May 2011 Summaries

CloudFlare is a service that provides powerful underlying technology for DNS, caching, bot filtering, and more. Its goal is to make the service simple for users. After signing up with CloudFlare, ensure your DNS records are correct on the DNS settings page. Familiarize yourself with the CloudFlare Settings page where you can find optional features like Rocket Loader, security level settings, Development Mode, and Purge Cache. Install mod_cloudflare to get the original visitor IP and whitelist CloudFlare's IP addresses for proper website request serving. Bookmark CloudFlare's status page for system updates. The Pro service offers additional benefits such as faster subsequent page loads, Web Application Firewall protection, SSL compatibility, and more frequent stats updates compared to the free service.

On May 26th, 2011, Matthew Prince, CEO and co-founder of CloudFlare, attended TechCrunch Disrupt in NYC where he presented updates on the company and announced new services such as CloudFlare Apps and Rocket Loader. The event received coverage from various media outlets including TechCrunch and Robert Scoble. In gratitude to their customers, CloudFlare is distributing t-shirts this week; interested recipients can request one by emailing the company with their details.

On May 25, 2011, John Roberts announced the launch of CloudFlare Apps at TechCrunch Disrupt in New York City. The service aims to make installing web applications fast, safe, and one-click simple. A survey revealed that 90% of website owners are concerned about the performance impact and security risks from installed web applications. To address these concerns, CloudFlare Apps allows web applications to be activated without requiring code changes and ensures automatic updates to the latest version. Starting on June 1, a new app will be introduced each day for integration with all sites on the CloudFlare network. Many leading application providers are working with CloudFlare to welcome their customers with a simple click in the CloudFlare Dashboard.

On May 21, 2011, Matthew Prince announced that CloudFlare had opened a data center in Dallas, Texas, following the launch of their Paris, France facility earlier. The decision was made to clarify any confusion between the two locations and ensure faster internet services for users worldwide. Interestingly, despite being geographically distant, there are cultural similarities between Paris, France and Dallas, Texas, as evidenced by the French fascination with the 80s TV show "Dallas."

On May 21, 2011, CloudFlare opened its second European data center in Paris, which will help improve performance across the continent by reducing load on their Amsterdam data center. The company has two French nationals working for them, making this expansion particularly exciting. In addition to Paris, CloudFlare plans to add a data center in Frankfurt and another one in London soon.

Cloudflare is an intelligent system that improves its performance by analyzing changes in traffic to a website. If it detects a significant change, the system investigates whether the new traffic is legitimate or an attack. In case of an attack, Cloudflare learns from the data and starts blocking the malicious traffic at its edge nodes worldwide. This not only protects the targeted site but also benefits the entire Cloudflare community by sharing this information. The website owner in question praised the system's effectiveness during a recent DDoS attack. Regardless of their size, all websites can benefit from Cloudflare's protection and web security services.

On May 18, 2011 at 12:21AM, Matthew Prince reported that their network reached an impressive milestone of delivering a sustained average of 2,000 page views per second. The peak traffic was even higher than this average. In the past, they used to monitor the logs in terminal windows for insights into network activity, but now generate over a million log lines per minute, making that approach impractical. Instead, they have a globe displaying global traffic (human, crawler, and threat) coming into their network's various sites. This display was intentionally designed to resemble the one in the lobby of another company located nearby in Mountain View, which had also been a startup not too long ago.

On May 16, 2011, Matthew Prince announced that CloudFlare now supports CNAME Flattening, a solution to the problem of using Amazon Web Services (AWS) Elastic Cloud (EC2) with DNS RFC-compliant support for CNAME at the root. The challenge was that while subdomains could be set as CNAMEs, the root domain or "naked domain" had to be an "A Record." This made it difficult to point a root domain to EC2 without using hacks. CloudFlare's new feature allows users to set their zone apex to a CNAME, enabling them to use naked domains with cloud hosts like EC2, Rackspace's Cloud, and Google App Engine. Additionally, using CloudFlare's free service for a website hosted on EC2 can make the site about 50% faster worldwide while saving around 65% off bandwidth costs.

On May 13, 2011, Matthew Prince announced the completion of an update to CloudFlare's Amsterdam data center. Previously using leased equipment, the new hardware allows for a tenfold increase in capacity. Upcoming plans include establishing data centers in Paris and Frankfurt, followed by London. This expansion will cover major internet exchange points in western Europe before shifting focus eastward. The update also inspired Prince to reference the song "Istanbul (Not Constantinople)" by They Might Be Giants.

On May 12, 2011, CloudFlare launched a new data center in Hong Kong to enhance web performance and security for users in that region. Approximately 10% of the company's network traffic originates from Hong Kong and China. The facility features hardware upgrades designed to mitigate DDoS attacks, which will help alleviate pressure on existing data centers in Los Angeles and San Jose. Upcoming plans include establishing new data centers in Paris and Dallas.

On May 10, 2011, Matthew Prince announced that Google Analytics would integrate Site Speed tracking, allowing site administrators to monitor their page performance. CloudFlare, which has always supported Google Analytics integration, updated its system to make the new version of Google Analytics available for users. The update automatically upgrades Google Analytics tracking code on websites using CloudFlare, enabling them to access the Site Speed feature without any additional effort.

On May 9, 2011, CloudFlare announced that its performance and security features now fully integrate with W3 Total Cache (W3TC), a WordPress performance plugin. Both platforms aim to optimize website speed. With the latest version of W3TC, users can manage several CloudFlare features directly from the W3TC control panel. The integration ensures visitors' IP addresses appear correctly in WordPress without needing additional plugins or modules. Users can download the updated W3TC and enter their CloudFlare account information to access these features.

On May 3, 2011, CloudFlare opened a new data center in New Jersey, just over the river from Manhattan. This facility is already handling traffic previously managed by their Ashburn, VA location. The New Jersey data center uses the latest hardware optimized for performance based on lessons learned while operating the network over the past year. Users in the Northeastern United States should experience improved performance. Internally, this data center is referred to as EWR, after the airport code for Newark. Upcoming plans include establishing a presence in Dallas and adding new equipment in Chicago.

CloudFlare uses various techniques to enhance site speed and security, some of which are already employed by internet giants while others represent new advancements. One such technique is Web Content Optimization (WCO), which goes beyond traditional caching CDN to optimize site rendering on different browsers and devices. A challenge in this area is reliably preloading Javascript without execution, as established techniques may fail when deployed across a wide range of websites and devices. CloudFlare has developed an innovative solution for this issue that will significantly improve web performance, particularly on mobile devices, and will be rolled out to all users soon.

On May 2, 2011, at 10:02 PM, Matthew Prince from CloudFlare reported that they observed a significant increase in search traffic related to Osama bin Laden's death. Prior to President Obama's address, around 1.5% of searches contained the term "Osama," up from nearly zero in the previous 24 hours. A second peak occurred after Obama finished speaking. The graph illustrates the spike in search traffic for "Osama" and a more steady stream of searches for "Obama."

On April 29, 2011, CloudFlare won the Judge's award at Under The Radar event in Silicon Valley. Co-founder and CEO Matthew Prince shared the company's story with the audience, highlighting that since its launch six months ago, it has saved 1000 years of time for web surfers, stopped 750 million threats, and brought advanced performance and security tools to tens of thousands of websites. The team is enthusiastic about upcoming initiatives aimed at further enhancing performance, security, and benefits for the entire CloudFlare community.