What is the primary drawback of traditional DDoS mitigation services?

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The fundamental limitation of conventional Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) mitigation services lies in the substantial expenditure required for establishing and maintaining their scrubbing center infrastructure. This high cost frequently renders these solutions inaccessible to small and medium-sized businesses. Furthermore, the value proposition of these services is contingent on the occurrence of an attack; they function akin to an insurance policy that only activates during a crisis, offering no benefit during periods of normalcy.

In contrast to these traditional, reactive measures, a Multi-CDN (Content Delivery Network) approach offers a more cost-effective and continuously valuable solution. While traditional scrubbing centers are designed solely to absorb attack traffic, Multi-CDN networks inherently provide performance enhancements by distributing content geographically. This dual functionality means that the infrastructure is actively contributing to improved website speed and reduced latency for everyday users, even when no attack is present. This inherent utility contrasts sharply with the "insurance-like" model of traditional DDoS services, which provide value only when an incident occurs.

The inherent scalability of Multi-CDN architecture is also a significant advantage in combating large-scale volumetric attacks. While many DDoS protection services offer bandwidth capacities in the range of 1-5 Terabits per second (Tbps), a leading single CDN network can scale to 10-100 Tbps. When multiple CDNs are combined within a Multi-CDN framework, the aggregate capacity for absorbing malicious traffic increases exponentially, offering a more robust defense against attacks that can now exceed 1 Tbps, as evidenced by the 2018 attack on GitHub. Moreover, CDNs typically handle HTTP and HTTPS traffic, naturally mitigating volumetric attacks that utilize protocols like ICMP or UDP at the network's edge.

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What is the primary drawback of traditional DDoS mitigation services?

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