DDoS protection service tiers explained simply

Overview

Distributed denial of service floods targets with traffic or expensive queries. Cloud DDoS Protection Standard / AWS Shield Advanced adds mitigation capacity, cost protection features, and support—but has price tags SMBs question.

Basic vs advanced

• Basic (platform included): protects common volumetric attacks at cloud edge for many assets.
• Standard / Advanced: tailored mitigation, health probes, and—critically for some orgs—cost exposure visibility during attack-related scale-out.

When to upsell

Public e-commerce, controversial orgs, crypto adjacent firms, or clients whose execs read headline ransom stories and want sleep.

Design

Ensure DNS and public IPs sit behind protected resources; document architecture Azure naming / AWS protections attach targets correctly—mis-wiring wastes subscription fees.

Playbook

During attack: validate it is not misconfigured autoscaling loop; engage cloud support; communicate honestly on impact; post-incident tune WAF and rate limits.