Instacart Strengthens Security and Efficiency with Cloud Solutions

Overview

Instacart, a major North American grocery technology company, set out to enhance its cybersecurity posture while improving operational efficiency, lowering latency, and reducing overall infrastructure costs. Already operating on a cloud platform, the company adopted edge-based capabilities to achieve high availability, ultra-low latency, and near real-time responsiveness across content delivery and security functions. A customized monitoring dashboard further improved visibility into traffic patterns, enabling proactive bot management and stronger protection of Instacart’s digital environment.

About Instacart

Instacart works with more than 1,800 retailers to deliver groceries from over 100,000 stores across North America. Shoppers fulfill orders placed through the company’s website or mobile app, offering customers a fast, convenient way to shop for essentials.

The Challenge

Instacart faced significant cybersecurity and operational challenges:

• High levels of bot traffic impacting web and app performance
• Manual, time-consuming processes for monitoring threats and analyzing traffic
• Limited visibility into patterns of legitimate vs. malicious requests
• The need to maintain a fast, seamless user experience across all regions

The Solution

Edge-Optimized Content Delivery

To improve latency, reduce errors, and strengthen user experience, Instacart deployed a global content delivery approach through a high-performance edge network. This solution enhanced responsiveness across customer touchpoints while integrating seamlessly with the company’s existing security framework. The result was faster content delivery and improved performance across both high-density urban regions and remote areas.

Advanced Bot Management

Instacart implemented a cloud-native web application protection layer with built-in bot management features. This setup enabled the classification of incoming traffic, distinguishing legitimate users, verified automated agents, and potentially harmful bots. Malicious requests could be challenged or blocked in real time, significantly reducing scraping activities and safeguarding key operational data.

Integrated DDoS Protection

A managed, cloud-based DDoS protection service was added to provide automatic detection and mitigation of large-scale attacks. With integrated threat intelligence and centralized visibility, Instacart gained deeper insight into attack patterns and benefited from expert support during high-severity events.

Results

• 90% reduction in operational overhead through automated threat mitigation
• 20% decrease in overall traffic by blocking unwanted bot activity
• 5× reduction in application errors previously caused by malicious traffic

Future Plans

Instacart plans to further automate its bot mitigation strategy using AI-driven rule creation and behavioral analytics. The company aims to deepen collaboration with cloud technical teams to strengthen predictive security measures and continue improving the customer experience while maintaining strong protection against evolving threats.

Cloud Capabilities Utilized

• Global edge-based content delivery
• Integrated web application protection with bot management
• Managed DDoS detection and mitigation

This solution was delivered in partnership with AWS.