With a unique network design and a reputation of providing strong customer service, InMotion Hosting needed a solution that enabled it to combat DDoS attacks targeting its networks without impacting its customers. The company previously leveraged techniques like “black holing” targeted servers to combat DDoS attacks – asking the upstream provider to temporarily drop all traffic going to the affected server until a DNS update could take place and reroute the customer traffic. However, InMotion Hosting’s team understood that this approach essentially completed the mission of the DDoS attack and negatively impacted its customers, leading it to look for a better solution. InMotion Hosting selected the Corero SmartWall TDS as its dedicated DDoS mitigation solution based on the level of protection it delivers, as well as the product’s flexibility, scalability and easy-to-understand user interface. Corero easily integrated into InMotion Hosting’s networks, installing the SmartWall TDS after the second layer of core switches – a critical requirement for the customer. Additionally, the hosting provider uses a set of APIs to automatically route traffic to a secondary 10Gbps switch to avoid saturating the first switch. However, the original switch and SmartWall TDS have mitigated almost all attack traffic and kept InMotion Hosting’s networks healthy.
“The overall ability and performance of our networks has improved significantly since installing Corero’s SmartWall TDS, which ultimately means a better web hosting experience for our customers,” said Erik Soroka, IT Manager at InMotion Hosting. “We also really like that we can add another module for an additional 10Gbps of protection – it was something that was very attractive for us.”
In addition to the SmartWall TDS’ protection capabilities, InMotion Hosting’s network administrators are leveraging the intelligence provided by SecureWatch Analytics to identify trends and mitigate potential threats before they become an issue. Corero’s support team is also in consistent contact with InMotion Hosting’s network administrators when large events occur, monitoring the attack and providing status updates and detailed graphs to help them understand the threats and malicious traffic targeting its networks.
“Within days of installation, the Corero SmartWall TDS demonstrated its mitigation capabilities and value as InMotion hosting was hit with the largest volumetric attack it had ever seen,” said Dave Larson, Chief Operating Officer, Corero. “The targeted server remained online throughout the attack, and customers were not impacted. This single attack proved that DDoS attacks are not just a nuisance – they can have a long-lasting impact on a company’s reputation – and validated InMotion Hosting’s investment in a dedicated anti-DDoS solution.”
