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Think your network’s “high availability” setup has you covered? Think again.
It’s time to bust some outdated assumptions. What most vendors call high availability (HA) doesn’t hold up in real-world, high-pressure DDoS scenarios. Let’s separate the myths from the facts, and show how our Multi-Site Resiliency solution is built for the security demands of modern service providers.
Myth #1: High Availability = Always Available
Busted. Traditional HA is often just local failover.
- Active–standby configurations typically tie nodes to a single location, unlike the multi-site infrastructure you’re responsible for.
- Failover kicks in after something goes wrong, exposing service providers and customers to risk in the meantime.
- Manual reconfiguration or policy syncing is required, consuming significant time and effort.
- The entire setup is vulnerable to site-wide outages, fiber cuts, or misconfigured routing—eroding trust that drives customers elsewhere.
Fact: If your DDoS protection fails when one site goes down, that’s not high availability. That’s a single point of failure that can lead to costly outages.
Myth #2: Competitors Offer “Cloud-Based” HA
Partially true, but only after your on-prem fails.
- Radware, Arbor, and A10 talk about cloud-based failover, active clustering, and redundancy. Sounds solid until you dig into the details.
- Radware’s “Switch” and “Service” modes rely on either a primary controller or orchestrated cluster. Failover still involves session mirroring and rebalancing that takes time and expertise.
- NETSCOUT/Arbor Cloud requires signaling to shift traffic to the cloud—a reactive approach that only triggers AFTER your on-prem defenses fail.
- A10’s GSLB and config sync still hinge on dual-device setups and can’t guarantee real-time, zero-interruption protection across sites.
Fact: These solutions may be “cloud ready” for application uptime, but not for security continuity during a live DDoS attack.
Myth #3: You Can’t Avoid Manual Reconfiguration
False. Manual reconfig is outdated.
Vendors of traditional DDoS solutions and even those using “cloud-ready” approaches will tell you some level of manual intervention or reactive measures are required. Not true with Corero.
Our Multi-Site Resiliency model redefines high availability by eliminating downtime triggers:
- No reboots. No reconfig. No waiting.
- Security policies sync in real time across all active sites for consistent DDoS mitigation controls.
- If one data center fails, others immediately continue enforcement with zero gaps.
- Mitigation stays live—there’s no scramble to reconnect enforcement points or reroute traffic manually.
Fact: The era of passive failover is over. Active-aware protection is now the benchmark for resilience
Myth #4: High Availability Requires Complexity
False. Resilience doesn’t have to mean overhead.
Traditional HA setups depend on:
- Cluster orchestration that adds new tasks and tools.
- Health-check failover logic predicated on defining parameters, setting up processes, and implementing monitoring and alerting systems.
- Tight coupling between active/passive devices as well as expertise to carefully coordinate and synchronize components.
Fact: Clustering isn’t the problem—complexity is. We build in high availability without the baggage.
Truth: Multi-Site Resiliency is What High Availability Should Be
Corero Management Server (CMS) provides a centralized, always-on orchestration and visibility layer. DDoS policies live everywhere, no matter where traffic enters your network. Routing logic is left to your design—our system adapts to your network architecture, not the other way around.
Our multi-site model allows us to offer what competitors can’t match:
- System-wide, real-time DDoS protection enforcement across multiple locations.
- No downtime during site failure, even in catastrophic outages.
- Zero manual intervention required to maintain protection.
- Cloud-agnostic and flexible across physical, virtual, and hybrid deployments.
Resilience is more than a checkbox—it’s a mindset. If your DDoS protection can’t keep up with your infrastructure’s uptime goals, then it’s part of the problem and not a viable solution for resiliency.
To learn more about how to maintain protection and uptime in real-world, high-pressure DDoS scenarios, download our solution brief on this new capability in SmartWall ONE™.
