Cloudflare Email Security

Since I'm managing security tools and focusing on email security, Cloudflare  mainly helps me take care of DNS records that are related to email security, such as SPF, DMARC, and DKIM. That's the main scope of my interest there. I'm monitoring those records, checking if somebody has altered them, and gathering evidence if needed to warn them not to do that anymore.

Cloudflare  is a great product with many useful features. A colleague of mine is leveraging the API to get all the records periodically. We're gathering them to review if everything is set up properly without the need for manual review. I appreciate the additional details about the statistics since the DKIM enablement process requires visibility over whether the DKIM keys are being used and if there were any queries against them. The statistics part lets me briefly validate if the DKIM record is in use because over time, the records stop being used and aren't cleaned up because nobody requested that.

The reporting and auditing tools are important in the use cases I mentioned earlier. There are many features I do not configure but know exist, such as web access firewall to set up accesses to certain DNS records. We were also using the Workers part of Cloudflare to share data from Cloudflare to an external app called Salt, which helped us understand where our API endpoints are in our estate. Based on that, we got information about endpoint locations and unusual API queries.

It simplifies management because you can create domain groups and associate them to countries, allowing them to manage them independently. It helps me understand which country might be responsible for specific domains. It's a great product because it's scalable, has great coverage, and is mature with good defenses against DDoS attacks.

I'm not directly configuring the WAF  in Cloudflare because another team manages that, but I see they are adding more features to it, which is making us more secure.

Regarding DNS services in Cloudflare, I believe they are good, but I would consider doing some testing from external places to measure response time and compare performance.

I'm not sure if we are using the load balancing capabilities in Cloudflare on a larger scale. We are using the proxy capability, which I forgot to mention earlier. Most of our DNS records that are presented to the internet are proxied whenever possible, providing another layer of defense from our perspective.

It's challenging to comment on specific features I would want to see included in the next Cloudflare releases because I haven't investigated many existing features. I think many capabilities are already there. A feature I would appreciate is some kind of protection for modifying different types of entries. For example, protection against creating duplicated DMARC entries would be beneficial, along with setting permissions to restrict modification of DMARC or SPF records.

From a management perspective, this would be valuable because while DNS teams add records, in larger enterprises I've noticed that requests going through the ticketing system get implemented as requested, even when users don't always know how to do it properly. They submit unjustified and improper requests that get implemented because someone followed the ticket instructions. Eventually, things go sideways and require fixes when it would have been easier to prevent the issue initially.

I haven't investigated the analytics and insights into user interaction or security vulnerabilities in Cloudflare much further beyond the basic statistics regarding DNS record requests. I'm using the basic API to see if the record was used or not, when it was recently used, and what the usage was over the last week or month period. This helps me understand if the record is still being used or if we can remove it.

Cloudflare is the only solution I've worked with here for DNS and DDoS protection. I do not recall any other tools that we have for these purposes.

Pricing, setup cost, and licensing cost for Cloudflare are totally not in my scope so I do not know the costs. I only know that there are two tiers of WAF , and we are using the basic, cheaper one rather than the more advanced version. There is some differentiation where some features are available on a general basis, but others require additional licensing.

I would advise users looking into implementing Cloudflare in their environment to understand the features before implementing it so they can use all of its potential. On a scale of 1-10, I rate Cloudflare a 9 out of 10.

Neutral

I only implement the DNS for customers, mainly focusing on the government in Mexico and online platforms in fintech. My customers tell me the DNS is very fast.

It is a fast and secure DNS. It is very easy to deploy, and my customers are happy with this tool. Additionally, the CDN  performance in Mexico is excellent, providing fast service and tools. It offers reliability during high-traffic periods, ensuring no impact on the environment. It helps my clients avoid using on-premise boxes, simplifying operations as they only use the prices on Cloudflare .

There could be more courses with engineers. I like e-learning, however, having a specialist in a classroom is more comfortable for me.

The service is very stable with no impacts during high-traffic periods. It provides fast performance.

The tool offers very good performance, even during high-traffic periods.

I find the support for Cloudflare DNS  to be good, and I would rate it an eight out of ten.

Positive

Setting up Cloudflare DNS is very easy. On a scale of one to ten, I would rate it a nine for ease of setup.

Only one person from Cloudflare, myself, an engineer in Mexico, and the customer are needed to deploy the DNS.

My clients benefit significantly, as they no longer use on-premise boxes. This makes operations very easy, and they do not need to buy licenses, using only the prices on Cloudflare.

I use the free version, which has the best prices. It's very easy to upgrade the service for more complex patient needs, and I find it to be cheap.

I do not work with AI. In terms of overall performance and reliability, I would rate Cloudflare DNS a nine out of ten.

I use Cloudflare  primarily for protecting a web application firewall.

The most valuable feature is its usability. Additionally, the built-in rules are great because they protect the applications without the need for large customizations. The CDN  performance is also a great benefit, especially since the server was in Canada and users accessed it from Brazil, which improved content delivery significantly. During high traffic periods, such as when the site received increased traffic, Cloudflare  effectively provided users with access to the site.

Cloudflare could be improved by introducing a mid-tier pricing option. While they have a free basic tier and an enterprise tier, a mid-priced option would be great for small projects. The number of rules in the web application firewall could also cater more to small projects.

The stability is great. I would rate the stability as ten out of ten.

The scalability is good, and I would rate it as ten out of ten.

I did not deal with their support or customer service as there was no need. The online documentation was sufficient.

Positive

The initial setup was straightforward.

For the small project I was working on, using the basic tier provided a huge improvement at zero cost.

For large enterprises, the pricing is okay. However, the enterprise price for small projects is a bit high. A mid-tier pricing option would be beneficial.

Overall, I would rate Cloudflare a nine out of ten.

We subscribed to Cloudflare  for cloud-based services, and we are planning to explore its additional features as it aligns with our organizational needs.

The features of Cloudflare  were found to be more beneficial and led to the decision to utilize it over other options. However, I am not completely aware of all the specific features, but Cloudflare was chosen for its feature advantage.

Integration involving API with other products could be more user-friendly. Exploring it is interesting, and it would be helpful if those integrations were improved.

We just started using it recently.

We have not encountered any stability issues with Cloudflare.

I am satisfied with Cloudflare's customer service.

Positive

I am not involved directly in the setup as my technical team handles it, however, it was completed very quickly, in less than a day.

We are satisfied with the pricing we received for Cloudflare compared with other commercial options.

We were considering firewall solutions like Citrix and NetGate PFSense before eventually choosing Cloudflare.

The overall experience with Cloudflare is positive, with a rating of eight out of ten.