Akamai App and API Protector vs Radware Alteon comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary
 

Categories and Ranking

Akamai App and API Protector
Ranking in Web Application Firewall (WAF)
8th
Average Rating
8.4
Number of Reviews
27
Ranking in other categories
Distributed Denial of Service (DDOS) Protection (3rd), Cloud and Data Center Security (10th)
Radware Alteon
Ranking in Web Application Firewall (WAF)
10th
Average Rating
8.4
Number of Reviews
33
Ranking in other categories
Application Delivery Controllers (ADC) (6th)
 

Featured Reviews

Pranav Vashisht - PeerSpot reviewer
Oct 2, 2023
Easy to learn and gives us a report of traffic
There are some challenges. I have been interacting with their support about an issue. In terms of precedence of Akamai rules, the last one is implemented. That is the one that is operational. If two rules contradict, the last one is implemented. We had a clash, but it was really tough to find that out. I would like to have a rulebook because, in their architecture documentation, it is not mentioned anywhere that if two rules clash, the last one works, and if it does not work, then what to do. This is something we were debating today with their tech support. With AWS, we get documents for the issues so that they do not occur in the future. Akamai's support and knowledge base needs to be improved.
JorgeBlanco - PeerSpot reviewer
Aug 9, 2023
Gives us highly available servers without service interruptions, and timely support when needed
It saves us a lot of work in terms of management since it has tasks already defined automatically. That enables us to better administer our services. It is very dynamic and easy to administer. Another benefit of using Alteon is the support that Radware, as a company, provides. They are very fast and that is key because the availability of our exposed services is always very important to us. We realized these benefits immediately, with highly available servers without service interruptions. We have two servers, which, thanks to the virtual services that Alteon has, can be quickly balanced. Our services are always up. The time-to-value was almost immediate. The high availability of services helps avoid losses and any instability that might result in intermittent services. We have high availability for both our servers and services, thanks to the virtual service that Alteon manages. We have two Alteon teams internally, so if one data center suddenly has a problem, the other data center still functions. That means we have an immediate solution. When one is not there, the other immediately takes control. We go to the analytics, to the graphs and to the logs, where we can identify problems and failures. We have it configured to send us notifications and alerts when a service is slow or does not respond for some time. With the alerts and the logs, we are able to further verify the graph of the services and their states of health. That helps us a lot to quickly find out if we have a problem and find solutions. We can save 80 percent of the time it used to take to investigate a case because it makes it much easier and simpler for us to find an issue.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"I can attest to its benefits in terms of understanding and mitigating threats...The solution's technical support team seems to be pretty responsive."
"I have contacted the support team of Akamai... I am happy with their responses and answers to my problems."
"The dashboard is the most interesting feature of the Akamai portal where you can have a detailed analysis of all the attacks that are happening. You can drill down an issue and see exactly what is happening, who are the bad guys attacking your website, and how Akamai is protecting the website. That is the most valuable feature."
"We are getting security for each and every API."
"Adaptive stream delivery and WAF protection are valuable."
"The most valuable feature is the custom rules feature. This is because many of our customers require a lot of custom rules. Because it's a very customized project for our customers, I think they have the best of everything already."
"The product has a good UI."
"Akamai Web Application Protector is a good solution that provides basic web application protection."
"The command line interface is simple and very user-friendly."
"The best features are the security through the web application firewall, the functionality that the solution offers, being a load balancer with the security functionality on top of it, and the ease of administration."
"The integrated application protection provided by Alteon is very good. It really helps to avoid false positives in some cases. It provides important granularity to avoid a situation in which security or cybersecurity scenarios escape us."
"The most valuable aspect is the ability to customize the types of load-balancing scenarios needed for customized applications. Some of the load balancers on the market today are strictly out-of-hand load balancers for SSL or HTTP. Radware Alteon is most useful for customizing in-house applications based on ports and protocols."
"The GUI was a valuable feature. It was uncomplicated and easy to use."
"I like the concept of self-service, that I can do everything on my own."
"I am finding SSL-TLS acceleration the most valuable function, with certificate management. It is easy to generate certificates and assign them to services"
"The strength of this solution is the application delivery controller."
 

Cons

"Could integrate more features for each security."
"The solution could offer even more integrations."
"One thing I asked them is to integrate the API discovery product that they have and push that data into Akamai App and API Protector so that we do not have two types of reviews to identify the type of traffic. We already know the APIs that are frequently getting used, so analysis becomes easier. We can integrate both products and use them."
"The WAF features definitely have a lot of room for improvement. A lot of the WAF is really basic. For some products or some of our solutions, we need to run a second layer of more advanced WAF. If it had better layer seven protection then we would not need a second WAF."
"The custom rules must be improved."
"It would be better if there weren't any issues with latency. We had latency issues, but I think they are all solved now."
"The pricing could be reduced a bit."
"In terms of precedence of Akamai rules, the last one is implemented. That is the one that is operational. If two rules contradict, the last one is implemented. We had a clash, but it was really tough to find that out. I would like to have a rulebook because, in their architecture documentation, it is not mentioned anywhere that if two rules clash, the last one works, and if it does not work, then what to do. This is something we were debating today with their tech support. With AWS, we get documents for the issues so that they do not occur in the future. Akamai's support and knowledge base needs to be improved."
"I would like the solution to display and help visualize the reference map more easily. I would also like to better understand where queries come from and know which users are consulting the application, along with which app."
"We recently had a problem with the tables Obsolete ARP which was observed by the support team. It would be good to diagnose and solve this problem with a patch since it is not documented that it will be solved in later updates."
"We are having a difficult time with the security module, and how to implement the Radware security."
"Support is very important because if we get good support, we'll be able to sell and supply more numbers."
"I would like this solution to have an integration tool that will convert configuration from other software, into readable values for this product during implementation."
"The reverse proxy piece is a little bit complicated. If the reverse proxy were easier to implement, that would help."
"A feature that I would like to see included in the next version might be a better analysis when working with crypt issues. Right now, it is very manual; you load it into Alteon and it runs. It would be interesting to see a more dynamic process."
"Performance could be improved."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Based on the billing discussions in the DevOps team, Akamai's cost does not seem to be a major thing. However, LOE is an issue. When it comes to support, we know that even all the competitors do this. For a 30-minute issue, they give us a LOE of one or two hours. That is a basic practice, but that is something we worry about."
"Price-wise, I would say Akamai's pricing is competitive."
"One reason not all people use Akamai is that it is a little bit more expensive than some other providers."
"Akamai is very expensive."
"The solution is not expensive."
"The solution is expensive."
"The product’s price is high."
"Cost depends on the volume of traffic."
"The pricing is better than the competition. It is getting more pricey as the years go on, as more people are migrating to it, and as the technology gets better."
"The pricing seems reasonable to me for what the solution provides. It is within the parameters of this type of solution."
"The price conforms to what the tool provides. It is not an inexpensive tool and not all companies can afford an ADC solution such as Alteon. However, it justifies its price with the options it offers."
"Alteon's price is excellent compared to other solutions. F5 costs around twice as much. We still have about three years left before this hardware reaches the end of its life. We're migrating to the cloud, and phasing some of this out, but it's nice that they've given us a long window to keep their hardware in place."
"The cost of Radware Alteon is mid-ranged."
"The solution is cost-efficient."
"It is the best in the industry. It was better than the competition, and that is what made us go ahead with them."
"We have three-year contract with Radware. It is beneficial to have a longer-term contract because you can obtain more discounts. It seems to be a much cheaper alternative."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
28%
Computer Software Company
14%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Insurance Company
6%
Computer Software Company
18%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Government
9%
Manufacturing Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Akamai Web Application Protector?
The custom rules must be improved. If we have a domain to be monitored, we can use the solution to alert us if a certain specification is met. If we need only 20,000 transactions, but there are 40,...
What do you like most about Radware Alteon?
It saves us a lot of work in terms of management since it has tasks already defined automatically. That enables us to better administer our services. It is very dynamic and easy to administer.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Radware Alteon?
We have a three-year contract with Radware. It is beneficial to have a longer-term contract because you can obtain more discounts. It seems to be a much cheaper alternative. We use their Gel Elasti...
What needs improvement with Radware Alteon?
It is a fairly complete service and it is difficult for me to think of what can be improved. A feature that I would like to see included in the next version might be better analysis when working wi...
 

Also Known As

Akamai Web Application Protector, Akamai Kona Site Defender, Akamai Kona DDoS Defender
Alteon, Radware AppWall
 

Learn More

 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Douglas Omaha Technology Commission, ZALORA, PrintPlanet
Convergys
Find out what your peers are saying about Akamai App and API Protector vs. Radware Alteon and other solutions. Updated: June 2024.
787,383 professionals have used our research since 2012.