key data points during a ddos attack

Hey folks,

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I've been thinking about what makes a good DDoS defense tool and I wanted to try and poll this group of experts to see if anyone could contribute thoughts here. My questions revolve around the following:

When your company is under a DDoS attack, what features and/or data do you need in front of you in order to understand the nature of the incoming attacks? What features or data do you need in front of you in order to mitigate the attack? And what features or data to you need in front of you in order to communicate details about the attack to customers or to internal colleagues? How do you describe the attack to others?

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Any pointers to products that do this well or poorly would be awesome as well.