By Tyler Burke, IP, and DDoS Protection Product Manager
Dedicated Internet connections have steadily gained popularity as companies seek to maximize uptime, guarantee bandwidth, and optimize performance.
Dedicated connections do provide a more reliable connection to your enterprise and feature some inherent security measures, such as Resource Public Key Infrastructure (RPKI). However, many enterprises mistakenly assume that using a dedicated connection provides complete coverage, overlooking cybersecurity vulnerabilities that exist for all Internet users.
This blog explores the benefits of Dedicated Internet Access (DIA) and shares why you should opt into DDoS protection even when using a dedicated Internet connection.
Why Use Dedicated Internet Access
Unlike shared connections, Dedicated Internet Access (DIA) provides an exclusive connection for a single customer. Most enterprises rely heavily on the Internet for day-to-day tasks and choose DIA to ensure performance, uptime, and scalability.
Zayo’s DIA stands out in the market due to several distinctive features:
- Tier-1 ISP Status: As a Tier-1 Internet Service Provider, Zayo’s network and peering arrangements enable customers to access the entire Internet globally. This ensures high-speed traffic handling by minimizing “hops” to other networks, preventing congestion during peak times.
- Optimized Network Utilization: Zayo maintains network utilization at 50%, preventing congestion, ensuring faster access, and improving customer upload and download speeds compared to other providers.
- Owned Fiber Backbone: Zayo owns and operates our fiber backbone, meaning we can offer a direct, in-line connection to the Internet and can augment capacity at a moment’s notice. If issues arise, we have direct ownership of the underlying asset, which reduces the time to repair in case of outages.
The Persistent Threat of DDoS Attacks
While a dedicated Internet connection is inherently more secure than a shared one, businesses using DIA remain vulnerable to Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks. These attacks use illegitimate traffic to overwhelm a target’s Internet resources. And there’s a reason for companies of all sizes, across all industries, to be concerned – DDoS attacks have become larger and more sophisticated over the years. Automation has made them more accessible and easier to launch.
Cybercriminals often use DDoS attacks to assess vulnerabilities before executing larger-scale, more damaging attacks. There’s no way around it – if your business depends on the Internet and you have sensitive information you hope to keep safe, you should have DDoS protection.
Think of DDoS protection as car insurance. Regardless of how safely we drive and how closely we abide by traffic laws, we must account for everyone else on the road. There are too many risks with other drivers on the road – and bad actors on the Internet – to operate without proper protection.
Still, we hear objections to purchasing this critical form of cyber security every day. Here are some common ones:
“I don’t need DDoS protection.”
Every business on the Internet should have some form of DDoS protection. Attacks are increasingly sophisticated, frequent, and inevitable. We’ve seen a 300% increase in attacks just over the past year. If your business is on the Internet, you can and likely will be attacked.
“It’s too expensive.”
The cost of an attack far exceeds the expense of protection. During an attack, businesses can incur substantial losses, up to $30,000 an hour. DDoS protection is a relatively inexpensive insurance plan to protect against this potential loss.
“I have a firewall, and I don’t need DDoS protection.”
While we encourage the use of firewalls, they have limitations. Think of a firewall as a deadbolt – it’ll protect you from the average criminal, but a DDoS attacker has a bolt cutter and will burst through your door regardless. DDoS attacks require dedicated protection beyond what firewalls can offer.
The Value of Zayo DDoS Protection
There are plenty of options for DDoS protection solutions on the market, but Zayo’s DDoS Protection solution is a little different from the rest.
Zayo’s DDoS Protection solution offers:
- Surgical mitigation using BGP: Zayo employs Border Gateway Protocols (BGP) for sophisticated mitigation, minimizing latency for real-time applications and simplifying network configuration.
- Proactive automated defense: Zayo takes a proactive approach, detecting and mitigating DDoS attacks before they impact businesses.
- Efficient single IP-level DDoS redirection: The solution efficiently redirects all incoming traffic at the IP address level, simplifying configuration and ensuring uninterrupted, healthy traffic.
- Tailored subscription tiers: Zayo offers subscription tiers – Standard, Advanced, and Multi-Carrier – tailored to budget and protection needs, supporting multiple carriers at competitive pricing.
- Connected to Zayo’s Tier-1 network: Zayo’s in-line, network-based solution is connected to its owned and operated Tier-1 network, actively monitored 24/7 by the Security Operations Center for swift mitigation.