What is Cloudflare and how does it work?
Posted: Sun Jan 19, 2025 6:22 am
Creativemotions»News»What is Cloudflare and how does it work?
What is Cloudflare and how does it work?
The quick and simple answer to this question is that Cloudflare is one of the world's largest networks that seeks to improve the Internet through speed and security. However, this answer is only the surface of what Cloudflare is.
There are three fundamental things when you have an online business:
Have a fast site
Staying safe from attackers
Increase your traffic
Cloudflare can help you with all three. But what exactly is it netherlands phone number data how can a CDN like Cloudflare improve the speed, security and scalability of a website?
Let's find out together.
Table of Contents view
What is CloudFlare?
Cloudflare inc is a CDN Content Delivery Network consisting of hundreds of data centers located in over 100 countries . Founded by Matthew Prince in 2009, it has grown to handle five to ten percent of global Internet traffic, becoming one of the largest CDNs in the world.
Cloudflare cdn in the world
How does Cloudflare CDN work?
Cloudflare Cache
A CDN like Cloudflare uses a process called caching . Caching is where frequently viewed data is stored to make it easier to retrieve.
Think about checking the time: if someone asks you what time it is, it will take you a while to take your phone out of your pocket and check. If someone else asks you a few seconds later, you can simply say the time you remember seeing before. In that case, the time you remember is the cache. Of course, as time goes by, this cache will no longer be very accurate, so it is important to update it as needed.
Cloudflare will check your website (also known as the origin) every so often to keep the cache up to date. The Cloudflare CDN will then serve that cache to all visitors who request your website.
The main advantage of using Cloudflare is that visitors from all over the world will download your website from a location that is physically closer to them, which means faster loading times. It also means that since some of the requests are handled entirely by the CDN, your server will experience less load, meaning your site can be viewed by more visitors at the same time.
Incoming traffic filtering
Another capability offered by Content Delivery Networks is the filtering of incoming traffic. This acts as an additional layer of protection against external threats, alongside the firewall and other security measures you may have implemented .
Cloudflare CDN is known for implementing some of the most powerful filtering techniques on its network that your site can benefit from.
How does a cdn like cloudflare work
Cloudflare DNS
Cloudflare is not only a CDN but also operates the world's fastest DNS (Domain Name System) network .
The DNS system is what translates your domain name into an IP address that a computer can understand and use to talk to a server. Your domain registrar first specifies an Authoritative Name Server (usually called a nameserver, which stores all the relevant DNS records.
The DNS resolution process happens before a connection can be established, so it is another important factor in the loading speed of your website.
In the default configuration, Cloudflare is set as your domain's nameserver, so your visitors will appreciate Cloudflare's fast DNS resolution.
What are the benefits of Cloudflare CDN?
Cloudflare has a free plan that lets you try out many of the benefits without any commitment. The only thing you need to get started is changing your nameservers to point to Cloudflare CDN. This will allow you to use CloudFlare DNS lookup. The free plan also offers valuable improvements to both performance and security.
What is Cloudflare and how does it work?
The quick and simple answer to this question is that Cloudflare is one of the world's largest networks that seeks to improve the Internet through speed and security. However, this answer is only the surface of what Cloudflare is.
There are three fundamental things when you have an online business:
Have a fast site
Staying safe from attackers
Increase your traffic
Cloudflare can help you with all three. But what exactly is it netherlands phone number data how can a CDN like Cloudflare improve the speed, security and scalability of a website?
Let's find out together.
Table of Contents view
What is CloudFlare?
Cloudflare inc is a CDN Content Delivery Network consisting of hundreds of data centers located in over 100 countries . Founded by Matthew Prince in 2009, it has grown to handle five to ten percent of global Internet traffic, becoming one of the largest CDNs in the world.
Cloudflare cdn in the world
How does Cloudflare CDN work?
Cloudflare Cache
A CDN like Cloudflare uses a process called caching . Caching is where frequently viewed data is stored to make it easier to retrieve.
Think about checking the time: if someone asks you what time it is, it will take you a while to take your phone out of your pocket and check. If someone else asks you a few seconds later, you can simply say the time you remember seeing before. In that case, the time you remember is the cache. Of course, as time goes by, this cache will no longer be very accurate, so it is important to update it as needed.
Cloudflare will check your website (also known as the origin) every so often to keep the cache up to date. The Cloudflare CDN will then serve that cache to all visitors who request your website.
The main advantage of using Cloudflare is that visitors from all over the world will download your website from a location that is physically closer to them, which means faster loading times. It also means that since some of the requests are handled entirely by the CDN, your server will experience less load, meaning your site can be viewed by more visitors at the same time.
Incoming traffic filtering
Another capability offered by Content Delivery Networks is the filtering of incoming traffic. This acts as an additional layer of protection against external threats, alongside the firewall and other security measures you may have implemented .
Cloudflare CDN is known for implementing some of the most powerful filtering techniques on its network that your site can benefit from.
How does a cdn like cloudflare work
Cloudflare DNS
Cloudflare is not only a CDN but also operates the world's fastest DNS (Domain Name System) network .
The DNS system is what translates your domain name into an IP address that a computer can understand and use to talk to a server. Your domain registrar first specifies an Authoritative Name Server (usually called a nameserver, which stores all the relevant DNS records.
The DNS resolution process happens before a connection can be established, so it is another important factor in the loading speed of your website.
In the default configuration, Cloudflare is set as your domain's nameserver, so your visitors will appreciate Cloudflare's fast DNS resolution.
What are the benefits of Cloudflare CDN?
Cloudflare has a free plan that lets you try out many of the benefits without any commitment. The only thing you need to get started is changing your nameservers to point to Cloudflare CDN. This will allow you to use CloudFlare DNS lookup. The free plan also offers valuable improvements to both performance and security.