Quite the month for NET. I know October’s not over yet, but thought I would post this a little early…
NET – Cloudflare kicked off October with a slew of releases in conjunction with its Birthday Week 2020. The party included a Launch Day video with industry experts sharing insights into many of the new offerings (https://cloudflare.tv/event/6TMmcBUtpEu7nbuVwr5qqz). Most were developer tools integrating with Cloudflare’s Workers platform, including:
-
a scheduling product which would let developers route workflows to quiet or underutilized machines (https://blog.cloudflare.com/introducing-cron-triggers-for-cl…
-
enhancements to NET’s serverless storage features (https://blog.cloudflare.com/introducing-workers-durable-obje…),
-
a free web analytics module with enhanced privacy (https://blog.cloudflare.com/free-privacy-first-analytics-for…
-
a collaboration with Google Chrome to help website owner analyze load times, responsiveness and visual stability (https://blog.cloudflare.com/start-measuring-web-vitals-with-…
-
additional analytics tools for examining “the mind-boggling, ever-increasing number of events…logged by Cloudflare products every day” (https://blog.cloudflare.com/explaining-cloudflares-abr-analy…
-
Cloudflare Radar for real-time visibility into internet traffic and security trends (https://blog.cloudflare.com/introducing-cloudflare-radar/);
-
API Shield to provide encryption for mobile applications and IoT device traffic (https://blog.cloudflare.com/introducing-api-shield/);
-
Automatic Platform Optimization to let websites created with WordPress use Cloudflare’s edge compute capabilities to boost site performance (https://blog.cloudflare.com/automatic-platform-optimizations…
-
Expanding its Access offering to provide service to SaaS apps (https://blog.cloudflare.com/cloudflare-access-for-saas/).
As if that wasn’t enough, NET’s subsequent Zero Trust Week proved an even bigger event. The major news here was the unveiling of Cloudflare One, “a platform to connect and secure companies and remote teams anywhere, on any device” (https://cloudflare.net/news/news-details/2020/Cloudflare-Ann…). This Zero Trust offering enables fast and safe connections from anywhere in the world without exposing users to the public internet. It makes personal devices safe for business in any environment with any cloud provider. This release was paired with several partnership announcements, including CrowdStrike, VMware Carbon Black, SentinelOne and Tanium (https://blog.cloudflare.com/introducing-cloudflare-one/). From a technical standpoint, this suggests Cloudflare One should integrate seamlessly with several best-in-class partner offerings. From a story standpoint, such an impressive list of initial collaborators gives NET instant street cred in the security realm. One particular Street seemed especially smitten, immediately pushing the shares up 20%+ on the news. Make no mistake, this new security layer is a major addition to Cloudflare’s product line. Some key features include:
-
Cloudflare Gateway, which creates a fully secure gateway inspecting all internet traffic for incoming threats (https://blog.cloudflare.com/gateway-swg/). Think of it as a cloud-based solution replacing traditionally clumsy VPN’s for secure access from remote locations (I think I have that right).
-
Cloudflare One Intel, which streamlines security by analyzing data across Cloudflare’s entire network to create actionable insights for keeping users secure (https://blog.cloudflare.com/cloudflare-one-intel/).
-
Isolated Browsing, which is currently in beta. This feature allows browsers to operate on the edge in the safety of a Cloudflare data center rather than on the end user’s machine (https://blog.cloudflare.com/browser-beta/). This could solve a major pain point for companies with remote employees who need to safely access the internet.
-
Magic Firewall, a network-level firewall securing enterprise customers through Cloudflare’s services (https://blog.cloudflare.com/introducing-magic-firewall/). This feature works with Cloudflare One to protect remote users, branch offices, data centers and cloud infrastructure under one roof.
And finally:
- Intrusion Detection System, a product to monitor entire networks and alert users to suspected attacks (https://blog.cloudflare.com/one-more-zero-trust-thing-cloudf…). The feature works on all traffic in both directions regardless of whether it came from outside or inside your network.
Phew! That’s an awful lot to process. All I can say is, “Wow.” When Cloudflare said it was rolling out the red carpet for its 10th anniversary, it wasn’t kidding. Further details on all the above and more can be found on the company blog (https://blog.cloudflare.com/tag/product-news/). Cloudflare has consistently emphasized its drive to be developer-centric and customer-driven. These enhancements suggest NET has very much put its R&D money where its mouth is. The company exits October with tremendous business momentum, and I am very much looking forward to hearing what management has to say when NET reports November 5. My current trust is greater than zero the news could be good.