Akamai EAA Alternative: A Simpler Approach to Private Application Access
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Looking for an Akamai EAA alternative? Start with how you want to run private application access—not just which product has the longest feature list.
Datawiza Access Proxy provides a simpler approach to securing a portfolio of HTTP/HTTPS applications: put authentication and granular access policies in front of the apps, manage them centrally, and leave application code unchanged. Deploy enforcement in your own infrastructure, across on-premises and cloud environments.
Choose the authentication model that fits your users. Keep existing application credentials and add Datawiza's built-in MFA without Active Directory, LDAP, or an external identity provider. Or connect Microsoft Entra ID, Okta, Cisco Duo, or another supported provider for SSO and MFA.
This can support a broader private-access rollout across business units, employees, partners, and customers. The distinction is the operating model, not small projects versus large ones.
What should you compare with Akamai Enterprise Application Access?
Akamai Enterprise Application Access (EAA) is a ZTNA service with clientless web access, identity integrations, MFA support, and device-aware controls. It also supports non-web applications through additional access methods. Akamai EAA overview.
An Akamai Enterprise Application Access alternative is worth evaluating when your priorities include:
- Enforcement in your environment: Place the access proxy near the applications and control the application traffic path.
- Preserving application-owned accounts: Add MFA without making a separate user-directory migration part of the project.
- Consistent enterprise sign-in: Connect applications to an existing IdP where SSO and centralized MFA are the goal.
- Repeatable administration: Apply a common access-management approach across custom applications, packaged software, ERP systems, and portals.
Datawiza combines these requirements in an application-facing proxy. “Simpler” means fewer authentication changes inside individual applications and a consistent place to manage access—not a promise that deployment needs no planning.
For a concise side-by-side overview, see our Akamai EAA comparison page. This guide focuses on the architecture and workflows to test before choosing.
How the Datawiza approach works
Datawiza Access Proxy sits in the request path between users and protected web applications. You configure the appropriate authentication integration and access rules at the proxy. Users access their applications in a browser without installing a Datawiza endpoint client. Explore Datawiza Access Proxy.
With customer-hosted deployment, proxies run in your infrastructure. The Datawiza Cloud Management Console provides centralized configuration and visibility across them. Application traffic does not need to pass through a Datawiza-hosted cloud relay. Datawiza architecture.
Option 1: Keep existing credentials and add built-in MFA
Many customer and partner portals already authenticate users against their own accounts. Replacing that account system can turn an MFA project into an identity-migration project.
Datawiza can add built-in MFA while users retain their existing application credentials. This mode does not require AD, LDAP, or an external IdP. Validate how the MFA check is associated with the application's authenticated user and session, including enrollment, recovery, logout, and account removal. See MFA with existing application credentials.
Importantly, Akamai does not universally require AD either. Its Cloud Directory supports users and groups without AD integration. The evaluation question is more specific: can you preserve the application's existing account workflow, or will users need another account or identity integration? Demonstrate the required flow with both products rather than assuming equivalence from an “MFA supported” checkbox.
Option 2: Use your identity provider for SSO and MFA
If employees already use Entra ID, Okta, Cisco Duo, or another supported identity platform, Datawiza can connect applications to that provider. This is useful when the objective is unified sign-in and centralized authentication policy rather than preserving separate app logins.
Authentication must also reach the application correctly. Confirm account mapping, the supported identity handoff, and which attributes the app needs. Datawiza supports configuring attribute mappings and passing identity information to upstream applications. Identity attribute mapping.
Built-in MFA and IdP-based SSO/MFA are different options. Adding built-in MFA alone does not automatically create SSO across unrelated applications.
Apply granular access policies
Datawiza can apply rules using application paths, HTTP methods, available user attributes or groups, IP addresses, and time conditions. For example, restrict an administrative URL to the appropriate group while allowing other authorized users to access ordinary application pages. Datawiza granular access control.
Akamai also supports granular controls, including URL, user, group, method, and contextual rules. Compare your required policy expressions and operational workflow—not whether only one platform has authorization. Akamai access-control rules.
In either case, use attributes available in the selected authentication flow. Proxy policies complement an application's business and record-level permissions; they do not replace them.
Where does application traffic go?
In EAA's standard cloud-delivered model, a connector near the private application establishes an outbound connection to Akamai's reverse proxy. Akamai documents multiple connectors for redundancy and scaling. EAA connectors.
That does not mean every deployment always sends every request through a remote cloud point of presence. Akamai offers a Local PoP option for in-office access to on-premises applications. It also documents a separate on-premises web-traffic offload workflow; these should not be assumed to have identical requirements or policy behavior. Akamai local-access options, web-traffic offload documentation.
With customer-hosted Datawiza, the proxy enforces access in your environment. You still need to plan connectivity, certificates, load balancing, and origin restrictions so users cannot bypass it. Customer-hosted does not mean air-gapped: Datawiza documents management and logging connectivity requirements, plus the relevant identity endpoints when used. Deployment prerequisites.
A cloud path is not automatically slow or insecure, and a local proxy is not automatically faster. Draw the actual remote-user, in-office, and failover paths. Then measure your application's real workflows from the locations where people work.
Datawiza vs. Akamai EAA: practical evaluation points
| Evaluation point | Akamai EAA | Datawiza Access Proxy |
|---|---|---|
| Application scope | Web and additional non-web access methods | Private access across HTTP/HTTPS application portfolios |
| Browser access | Clientless web access is supported | Browser access without a Datawiza endpoint client |
| Identity choices | Akamai identity services or supported external IdPs | Existing app credentials with built-in MFA, or external IdP SSO/MFA |
| Traffic placement | Cloud-delivered access with documented local options | Customer-hosted enforcement near your applications |
| Access policies | Application and contextual access rules | Centrally managed path, request, and identity-informed rules |
| Operational focus | EAA connectors, identity configuration, policies, and selected access modes | Proxy placement, app authentication integration, policies, and availability |
MFA methods and commercial packaging also deserve a specific check. Akamai's current documentation distinguishes Akamai MFA and Duo options for new customers from native methods available to some existing customers. Confirm the applicable contract and configuration rather than comparing an assumed bundle. Akamai MFA documentation.
How to evaluate an alternative without disrupting users
A useful pilot should represent the eventual rollout, not just the easiest application.
- Inventory applications and users. Include employee systems, external portals, hosting locations, and any non-web requirements. Choose representative authentication patterns.
- Test both identity workflows where needed. Demonstrate existing-credential MFA for an app-owned account system and IdP SSO/MFA for a workforce app. Include recovery and offboarding.
- Verify application behavior and policy. Exercise redirects, cookies, logout, uploads, downloads, browser API requests, and long-lived connections. Test allowed and denied paths with real user roles.
- Validate resilience and ownership. Document normal and failover traffic paths, direct-origin restrictions, cloud dependencies, certificates, upgrades, capacity, and monitoring responsibilities.
- Compare the complete operating cost. Include licensing, infrastructure, implementation, and ongoing administration. Use measured results rather than assumed savings or deployment timelines.
Datawiza is a strong candidate when you want a common, no-code authentication and policy layer across your web applications. EAA may be a better fit when its broader protocol coverage or Akamai-integrated capabilities are essential. A mixed environment can also retain existing private-network access while using Datawiza for application authentication and MFA.
Frequently asked questions
What is an Akamai EAA alternative for private web applications?
Datawiza Access Proxy provides a proxy-based alternative for HTTP/HTTPS applications, combining centralized access policies with built-in MFA or identity-provider SSO/MFA. Customer-hosted deployment keeps application enforcement in your infrastructure.
Can Datawiza support a broader private-access project?
Yes, across a portfolio of web applications and user populations. Deploy proxies in the relevant environments and manage policies centrally. Inventory non-web connectivity separately rather than assuming complete EAA feature equivalence.
Can users keep existing application credentials?
Yes. Datawiza's built-in MFA mode can retain those credentials without requiring AD, LDAP, or an external IdP. Validate the application's login and session integration during evaluation.
Can I use Entra ID, Okta, or Cisco Duo instead?
Yes. Datawiza supports external identity integrations for SSO and MFA. Choose the supported integration and confirm the account mapping and attributes required by your apps and policies.
Does Akamai EAA require a client or route all traffic through its cloud?
Not universally. EAA supports clientless web access and documented local-access options. Compare the exact access mode, user location, and configuration your deployment would use.
Plan a simpler private-access rollout
Bring your application inventory, current identity systems, and user-access requirements. We can evaluate the authentication flows, proxy placement, and policies needed for a staged rollout across your environments.
Explore Datawiza Access Proxy, or book a demo to assess Datawiza as your Akamai EAA alternative.
