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AWS WAF VS Azure DDoS Protection

Compare AWS WAF VS Azure DDoS Protection and see what are their differences

AWS WAF logo AWS WAF

AWS WAF is a web application firewall that helps protect your web applications from common web exploits.

Azure DDoS Protection logo Azure DDoS Protection

Defend against Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks on your applications and network with integrated DDoS protection and mitigation services from Azure.
  • AWS WAF Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-04-02
  • Azure DDoS Protection Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-04-06

AWS WAF features and specs

  • Scalability
    AWS WAF is designed to scale automatically with your application. It can handle high traffic loads without manual intervention, making it suitable for dynamic and unpredictable environments.
  • Ease of Integration
    AWS WAF easily integrates with other AWS services such as CloudFront, Application Load Balancer, and API Gateway, providing a seamless security solution within the AWS ecosystem.
  • Custom Rule Configuration
    Users can define custom rules and policies to suit specific security requirements. AWS WAF provides a flexible rule creation environment, enabling the creation of complex firewall rules.
  • Managed Rules
    AWS WAF offers a set of pre-configured managed rules that provide protection against common threats such as SQL injection and cross-site scripting, which saves time and effort for administrators.
  • Comprehensive Logging and Monitoring
    AWS WAF integrates with AWS CloudWatch and AWS Kinesis Firehose to provide detailed logging and monitoring capabilities. This helps in tracking, analyzing, and reacting to security events in real time.
  • Cost-Effectiveness
    AWS WAF operates on a pay-as-you-go pricing model, allowing businesses to scale costs with usage. This can be particularly cost-effective for smaller organizations or startups.

Possible disadvantages of AWS WAF

  • Complexity
    While AWS WAF offers powerful features, its setup and configuration can be complex, especially for users who are not familiar with AWS or web security concepts.
  • Initial Learning Curve
    New users may find it challenging to get up to speed with AWS WAF due to the need to understand AWS services and security rules syntax. This initial learning phase can be time-consuming.
  • Rule Processing Latency
    In some cases, the processing of complex rules can introduce latency in response times. This may impact the performance of high-speed applications that require minimal delay.
  • Service Dependency
    AWS WAF is deeply integrated within the AWS ecosystem. As a result, its effectiveness is dependent on the use of other AWS services, which may not be ideal for multi-cloud strategies.
  • Cost for Heavy Usage
    While the pay-as-you-go model can be cost-effective for small-scale operations, businesses with high traffic volumes might find the cumulative costs to be significant.
  • Limited Offline Capabilities
    AWS WAF is designed primarily for protecting online applications. Offline or on-premise applications require different solutions, and AWS WAF may not be well-suited in these scenarios.

Azure DDoS Protection features and specs

  • Comprehensive Protection
    Azure DDoS Protection provides detailed protection against multiple types of DDoS attacks, including volumetric, protocol, and application layer attacks, ensuring broad defense coverage.
  • Integration with Azure Services
    This service is seamlessly integrated with other Azure offerings, allowing easy setup and cohesive functionality within the Azure ecosystem.
  • Scalability
    Built on Microsoft’s global network, Azure DDoS Protection scales dynamically to handle vast amounts of traffic, ensuring high availability and reliability.
  • Advanced Analytics
    Provides detailed metrics and analytics through Azure Monitor, offering insights into attack vectors and enabling better security posture management.
  • Cost Management
    Offers an automatic tune-up of resources and cost protection with credits for application scale-out during an attack.

Possible disadvantages of Azure DDoS Protection

  • Complexity
    While deeply integrated with Azure, setting up and managing DDoS protection may require a specific level of expertise and understanding of Azure’s infrastructure.
  • Limited to Azure
    Azure DDoS Protection is confined to Azure-hosted services, limiting its usefulness for applications or data hosted on other platforms or in hybrid environments.
  • Cost Implications
    Depending on usage and scale, the cost of Azure DDoS Protection can become significant, especially for small businesses with limited budgets.
  • False Positives
    Like many security measures, there is potential for false positives, where legitimate traffic might be mistaken for malicious activity, potentially impacting user accessibility.

Analysis of AWS WAF

Overall verdict

  • AWS WAF is generally regarded as a strong choice for users already within the AWS ecosystem due to its seamless integration, scalability, and comprehensive security features. It offers extensive functionality for protecting web applications against various online threats, with the flexibility to cater to both basic and advanced security requirements.

Why this product is good

  • AWS WAF (Web Application Firewall) is considered effective due to its ability to protect web applications from common web exploits that can affect application availability, compromise security, or consume excessive resources. It's highly customizable, allowing users to create security rules that suit their specific needs while leveraging AWS's global infrastructure for scalability and reliability. The integration with AWS services like CloudFront and Application Load Balancer further enhances its usability and efficiency in safeguarding web applications.

Recommended for

    AWS WAF is recommended for businesses and developers who host their applications on AWS and require a robust web application firewall. It is especially suitable for those needing a scalable solution that can be easily integrated with other AWS services. It caters well to users seeking customizability in their security setup and to those who want to protect their applications from a wide range of web threats and attacks.

AWS WAF videos

Protecting Your Web Application Using AWS Managed Rules for AWS WAF - AWS Online Tech Talks

More videos:

  • Review - Amazon AWS WAF (Web application Firewall ) Training
  • Review - AWS WAF REVIEW

Azure DDoS Protection videos

Azure DDoS Protection Fundamentals learn features

More videos:

  • Review - Azure DDoS Protection and other cloud native security options | Azure Friday

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to AWS WAF and Azure DDoS Protection)
Web Application Security
85 85%
15% 15
Security Monitoring
81 81%
19% 19
CDN
76 76%
24% 24
Security
100 100%
0% 0

User comments

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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, AWS WAF seems to be more popular. It has been mentiond 36 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

AWS WAF mentions (36)

  • Understanding AWS Regions and Availability Zones: A Guide for Beginners
    AWS CloudFront is the star of the show here. It caches static content (like media, scripts, and images) to ensure fast, reliable delivery. Other AWS services that run at the edge include Route 53 for DNS routing, Shield and WAF for security, and even Lambda via Lambda@Edge — giving you the ability to run serverless logic closer to the user. - Source: dev.to / about 1 month ago
  • 🚀🚀Setting Up AWS Firewall Manager Used For Auditing Security Groups in AWS Organization accounts.
    AWS Firewall Manager is a security management service that makes it easier to centrally configure and manage firewall rules across your accounts and applications in AWS Organizations. You can use Firewall Manager to manage AWS WAF, AWS Shield Advanced, VPC, security groups, AWS Network Firewall, and more. - Source: dev.to / 2 months ago
  • 12 Practices and Tools to Ensure API Security
    Like Adam said - WAF is Cloudflare's bread-and-butter product offering, but Amazon also offers AWS WAF in case you want to stick to a single-cloud solution. - Source: dev.to / 2 months ago
  • Block direct access to CloudFront origins with custom headers and AWS WAF
    Amazon Web Application Firewall AWS WAF is a web application firewall that lets you monitor the HTTP(S) requests that are forwarded to your protected web application resources. AWS WAF lets you control access to your content. Based on criteria that you specify, such as the IP addresses that requests originate from or the values of query strings, the service associated with your protected resource responds to... - Source: dev.to / 6 months ago
  • AWS Serverless Security: Preventing HTTP Flood DDoS Attack
    AWS WAF is a web application firewall that helps protect your web applications / APIs against common web exploits and bots. Attacks may affect availability, compromise security, or consume excessive resources. AWS WAF gives you control over how traffic reaches your applications by enabling you to create security rules that control bot traffic and block common attack patterns. - Source: dev.to / 6 months ago
View more

Azure DDoS Protection mentions (0)

We have not tracked any mentions of Azure DDoS Protection yet. Tracking of Azure DDoS Protection recommendations started around Mar 2021.

What are some alternatives?

When comparing AWS WAF and Azure DDoS Protection, you can also consider the following products

OpenSSL - OpenSSL is a free and open source software cryptography library that implements both the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) and the Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocols, which are primarily used to provide secure communications between web browsers and …

CloudFlare DDoS Protection - Mitigate a DDoS attack of any size using Cloudflare's advanced DDoS protection including DNS Amplification, SYN/ACK, Layer 7 Attacks. Don't get ddos attacked!

Sqreen - Sqreen is a web application security monitoring and protection solution helping companies protect their apps and users from attacks. Get started in minutes.

Imperva Cloud Application Security - Deploy your applications and data where you want. When you want. Imperva keeps them secure in the cloud, on premises, and in hybrid clouds.

Let's Encrypt - Let’s Encrypt is a free, automated, and open certificate authority brought to you by the Internet Security Research Group (ISRG).

Cloudbric - Cloudbric is a website security program that aims to block cyber attacks on your site. Security programs like Cloudbric are important for any large sites or any sites that handle money or secure information. Read more about Cloudbric.