CloudFlare
Supercharging Web Content Distribution

Websites are store house of multimedia content that aim to cater to the needs of internet users across the globe. To ensure the websites have a global reach, their dynamic multimedia content requires real time content delivery, reports, updates, and instantaneous purging that consume more bandwidth and are generally categorized as uncacheable. Bloated platforms and software caches of traditional web hosts trim web performance. In order to boost traffic and reach, Content Delivery Network (CDN) is the next de facto in every webmasters toolkit. Also, to stay ahead in Google’s pagespeed ranking, webmasters are exploring the use of third party CDNs that store web data in multiple servers across various geographical locations. “The web is changing with more sophisticated websites and applications. Even the last-generation CDN tricks are becoming less effective for sites and mobile applications,” states Matthew Prince, CEO and Co-founder, CloudFlare.

Sitting between internet users and website providers through distributed global network, San Francisco based CloudFlare has impacted the internet by accelerating and protecting website performance. Web traffic routed through CloudFlare’s intelligent network supercharges web speed by blocking malicious threats, abusive bots, and crawlers.

Affordable, easy to install, and improved performance of CloudFlare’s next generation CDN ensures the websites are globally accessed with high speed and at an affordable cost. Statistically, a website on CloudFlare’s CDN doubles its speed and saves 60 percent bandwidth. “Our CDN automatically caches static files at our edge nodes. So these files are stored closer to visitors while delivering dynamic content directly from web server,” illustrates Prince.

For superfast web delivery, CloudFlare proposes integration of load balancers, Anycast and Unicast—one-to-one routing systems that connect web visitors to nearest data centers. Both allow CloudFlare data centers to receive traffic from public Internet Protocol (IP) addresses.

Our CDN automatically caches static files at our edge nodes. So these files are stored closer to visitors while delivering dynamic content directly from web server

In case of one-to-many routings, CloudFlare offers Multicast and Broadcast, whose operation is exactly like television cable broadcast over IP.

In case of Wide Area Network (WAN), web optimization technology is delivered by CloudFlare’s Railgun that speeds delivery of non-cached web pages by developing a secured connection between its network and host’s server. Basic CloudFlare services caches up to 65 percent of web page content, while high concurrent Railgun acts as catalyst for the remaining 35 percent.

Additionally, to assure improved image performance, CloudFlare delivers two solutions—Polish and Mirage. Polish automatically optimizes images into smaller and faster version in CloudFlare cache. The Mirage prioritizes image loading that are on the view point and delivers necessary images to users. It also detects mobile users and adjusts image loading subsequently to enhance user experience. The primary aim of these two solutions is to allow data transfer savings to improve site’s performance and help end users with limited data plans.

CloudFlare helped Zendesk, a customer service firm, to superfast and protect their website delivery and, optimize their front and back-end systems. With 30 plus data centers operating in major continents, CloudFlare is a constant support behind Zendesk’s growth. “CloudFlare’s solution just works. Their team was able to accomplish all our requirements and customizations propagated near instantly,” confirms Amanda Kleha, GM, Zendesk.

CloudFlare also partnered Baidu, a Chinese web service company, to help Chinese websites load quickly. CloudFlare aims to protect websites worldwide from denial-of-service attacks originating from China. “I’m hopeful that policies can be put in place so that cyberattacks are not acceptable. CloudFlare is going to protect customers from any attacks we see,” concludes Prince.