What is CloudFlare and what do you get with a free account?
CloudFlare is a content delivery network (CDN). A CDN is a distributed network of servers that provides several advantages for a web site: Cached content: By caching web site content, CloudFlare helps improve page load speeds, reduce bandwidth usage, and reduce CPU usage on the server.
High availability: With a redundant network of servers worldwide, if a server experiences an issue, CloudFlare’s CDN simply “fails over” to use another server.
Increased security: CloudFlare helps improve security by blocking threats before they even reach a site. CloudFlare’s CDN can also provide some protection against Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks.
CloudFlare optimizes web content delivery by storing duplicates of static content (such as CSS, JavaScript and image files) on its servers. Your web site content is served from the CloudFlare server located nearest to your visitors, which decreases page load times. If a server in CloudFlare’s network is very busy, web traffic is automatically routed to the next server nearest to your visitors.
CloudFlare’s CDN also blocks threats and limits abusive bots before they reach your server. This helps increase security and reduce wasted bandwidth.
More than 6,000,000 websites are currently running under the CloudFlare Secure Network!
As applications move to the cloud, their security needs to move with them. Cloudflare’s security services operate at the edge of the network, making it possible to identify and mitigate threats faster than on-premise solutions.
• DDoS Protection : Our enterprise-class DDoS protection network has 20 times more capacity than the largest DDoS attack ever recorded. Operating at the network edge, it protects against all forms of DDoS attacks.
• WAF: CloudFlare’s web application firewall benefits from the collective intelligence of our entire network. When we identify a new threat from one website, we can automatically block it from the other 6,000,000 websites on our network.
• SSL: HTTPS is a must-have for modern websites, and Cloudflare makes it easy to configure SSL. No need to worry about installation issues, expiring certificates, or optimizing your SSL settings.
• Secure Registrar: Registering your domain through Cloudflare is the most secure way to protect your trademark from domain hijacking.
• Dedicated SSL Certificates: With a few clicks within the Cloudflare dashboard, you can easily and quickly issue new certificates, securely generate private keys and more. Dedicated SSL Certificates are available for purchase on all Cloudflare pricing plans.
• Traffic Control: Traffic Control gives you granular controls to detect bad traffic, customized rulesets to ensure that your legitimate visitors are not impacted, and insights to improve your security posture as attacks evolve.
You can have all the features above with a FREE CloudFlare account.
