July 2014 Summaries

CloudFlare recently updated its Polish service, which recompresses images to ensure fast delivery to web browsers. The new version uses mozjpeg 2.0 for JPEG compression and outperforms libjpeg-turbo in terms of compression ratio and the number of files compressed. However, it takes longer to compress images. CloudFlare is optimizing mozjpeg 2.0 for Intel processors and will contribute improvements back to the project. The company is also investing in other optimization projects like gzip and LuaJIT.

On July 22, 2014, CloudFlare announced the launch of their 28th data center in Medellin, Colombia, in partnership with Internexa, the largest terrestrial communications network operator in Latin America. This expansion aims to localize content access within the region and reduce latency for Colombia's 22 million internet users. The deployment is part of CloudFlare's mission to provide website owners with tools and techniques used by internet giants to increase their site's speed, security, and availability.

In an internal email, John Graham-Cumming of CloudFlare discussed the company's approach to rewriting old code for better performance, maintainability, and ease of enhancement. He emphasized that this courageous act is crucial in keeping up with the fast-paced environment of a startup. The team should not feel bad about replacing old code as it is necessary due to changing requirements and increased traffic. CloudFlare is currently hiring in San Francisco and London for those interested in contributing to new code and replacing the old.

Cloudflare, a web performance and security company, has doubled its number of Australian Internet exchanges by establishing connections to three new Megaport Internet exchanges in Sydney, Brisbane, and Melbourne. This marks the first time Cloudflare participates in exchanges outside of Sydney. Peering with ISPs allows Cloudflare to significantly increase service performance for users on those ISPs, resulting in lower latency and less congested paths. The company is constantly expanding its network and participating in more peering exchanges worldwide to create a faster web experience.

Cloudflare introduces an open-source toolkit called CFSSL for managing TLS/SSL certificates. The tool is used internally by Cloudflare and can be employed as a web service with a JSON API or as a command line tool. CFSSL simplifies the process of creating certificate bundles, which are essential for website security and speed. It helps in picking the right chain of certificates to balance performance, security, and compatibility. The tool is also capable of functioning as a Certificate Authority (CA) by covering basic features like creating private keys, building CSRs, and signing certificates. Cloudflare's mission with CFSSL is to help build a better web by making the process of managing SSL certificates easier.

During the 2014 World Cup, Xavier Damman, co-founder of Storify, created ReplayLastGoal.com, a Twitter bot that automatically records and posts an animated gif of the most recent World Cup goal. This was in response to the frustration experienced by fans who were unable to watch matches live due to work or other commitments. The bot allowed users to see goals instantly on Twitter via @ReplayLastGoal. Xavier open-sourced his code and kept the project not for profit, encouraging major sports networks like FIFA and ESPN to use it. To handle traffic spikes during popular matches, ReplayLastGoal.com was put on the CloudFlare network, which distributed content globally. This innovative solution allowed fans worldwide to stay connected with the World Cup action from their desks.

On July 7, 2014, CloudFlare opened its 27th data center in São Paulo, Brazil, coinciding with the country's hosting of the FIFA World Cup and their advancement to the semi-finals. The journey to launching this data center was challenging due to certification requirements from Anatel and inspections by Receita Federal do Brasil. However, the result is increased performance for over 2 million websites using CloudFlare in Brazil, benefiting its 100 million internet users. This marks the second data center in Latin America after Chile, with more expansion plans on the horizon.

CloudFlare has open-sourced its BPF (Berkeley Packet Filter) Tools on GitHub. These tools can be used to generate and deploy BPF rules, which are useful in dealing with large scale DDoS attacks. The repository contains several Python scripts that focus on analyzing pcap files and generating BPF bytecode. Currently, the BPF Tools are designed for DNS traffic but can be easily adapted for other stateless floods. These tools have been used by CloudFlare to identify and filter DNS attack traffic.

In this text, John Graham-Cumming discusses how CloudFlare continuously improves its codebase by replacing outdated components and implementing rigorous testing and review processes. He shares an example of updating a DNS server filter that discards invalid flagged packets. The author initially struggled to understand the purpose of specific flags but eventually provided comments explaining their significance. His colleague, Marek, suggested further improvements to the code by using bitwise operations for better clarity and readability. This collaboration led to enhanced code quality and security, which is crucial for CloudFlare's PCI certification. The text concludes with an invitation to join the company in improving its large-scale codebase across various languages.