Cloudflare — cloud security, CDN and DDoS protection for business

Cloudflare, Inc. is an American public company specializing in cloud security services, content delivery (CDN) and performance optimization. Founded in 2009 by Matthew Prince, Lee Holloway and Michelle Zatlyn. Headquarters in San Francisco, California. Cloudflare operates a global network of more than 300 data centers around the world, processing over 20% of all web requests.

Official website: cloudflare.com

Cloudflare's global infrastructure

Cloudflare operates a global network of more than 300 data centers around the world, processing over 20% of all web requests worldwide. The company provides protection and optimization for websites of any scale — from blogs to the largest internet platforms. The Cloudflare network uses Anycast technology to route requests to the nearest data center, ensuring minimal latency.

CDN (Content Delivery Network)

A global content delivery network that speeds up website loading by caching content in data centers around the world. Caching static content (images, CSS, JavaScript) on Cloudflare servers reduces the load on the origin server and speeds up page loading for users.

DDoS protection

Automatic protection of websites and infrastructure against DDoS attacks of any size. Cloudflare mitigates attacks of more than 100 Tbit/s. Protection works at all network layers (L3, L4, L7) and detects anomalous traffic in real time.

WAF (Web Application Firewall)

A web firewall for protecting web applications from SQL injections, XSS and other OWASP Top 10 vulnerabilities. WAF rules update automatically based on data about new threats.

DNS

Cloud DNS with DDoS protection and high availability (SLA 100%). DNS response time is under 50 ms. DNSSEC support for protection against DNS record spoofing.

SSL/TLS

Free and paid SSL certificates with automatic renewal. Universal SSL is provided free of charge to all customers. Support for HTTP/3 and QUIC to speed up loading.

Zero Trust

A platform for secure access to corporate applications without a VPN. Includes Cloudflare Access (access control), Cloudflare Gateway (traffic filtering) and Cloudflare Tunnel (secure connection to internal resources).

Cloudflare plans

Cloudflare Pro

Basic plan for protecting and speeding up websites. Includes CDN, DDoS protection, SSL, basic WAF. For small sites and blogs.

Cloudflare Business

Advanced plan for commercial websites. Includes advanced WAF, priority support, 100% availability SLA. For online stores and corporate websites.

Cloudflare Enterprise

Enterprise plan with a full set of features, advanced analytics and personalized support. For large organizations and high-traffic platforms.

Cloudflare technologies

• Anycast: routing technology that directs requests to the nearest data center for minimal latency.
• Workers: serverless platform for running code at the network edge (Edge Computing). Support for JavaScript, Python, Go.
• R2 Storage: object data storage with free egress. An alternative to AWS S3.
• Warp: VPN protocol based on WireGuard for secure internet access.

Use in the enterprise environment

• Website protection: CDN, WAF and DDoS protection for corporate websites and online stores.
• Zero Trust access: Cloudflare Access and Tunnel for secure employee access to corporate applications.
• Performance optimization: CDN and caching to speed up website loading.