Cloudflare is a company founded in 2009 that offers a variety of services related to website security, performance, and availability.
It acts as an intermediary between website visitors and the server where the website is hosted. Through its global network of strategically distributed servers, Cloudflare provides a range of key benefits for website owners and online businesses.
What is Cloudflare used for?
Cloudflare offers a wide range of services designed to enhance website security and performance. Here are some of the most common uses of Cloudflare:
- DDoS Attack Protection: Cloudflare is known for its ability to mitigate Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks. Its global network can filter and block malicious traffic before it reaches your server, keeping your website online and accessible even during cyberattacks.
- Content Delivery Network (CDN): Cloudflare operates a CDN that caches your website’s content on servers distributed worldwide. This reduces the load on your main server and speeds up content delivery to visitors, significantly improving page load times.
- SSL (Secure Sockets Layer): Cloudflare provides free and managed SSL certificates, allowing you to enable HTTPS on your website for secure connections at no additional cost. This is essential for visitor trust and SEO.
- Image and Resource Optimization: Cloudflare can automatically optimize images and other resources on your website, reducing bandwidth consumption and improving page loading performance.
- Web Application Firewall (WAF): It offers a web application firewall that helps protect your website against common security threats, such as SQL injections and cross-site scripting (XSS) attacks.
- Analytics and Statistics: Cloudflare provides detailed insights into your website’s traffic, allowing you to track visits and security threats.
- Global Load Balancer: Cloudflare can distribute traffic across multiple servers, enhancing the availability and performance of your website.
