Namely's Innovative Security Partnership with Fastly for Enhanced Web Defense

• Cybersecurity & Privacy - Intrusion Detection
• Platform as a Service (PaaS) - Application Development Platforms

• Buildings
• National Security & Defense

• Tamper Detection
• Time Sensitive Networking

Namely, a cloud-first, all-in-one HR platform, was experiencing rapid growth, which necessitated the prioritization of its web defense. As the customer base of Namely expanded, so did its responsibility of managing web defenses, including detection, prevention, and response. In a fast-paced agile development environment, security leader Daniel Leslie was tasked with building security and IT from scratch. He was seeking innovative ways to manage website defenses, having had experience with legacy Web Application Firewalls (WAFs). His core criteria for a solution included technical alignment, ease-of-use, best-in-class security functionality, and total cost of ownership (TCO). The challenge was to find a solution that could provide 'finished data' rather than raw log data, enabling faster, more accurate, and actionable insights.

Namely

Namely is a leading HR platform that provides HR professionals with the technology, data, and support they need to help their employees and business thrive. The platform is designed to save time, avoid costly errors, and build a winning company culture. As a cloud-first, all-in-one HR platform, Namely is experiencing rapid growth and expanding its customer base. This growth has led to an increased responsibility in managing web defenses, including detection, prevention, and response. The company operates in a fast-moving agile development environment and prioritizes innovative security solutions.

Namely chose to partner with Fastly as a component within their security architecture due to its better usability for security operation tasks, technical alignment with deployment updates and maintenance, and lower TCO. Fastly’s Next-Gen WAF was easy to install and onboard new personnel due to its ease of use and visibility of automated, intelligent blocking decisions. It provided real-time visibility around how their web applications were being attacked, addressing an issue many enterprises struggle with. Fastly’s intelligent Cloud Engine created events after seeing enough malicious requests to confirm an actual attack, reducing 'alarm fatigue' and enabling faster response times. In one instance, Fastly’s Next-Gen WAF alerted Namely teams to a non-security related engineering issue in the code, demonstrating its versatility. Fastly also enhanced the capacity of the Security and DevOps Teams at Namely, providing immediate blocking and actionable intelligence to dig deeper into potential threats.

• The partnership with Fastly has resulted in a number of operational benefits for Namely. The ease of use of Fastly’s Next-Gen WAF has made it easy to install and onboard new personnel, improving operational efficiency. The real-time visibility provided by the product has helped Namely understand how their web applications are being attacked, enabling them to better manage their web defenses. The intelligent Cloud Engine has reduced 'alarm fatigue', improving the team’s attentiveness and response times. Furthermore, Fastly’s Next-Gen WAF has enhanced the capacity of the Security and DevOps Teams at Namely, allowing them to focus on other crucial tasks. The product has also proven to be versatile, alerting the team to non-security related issues in the code.

• Fastly’s Next-Gen WAF was extremely easy to install and onboard new personnel, reducing setup time.
• Fastly’s intelligent Cloud Engine reduced 'alarm fatigue' by creating events only after confirming an actual attack.
• Fastly’s Next-Gen WAF enabled faster response times, with only minutes between the time they see an event and the time they’re able to page someone to triage.