Gartner defines cloud WAAP as a category of security solutions designed to protect web applications irrespective of their hosted locations. Typically delivered as a service, cloud WAAP is offered as a series of security modules that provide protection from a broad range of runtime attacks. It offers protection from the Top 10 web application security risks defined by the Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP) and automated threats, provides API security, and can detect and protect against multiple sophisticated Layer 7 attacks targeted at web applications. Cloud WAAP’s core features include web application firewall (WAF), bot management, distributed denial of service (DDoS) mitigation and API protection.
The market for distributed denial of service (DDoS) mitigation includes vendors that detect and mitigate DDoS attacks and offer it as a dedicated offering. It includes specialty vendors, whose primary focus is DDoS mitigation, as well as providers that offer DDoS mitigation as a feature of other services. These include dedicated appliance-based vendors, communication service providers (CSPs), content delivery network (CDN) vendors, hosting providers and cloud infrastructure and platform services (CIPS) vendors.
Edge Distribution Platform (EDP) is a highly distributed, edge-based, integrated network and cloud delivery infrastructure. It provides as-a-service functionalities such as edge compute and storage, web application and perimeter security, content and API acceleration, and data and analytics and AI applications. Edge distribution platform providers offer these functionalities by deploying network, compute, storage and caching nodes across geographically distributed self-owned or third party data center locations. Figure 1 shows the functionalities and potential offerings provided from an edge distribution platform