protection beyond scale

Thales (Imperva) solutions are built on the philosophy that architecture, speed, and accuracy matter more than raw capacity. Imperva DDoS Protection provides a comprehensive approach that solves the challenges described in this article.

Instead of merely absorbing traffic, Imperva filters it at the edge of its global network, ensuring protection from all types of DDoS threats.

Key capabilities of Imperva DDoS Protection

• Guaranteed 3-second SLA: Imperva is the only provider that guarantees mitigation of attacks of any type and size within 3 seconds or less.
• Comprehensive protection: Blocking both volumetric attacks (L3/L4, such as SYN flood or UDP flood) and sophisticated application-layer attacks (L7, such as Slowloris or API attacks).
• Edge-based blocking: Attacks are stopped close to their source, preventing overload of your infrastructure and avoiding performance degradation.
• 24/7 SOC: Support from a dedicated Security Operations Center team that monitors and mitigates threats in real time.

Softprom is a Value Added Distributor of Thales (Imperva). We provide technical support, deep expertise, and assistance in project implementation, ensuring that you get the maximum return on your security investment.