With a legacy dating to 1932, a culture of caring rooted in serving as the essential lifeline to remote villages throughout Alaska, and a stated purpose to create “an airline people love,” Alaska Airlines is committed to delivering exemplary customer service. Positive online experiences are an essential element of that mission – which is why Alaska Airlines protects its digital experience with Vercara UltraDDoS Protect.
Taking potential threats seriously.
The teams at Alaska Airlines have developed a robust cyber security infrastructure to prevent cyber attacks from impacting the organization, including DDoS attacks. The airline had not directly experienced a paralyzing DDoS attack, but with an estimated 13 million attacks in 2022 and a 47% YoY surge in Q1 2023, its IT team was committed to protecting the business against future threats.
“The travel and hospitality sector has not been a first-choice target, and we had been able to get by without DDoS protection, but the risk is there,” said Stephen Guilliot, Principal Network Engineer. “The challenge for a company like ours is that until and unless you’re attacked it’s easy to overlook, but you can’t wait for the first major attack. And as our public profile grows, we become more of a target.”
True to its purpose, Alaska Airlines has earned an especially loyal customer base through reliable performance, strong community connections, and responsive customer service. To continue delivering this exceptional customer experience, the teams at Alaska Airlines knew they had to protect their critical online assets and services that provide the first point of contact for many customers planning and booking travel.
“We’ve made significant investments in our computing infrastructure to become more central to the business and our mission, and we knew a large DDoS attack would be extremely painful for customers and the company,” said John Spence, Senior Manager Network and Network Security Engineering. “We wanted to up our game to make sure we provide the very best booking and eCommerce platform for the company, and DDoS protection is part of that.”
Finding a battle-tested DDoS solution.
The airline explored using an in-house solution, but oversized internet pipes, DDoS appliances, and annual licensing fees were prohibitively expensive. Alaska Airlines had already experienced the quality of Vercara’s authoritative DNS services with UltraDNS, so the organization once again turned to Vercara for DDoS protection.
“We were happy with the technical side of UltraDDoS Protect; it tested great. The geodiversity is very strong with good global points of presence,” Guilliot said. “The solution’s low infrastructure requirements and flexible implementation didn’t require a large investment. Finally, we wanted to maintain manual control over our protection, and the Vercara team was happy to work with our requirements. And the web portal is very good in allowing us to monitor our protection and make and track changes.”
The airline’s IT team wanted to tailor their protection to their specifications, working closely with Vercara throughout the implementation to customize UltraDDoS Protect’s configuration and settings to meet their operational needs.
“We learned about the service — different ways to implement and monitor it, and to initiate and stop protection,” Guilliot explained. “We created a design and ran it by the Vercara team, then did a proof of concept. Vercara’s architects were on calls with us all the time, helping with the design, which required quite a bit of one-to-one work.”
“The people from Vercara were competent and engaged,” added Spence. “They were great partners in the POC and implementation, and that’s been our experience throughout the partnership.”
Positioned to strengthen success.
Because Alaska Airlines is laser-focused on always delivering reliable, outstanding service to its customers, the airline’s team values Vercara’s commitment to forging a strong partnership for effective DDoS protection.
As Jennifer Villar, Director of Network and Connectivity Solutions, explained, “Being connected to the customers and communities we serve is hugely important to Alaska Airlines. We are proud to play an active and positive role in the communities we serve in Alaska and throughout the country. We distinguish ourselves by providing outstanding experiences to our customers each and every time.”
“Our work with Vercara to protect our eCommerce platform is part and parcel of our push to be better all the time, to provide a better service to run a better airline every day,” Spence added. “We feel like we’re well positioned to do that.”
Find out how UltraDDoS Protect can ensure the integrity of online experiences and protect your digital infrastructure from even the largest and most sophisticated multi-vector DDoS attacks by visiting our product page.
