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.

Other

We are resellers of Cloudflare, and we work with the entire technology stack. Cloudflare serves as a single pane of glass for functionalities such as performance, security, and bot management.

The entire tech stack of Cloudflare is valuable because it offers a single pane of glass for functionalities related to performance, security, and bot management. It provides everything in one dashboard, which eliminates the need for multiple solutions that only cover one or two functions each. Cloudflare consolidates various capabilities into one product, streamlining processes.

Their channel management could be enhanced because they are often in competition with their own resellers due to their direct sales and partner sales approach. Additionally, features sometimes emerge not fully proven, leaving customers to conduct a kind of trial and error.

I have been dealing with Cloudflare for about six years now.

Technical support is not well developed. While there are good engineers, Cloudflare does not offer hands-on technical support to fix customer problems but rather a self-service model. Customers are shown how to fix issues themselves. Cloudflare's customer success or advanced support seems more like a sales function than true technical support.

Neutral

I rate Cloudflare an eight out of ten. Despite some management issues and the trial and error approach to new features, they develop fast and take risks which is commendable.

Other

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.

Other

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.

Public Cloud

Other

In my company, Cloudflare's PoC phase is going on, and so it is not an active contract we have had with them, but just basic experience is what I have with DDoS protection. I basically use Cloudflare for DDoS protection. My company recently tested the tool for its DDoS protection capabilities.

In terms of the tool's advantages, I would say that it can be highly automated and is very quick when it comes to propagation. The tool is user-friendly. The product's reporting capabilities are great. We need to do a bit of customization in the tool, but most of it is automated. The tool has a lot of artificial intelligence and machine learning. The solution has been able to compare it to the market, and I think the product has taken great strides in automating quite a bit of things, and they use a lot of AI.

I have not extensively worked with it, so I can't think of any improvements that are needed in the tool at the moment.

It is a foolproof solution. The support is great. I don't think that I can come up with any cons about the tool at the moment.

The integration of LLMs on the dashboard is something that is needed in the tool. What Cloudflare is doing internally is that it is stepping ahead in areas like detection and protection. The tool should integrate LLMs on the dashboards and assist you with policy creation.

I have been using Cloudflare for about six months. My company has a partnership with the solution.

We did not face any stability issues in the solution.

Scalability is one of the added advantages of Cloudflare as it is used across the world. It is a SaaS tool, but the fact that they have workloads deployed across the world proves that it is a highly scalable tool.

I have primarily worked not with the tool's customer support but with the product's sales engineers and technical sales engineers, who seem to know their stuff.

I have used Imperva. Compared to Imperva, I feel Cloudflare has better support and a straightforward licensing model. Cloudflare gives you a free trial for an extended period of time. The number of services Cloudflare offers in one package is also quite a lot. The number of folks Cloudflare has is more widespread compared to Imperva, so you can redirect the traffic to wherever you want and continuously do health checks, which PoP is up. If there is a PoP that is down, Cloudflare automatically reroutes you to it.

Imperva is better than Cloudflare in the area of bot protection. Imperva offers advanced bot protection, specifically in terms of the detection and protection for advanced bots it provides. Imperva is able to detect dangerous bots in a more efficient manner, making it better than Cloudflare. There are more ways to bypass Cloudflare than there are on Imperva.

The product's initial setup phase is straightforward.

One person can manage the product's installation phase.

The solution is a SaaS tool, so there is no maintenance required from the user's end.

The solution can be deployed in half an hour.

The tool is a premium product, so it is very expensive.

Cloudflare's CDN performance enhancements work in a lightning fast manner. The good thing is that there are PoPs all across the world, and I think that it is minimally required.

I saw quite a number of integration opportunities with Cloudflare. Cloudflare has a lot of capability to integrate with different tools, teams, or across on-premises or cloud networks.

I rate the tool a nine out of ten.

We launched the application on the WLP engine. Our website hosts various images, media files, and other external files. We use Cloudflare to ensure faster website delivery.

Google page scripts contribute to the size of web pages. Cloudflare optimizes these scripts and other page elements to improve performance. Techniques like minification and image compression reduce the size of assets, leading to better performance and faster user load times.

It can improve the central time, performance, and SEO schema. 

Cloudflare performs well with static content. However, there are some performance considerations when it comes to dynamic content that involves fetching data from databases or using APIs.

We are not currently using Cloudflare for an e-commerce website. Still, if we were to add an e-commerce site on a platform with region-specific pricing and content, Cloudflare's service might need improvements in handling these dynamic requirements.

I have been using Cloudflare for two years.

I rate the solution’s stability an eight out of ten.

I rate the solution’s scalability an eight out of ten.

The initial setup is easy.

The tool's pricing is moderate.

I rate the product’s pricing a five out of ten, where one is cheap, and ten is expensive.

I recommend the solution.

Overall, I rate the solution a six out of ten.

Hybrid Cloud

Cloudflare is typically a firewall. There are several editions available, such as the free edition.

Cloudflare offers CDN and DDoS protection. We have the front end, API, and database in how you structure applications.

The pricing could be improved.

I have been using Cloudflare for one year.

The product is stable.

I rate the solution’s stability an eight out of ten.

The solution’s scalability is good.

I rate the solution’s scalability an eight out of ten.

We never need to contact customer service.

The initial setup is straightforward and takes a few hours. One person can do that.

​I did the deployment myself as a solution architect.

You might be on the free edition, depending on your chosen edition. With the free edition, you receive the top ten protection services.

If Microsoft offered something similar to Cloudflare at the same price, it would be much better because you're already on Azure utilizing resources for CI/CD and transitioning to Cloudflare. From the most basic functionalities to the highest level, they are all awesome if you prevent unauthorized access to your website data through penetration testing.

Overall, I rate the solution a nine out of ten.

Public Cloud

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Cloudflare serves as both a Content Delivery Network and a security system. When integrated into the software, it optimizes content loading speeds, ensuring users access content swiftly. Additionally, Cloudflare safeguards websites from various cyber threats, providing security. 

DDoS attacks target unprotected machines. Cloudflare detects and stops these attacks using internal systems. It identifies incoming DDoS attacks, issuing challenges or blocking them immediately.

In Cloudflare, numerous features cater to web security needs. Conducting thorough research on your company's operations is crucial for configuring VAS. This involves determining which requests to whitelist, challenge, or block. Additionally, Cloudflare offers rate-limiting capabilities for endpoints. You can set limits to the number of requests, preventing overload situations. Another valuable feature is the ability to implement geoblocking using IDS rules.

When a user accesses the website, Cloudflare's CDN system checks for static content such as JavaScript files, CSS, and HTML. It then caches this static content on its CDN servers across approximately 140 data centers worldwide. When subsequent users request the same content, Cloudflare serves it from the nearest data center, improving performance.

Cloudflare's impact on SEO rankings and website visibility is notable. Collaborating with the business team to optimize website loading speed can benefit SEO.

We're facing challenges due to an upgrade in the machine learning model. The problem arises from some users abusing the APIs, resulting in an influx of suspicious traffic. Cloudflare's learning model mistakenly identifies this traffic as human. Consequently, it assigns it a higher trust score, akin to legitimate human traffic, causing complications in our architecture. Previously, such traffic would have been categorized as suspicious, enabling us to apply appropriate blocking rules. However, we encounter difficulties distinguishing between genuine and suspicious traffic with the new categorization. Despite these challenges, overall, Cloudflare remains the preferred solution compared to Azure, AWS CloudFront, and Google Cloud Armor.

I have been using the product for five years. 

I rate the solution's stability a ten out of ten. 

I rate the product's scalability an eight out of ten. 

The tool's support takes at least one hour to respond. 

Neutral

I rate the tool's ease of deployment a ten out of ten. It's very quick. Deployment time largely depends on how we configure it, whether done through coding or the UI. For a single-user setup, it's straightforward. However, for more complex configurations with multiple use cases, it can vary. However, setting up a single zone for production load typically takes less than an hour.

The product's pricing is cheap. 

Our clients include larger companies such as one that sells automobile parts globally, another that deals with banks and financial institutions, etc. It is mostly recommended for enterprises. 

I highly recommend Cloudflare as a superior solution compared to others in the market. It offers coverage for various use cases, including SaaS products, web application security, and Content Delivery Network systems. Additionally, Cloudflare provides features like the Magic Transit system, which helps control internal traffic.

I rate it a ten out of ten. 

Public Cloud

I had one design that I did, and it was related to Cloudflare API Gateway. Anything that comes in the front-end URL was basically something to deal with Cloudflare API gateway. Based on separations required in Cloudflare DNS, I set the traffic manager and then manage areas, like configuration, DDoS, and all such related areas. The aforementioned area helps manage the traffic that comes in, the load of the application, how you want to secure access and authentication, and then have the authorization.

In Cloudflare DNS, I use all the service modules the tool offers. The use cases attached to the solution can be related to areas like performance checks, protection, security modules, scalability, and allocation frequency of checking DNS.

The most valuable features of the solution are performance and security.

Cloudflare DNS is still a new tool in the market. I haven't come across any issues with the product. I did two designs with the help of Apigee and Cloudflare. I had done one design with the help of Apigee, while the other one was done with Cloudflare. In a lot of organizations, when it comes to the area of design, companies don't understand the broader perspective of what I try to do, how I try to do it or try to understand the right configuration needed. Areas like how assessment, discovery, and payload are dealt with and how it all comes into your organization can be considered when trying to make suggestions to Cloudflare for improvements. The improvements to be made in the tool can be based on your thought process instead of trying to bring up something that is over-prescribed or over-allocated by others, which won't make sense. Based on the functional requirements of every user of the tool, improvements need to be made to the product.

I have experience with Cloudflare DNS.

Initially, I used to use Apigee. Cloudflare DNS was chosen since management made a business decision to deal with the security requirements. Cloudflare DNS has a lot of different compliances and regulations, and related areas, like authentication and authorization, are introduced in the tool. Things change constantly in the product.

When it comes to the product's initial setup phase, I have dealt with a lot of complexity when it comes to different applications, especially with the ones where I had to deal with AWS. Users need to bundle their applications, especially when there are critical applications, which may range from platinum, gold, silver, or bronze applications. Users need a landing zone, and they need to put everything in one particular landing zone, making it one of the Year's good use cases of the product to which a lot of people don't pay much attention; because of this, I feel it is my vision related to the product. I feel the companies need to see what the product can offer rather than just using the tool straight out of the box.

In every organization, there is a security component involved, and as long as the tool meets the requirements of the security layers in an environment, the product's setup phase is somewhat straightforward, but I am sure you could do a lot of different stuff with the tool. I don't think the setup process is complex, considering just a single source when it comes to the product, which revolves around the area of security. Based on the workload, users can make the setup process complex. I don't like straightforward processes, especially when dealing with critical applications that need to be designed in a particular way and could be totally different from the other applications in an environment. I am the type of person who likes to make the setup process more complicated and unique. When it comes to the setup process, users can choose different avenues to ensure that the resource separation is consistent in the setup phase.

Cloudflare is designed to offer API Gateway, Traffic Acceleration, and DNS. Based on your pages and URL performance, Apigee is a solution you can use, and you could tie that in either AWS, Google, or Azure, or if you are making a SaaS application going through a front-end web component and have a pass-through gateway.

Cloudflare DNS is a pretty solid product as it is not tied to any cloud environment.

I rate the overall tool around seven or eight out of ten.