In-depth profile of Arbor Networks (NETSCOUT)in Ann Arbor's tech ecosystem
Arbor Networks is the origin story for Ann Arbor cybersecurity. Spun out of the University of Michigan in 2000 by Farnam Jahanian, Robert Malan, and Dug Song, Arbor pioneered the field of DDoS detection and mitigation at a time when most of the internet was still learning what those acronyms meant. The company was acquired by NetScout in 2015, and the former Arbor team continues to operate out of Ann Arbor as a core piece of NetScout's service assurance and security business.
The original Arbor product, Peakflow, became the standard tool that tier-one ISPs and large enterprises used to detect and defend against volumetric attacks. Arbor's ATLAS threat intelligence platform, which aggregates anonymized attack data from customers representing a huge share of global internet traffic, remains one of the most authoritative sources of visibility into the live DDoS landscape. The data is cited routinely by researchers and journalists covering internet infrastructure.
Arbor's cultural impact on Ann Arbor is difficult to overstate. Duo Security co-founder Dug Song came directly from Arbor. Censys grew out of U-M research that Arbor alumni were involved in. Blumira was founded by former Duo engineers who grew up in the culture that Arbor originated. Every major Ann Arbor security company traces a line back to the room where Arbor was built, which is not something that can be said about most mid-sized cities.
The Ann Arbor office sits in the North Campus research corridor, a short drive from U-M's Computer Science and Engineering building. For employees, the site offers the stability of a NetScout paycheck with the intellectual lineage of a foundational security research organization. The Ann Arbor quality-of-life package applies in full.