Akamai Technologies was cited as a Leader in The Forrester New Wave: Bot Management, Q3 2018 evaluation. In the report, Forrester evaluated “the 12 providers that matter most and how they stack up”. Akamai received a “differentiated’ rating, the highest possible, in the Attack Response, Threat Research, Reporting and Analysis, Feedback Loops, Road Map, and Market Approach criteria.
According to the report, the internet is flooded with automated traffic, including bad bots and software programs that malicious attackers use to automate their attacks, often times mimicking human behavior. The report states, “To combat these most sophisticated bots, security pros need a bot management tool that can layer detection methods such as statistical analysis of user behavior to detect anomalies, and continuously update reputational scoring. A bot management vendor threat research team will keep abreast of new bot trends.”
One of the “Key Takeaways” from the report noted that, “For many buyers, threat research will be a key decision criterion, as it indicates whether the vendor continually updates its products for the next wave of bot attacks.” Forrester’s Take in its evaluation found that, “Akamai’s standout capabilities include the ability to respond to attacks by serving alternative data and deprioritizing bad traffic, as well as threat analysis that can tie to financial loss.”
Akamai believes this is further supported by Forrester’s September 6, 2018 report titled, “Stop Bad Bots from Killing Customer Experience” that finds “Bots have evolved to avoid detection, [and] even basic web-scraping bots can mimic customer behavior, making them difficult to discern from legitimate users. New tools and techniques are necessary to keep up with these malicious advancements.”
Akamai’s bot management solutions provide behavioral detection and response logic that is constantly updated by Akamai security researchers and powerful machine learning algorithms, to protect digital businesses from vulnerabilities and emerging threats. Akamai maintains that protecting critical sites and apps requires integrated services delivered at the edge with the capacity and intelligence to absorb, deflect and adapt to evolving threats.
The Forrester New Wave report states that, “Akamai Technologies is best for companies wanting to thwart bots at the edge. Companies that already use Akamai for performance or other security protection will find adding bot management easy.” Customers praise Akamai Technologies’ ability to respond to bots and product support, with one customer cited as saying, “Watching fraud drop was one of the best features we could have seen” and another stating, “We can scale and stop attacks with any type of mitigation anywhere in the world.”
“Akamai is focused on delivering the most intelligent bot management solution in the market, leveraging the visibility and integrated edge services that only our platform can deliver,” said Josh Shaul, Vice President of Web Security, Akamai. “We believe that the best in class bot management solutions use behavior detection, machine learning, and human intelligence to maximize protections, and we are happy to be recognized as a leader in this new report and to receive the highest ratings possible in the attack response, threat research and road map criteria. Akamai is looking forward to participating in the evolution of the Bot Management Wave report as the industry matures.”