Modern APIs don’t fail because of flawed business logic – they fail under scale, abuse, and runaway costs. As software engineers, we’ve all dealt with the fallout where APIs face DDoS attacks, brute force attempts, bot abuse, and traffic spikes – that in the best case scenario can cripple performance or inflate costs. Traditional solutions like WAFs, SIEMs, or Flink pipelines add latency, complexity, or expense, often failing to keep pace. RioDB delivers a lightweight, real-time defense tailored for engineers, stopping threats instantly while optimizing performance and cost.
RioDB is a single-binary engine that protects and monitors APIs without the bloat of traditional solutions. Here’s how it solves key challenges with actionable benefits
1. DDoS Protection That Cloudflare/WAF Can’t Handle
- What it does: Defends against sophisticated DDoS attacks that bypass traditional WAFs and Cloudflare, including slow-rate and application-layer attacks.
- Why it matters: WAFs and Cloudflare frequently miss low-and-slow attacks (e.g., slow HTTP floods or low-rate DDoS) and targeted endpoint assaults like credential stuffing on /login or other endpoints, exposing your API to risks. They struggle because they rely on signature-based detection, lack contextual per-endpoint analysis, and can’t handle application-layer threats that mimic legitimate traffic. RioDB addresses these vulnerabilities with adaptive, real-time analytics.
- Technical detail: RioDB examines traffic by attributes like endpoint (e.g., /payment) or source IP to recognize behavioral trends. It detects DDoS patterns such as distributed bots sending frequent requests. Once identified, RioDB blocks the source IPs of these harmful events directly on your firewall, preventing the malicious traffic from reaching your API.
2. Anomaly Detection
- What it does: Flags malicious behavior like brute force attacks, credential stuffing, or geo-velocity jumps (e.g., a user appearing in two distant regions in seconds).
- Why it matters: Stops threats before they impact your database, minimizing downtime and preventing data breaches.
- Technical detail: Utilizes sliding-window analytics to detect real-time deviations. For example, it can detect a rapid increase in POST requests to /login as a credential-stuffing attack and block the offending IPs in under 5 seconds.
3. Adaptive Rate Limiting Per Endpoint or Token
- What it does: Learns traffic patterns per token/IP and applies dynamic rate limits, allowing legitimate bursts while throttling attackers. Users can also define specific rate limits for different customers.
- Why it matters: Static rate limits either block good users during spikes (e.g., a flash sale) or miss slow, distributed attacks. RioDB provides tailored control, ensuring premium customers get higher limits while blocking suspicious activity.
- Technical detail: Uses real-time traffic analysis to establish baselines and adjust limits dynamically. For example, during a 10x traffic surge, it can allow bursts from known IPs while capping suspicious ones.
4. High Performance with Minimal Overhead
- What it does: Handles 1 million events/sec on a single node, maintaining speed even on small instances like t3.nano (0.5 vCPU, 0.5 GB RAM). When deployed as a sidecar, it adds no latency per request.
- Why it matters: Real-time analytics and protection without slowing down your API or requiring massive clusters.
- Technical detail: Leverages in-memory sliding-window analytics, avoiding disk I/O bottlenecks typical of stream processors like Flink.
5. Zero Code Changes, Seamless Integration
- What it does: Supports flexible deployment models, such as an inline proxy or sidecar (mirroring traffic), enhancing your application through modes like anomaly detection, traffic filtering, or aggregation.
- Why it matters: Integrates in hours without rewriting your API, adopting SDKs, or modifying schemas.
- Technical detail: Supports HTTP/REST, TCP, UDP, etc, parsing traffic directly. For example, pipe traffic using an Envoy proxy or an iptables rule.
6. Flexible Deployment for Any Environment
- What it does: Runs inline, as a sidecar, in an HA cluster, or on edge nodes.
- Why it matters: Fits any architecture – Kubernetes, bare metal, or IoT edge devices.
- Technical detail: A single binary with no external dependencies, simple to containerize (e.g., using Docker), and supports scaling for clustered setups.
7. Costs 100× Less Than Flink or SIEMs
- What it does: Reduces costs significantly compared to Flink or SIEM solutions, avoiding expensive infrastructure.
- Why it matters: Keeps your budget lean with a single-node setup (e.g., c6g.large at ~$100/month) instead of $30k/month for managed pipelines.
- Technical detail: Processes events in-place, eliminating the need for complex, resource-heavy streaming stacks.
RioDB’s Capabilities at a Glance
RioDB provides a comprehensive feature set, covering security, performance, and monitoring:
- API Security: Features like brute-force attack detection, session hijack detection, bots/automation detection, user behavior anomaly detection, geo-velocity checks, data masking/validation, and dynamic blacklisting.
- API Performance: Includes API rate limiting/adaptive rate limiting, dynamic routing/load balancing, dynamic segmentation, events deduplication, and SLA breach early warning.
- API Monitoring: Offers integration with monitoring dashboards, real-time usage metrics, tracing/tracking, events enrichment, and API discovery.
How RioDB Solves Real-World API Challenges
| Scenario | Traditional Approach | With RioDB |
| Flash Sale (10x Traffic Surge) | Raise static rate limits, pray DB holds | Sliding window allows legitimate bursts, blocks bots; <1 ms latency added |
| API Abuse (Card-Testing Bots) | Add WAF rules weekly, hope they work | Real-time pattern detection; bad actors blocked in <5s |
| Cost Overrun (Analytics) | Kafka + Flink on m5.4xlarge ($30k/month) | Single c6g.large RioDB node (~$200/month) replaces the pipeline |
Why Traditional Fixes Fall Short
- WAF Rules & Gateways: Add 5-10 ms latency per request, miss internal threats.
- Kafka + Flink Pipelines: Costly ($30k+/month), complex setup, constant ops maintenance.
- Static Rate Limits: Block good traffic during bursts, miss slow crawlers.
- Custom Alert Scripts: Lack sliding-window context, high false positives.
RioDB eliminates these trade-offs with a lightweight, intelligent solution.
Spin up RioDB in staging and see the difference for yourself.