LADedicated operates a high demand server network. With many customers using servers for many different purposes with visitors and users from all over the world, the server and network infrastructure is put through all sorts of trials on a daily basis. When you operate servers for long enough, you eventually run in to occurrences of abuse, threats, and attacks. A common threat to server operators is a Distributed Denial of Service attack (DDoS) in which a malevolent party floods a server or network with bogus traffic in an effort to cripple its performance or sometimes to even cause it to crash all together.
To combat and mitigate the threat of DDoS attacks, LADedicated deployed the Corero Smartwall Threat Defense System, which a piece of network hardware that sits between the internet and the server infrastructure at a data center. The defense system detects malevolent network traffic and triggers alerts to the server operator so they can take action to mitigate the problem.
Strategy Star helped LADedicated to respond to the Corero Smartwall alerts in real-time by developing a custom software application (DDOS-AMS) that receives the real-time threat notifications, analyzes them, and immediately takes action on the network by shutting down connections from malevolent sources directly on the Cisco routers used at the data center.
The software we developed is saving LADedicated money by reducing the amount of man-hours that would otherwise be required to manually react to threat notifications. The software is also ensuring excellent up-time and service to LADedicated’s customers by mitigating threats in real-time and ensuring that the network stays available. The business depends on it!