What value does Cloudfare add to the interwebs?

[Pablo]

I'm largely ignorant, but all I see is them crashing. I couldn't get to whole list of sites this AM.

Who owns them? Who targets them? Why are they so valuable?

 

[cptbarkey]

Look up the concept of a content delivery network. Its basically a giant cache that is distributed globally.
My company uses it for style sheets and other things.

 

[rijndael]

They're responsible for a lot of the internet. Whether it's content distribution, DNS, caching, or DDOS mitigation, they do a lot.

Plus, they run the .gov TLD and aid in running the F-Root server.

 

[Pablo]

Look up the concept of a content delivery network. Its basically a giant cache that is distributed globally.
My company uses it for style sheets and other things.

Like a fat middle man holding and distributing as needed. Big target.

 

[Zee09]

Outage value in spades

 

[rijndael]

They are a big target, but they've also weathered some of the biggest recorded storms (DDOS attacks).

 

[dogememe]

Insanely awesome service that I’ve used for over a decade. And it’s completely free for most use cases. I still remember the old days when they were a small company. They even sent me a t-shirt lol.

They do a lot of things… core product is a WAF/CDN/DNS but lots of other handy stuff. Turnstile is way better than ReCAPTCHA, for example.

But… when CloudFlare breaks, it takes down much of the internet.

 

[Nessism1]

Embarrassed to admit, I had no clue that a company like CloudFlare existed. With hindsight, it makes sense. Learning every day...

 

[duck__dodgers]

They are like a drop-shipper for internet content---but instead of a warehouse, they built Fort Knox with loading bays capable of shipping your content via F1 cars.

 

[uc50ic4more]

I proxy the web sites I host for clients through Cloudflare (and fielded a lot of phone calls and emails this morning!) They provide some front-line security for my server network and they cache a lot of my clients' site's data to unburden my servers.

 

[dogememe]

I proxy the web sites I host for clients through Cloudflare (and fielded a lot of phone calls and emails this morning!) They provide some front-line security for my server network and they cache a lot of my clients' site's data to unburden my servers.

Yeah, it’s totally worth it. I did some experiments with cloudflare on and off across about a dozen random websites under my management and cloudflare cut like 90% of bot traffic and decreased server load by 40%. Those are rounded numbers but paint a good picture of what they contribute… for free!

 

[wwillson]

Insanely awesome service that I’ve used for over a decade. And it’s completely free for most use cases. I still remember the old days when they were a small company. They even sent me a t-shirt lol.

They do a lot of things… core product is a WAF/CDN/DNS but lots of other handy stuff. Turnstile is way better than ReCAPTCHA, for example.

But… when CloudFlare breaks, it takes down much of the internet.

Absolutely correct. BITOG couldn't survive without the protections Cloudflare offers through their services. The AI crawler storm that started about a year ago is an astounding amount of traffic. Cloudflare blocks millions of crawl attempts/day from all over the world. We still allow the good crawlers, but HAVE to block all crawls from outside the US. The number of crawl attempts are synonymous to a continual DDoS attack.

 

[dogememe]

Absolutely correct. BITOG couldn't survive without the protections Cloudflare offers through their services. The AI crawler storm that started about a year ago is an astounding amount of traffic. Cloudflare blocks millions of crawl attempts/day from all over the world. We still allow the good crawlers, but HAVE to block all crawls from outside the US. The number of crawl attempts are synonymous to a continual DDoS attack.

Yeah, and their AI bot management system is literally life changing. And still free

 

[wwillson]

Yeah, and their AI bot management system is literally life changing. And still free

We use the paid version of Cloudflare, because we need many of the additions the paid version offers. It's expensive, until you compare it to Akamai.

 

[Wireman1987]

we appreciate the efforts and hard works that goes into keeping the site and forum running like a well oiled machine.

took web design many moons back in high school for credits - it ain't easy and definitely costs a buck.

 

[OVERKILL]

Saw this on twitter (spin off of xcd's meme on this) and about died laughing. It gets funnier the longer you look.

 

[Y_K]

Web Dev sabotaging herself...

 

[Skippy722]

View attachment 311730

Saw this on twitter (spin off of xcd's meme on this) and about died laughing. It gets funnier the longer you look.

The cloud flare lava lamps

 

[Arc]

Absolutely correct. BITOG couldn't survive without the protections Cloudflare offers through their services. The AI crawler storm that started about a year ago is an astounding amount of traffic. Cloudflare blocks millions of crawl attempts/day from all over the world. We still allow the good crawlers, but HAVE to block all crawls from outside the US. The number of crawl attempts are synonymous to a continual DDoS attack.

They also block Tor traffic. Not a good thing for peole who live in countries with heavy censorship.

 

[USask2000]

Story time. Co-founder and COO of Cloudflare, Michelle Zatlyn, grew up across the street and one house over from me in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan. She was a high achiever from a great family, attended Harvard for her MBA and is now a billionaire. She’s one year younger than me and I now wish I expressed romantic intent when we were younger.