Cloudflare Network Interconnect
blog.cloudflare.com
blog.cloudflare.com
Since CloudFlare apparently doesn’t charge for peering, does that mean I can rent the fiber for $100/mo and get a interconnect into CloudFlare’s backbone, and gain access to publically routable unmetered 10GBe with my own IP cloaked behind CloudFlare?
Obviously at some point they have to charge for bandwidth, maybe I’m just wildly misunderstanding the offering, but where does pricing come in?
They don't charge for peering with their network but you won't get access to the Internet.
If you're already using existing Cloudflare products, this is a potential upgrade, or you can bundle it with the purchase of other Cloudflare products, but you can't get just the interconnect alone.
FTA, didn't know this... explains how they took over the world though
If they succeed in attracting a lot customers to ride on their private network across any geography, over time their network will have the same jitter performance issues like Internet. If they grow too big, then they would have effectively privatized large parts of the Internet. That cannot be good for anyone.
I've also backhauled lots of IP over the years and it can be a real pain. Fiber cuts are common, keeping redundant wave service or dark fiber drives up the cost, and in the end, its often cheaper to hand off to an IP providers meshed network, then to backhaul any distance for latency.
I don't understand the answer here, can someone explain for us non-networking folk?
How, for example, am I prevented from setting up a CDN configuration and/or EdgeWorker that talks to someone else's "private" (or non-internet routable) IP addresses? From the article it sounds like edge nodes have routeability to them, so is there some additional layer of packet encapsulation/tagging or something performed by proxy server?
The problem with all of this, regardless of whether Cloudflare is good or evil, is that it's a huge tie-in. Once companies are using some or all of Cloudflare's offerings, they're stuck. Should Cloudflare go down, there's nothing anyone can do but wait.
Also, when companies have deployed proprietary, non-standard solutions, moving will be expensive and arduous, and Cloudflare will jack up prices.
They're not becoming an ISP at all. They're becoming a service provider, sure, but of proprietary stuff intended to lock people in to using them and only them.
If they're passing traffic back and forth between the Internet and your datacenter through a direct connection you have to Cloudflare, then that doesn't seem to be very far away from CF being an ISP.
They already have the huge network, all you need is to set up a peering connection to them and have the CF enterprise plan and you can serve out traffic to the Internet via their network.
If anything, this Cloudflare Network Interconnect thing makes them less proprietary. Now you are on the same playing field as the services hosted inside their own network - you could, for example, set up your own network of datacenters and make your own CDN on top of the Cloudflare network.
Same principle applies. Lower latency if you have a direct connection. It makes sense when you send a lot of traffic between the two locations and don’t want a lot of hops.
1) It's not virtual: it's a physical interconnect between two networks.
2) It doesn't allow for public internet connectivity out. So this is basically a way for customers to connect their networks to Cloudflare's to receive the benefits of our DDoS protection, firewalls, cache pulls, etc.
But it does allow for traffic to flow back from Cloudflare to a connected network over a dedicated link (which can, and often is private).
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1477333/000119312519...
"As we continue to invest in our business, we have incurred net losses of $17.3 million, $10.7 million, and $87.2 million for 2016, 2017, and 2018, respectively. For the six months ended June 30, 2018 and 2019, our revenue increased from $87.1 million to $129.2 million, an increase of 48%, and we incurred net losses of $32.5 million and $36.8 million, respectively. "
The fact that they are injecting themselves into more and more basic internet infrastructure is genuinely scary.
Of course, for that reason it may also be uncomfortable to jump on some Cloudflare products: Presumably some prices are going to go up sooner or later.
Cloudflare is aggressively investing into growth during the 'land-grab' phase of development so that they can become one of, if not the, dominant player in regards to this kind of core Internet infrastructure. They view the 'land' of Internet infrastructure as a limited resource, and they want to own all of it.
I'm seeing a comparison to Amazon, but that doesn't make me feel better. Amazon's aggressive expansion has been a net negative for multiple segments of the market -- particularly e-books and audio books.
What makes Cloudflare's growth strategy less concerning when compared to companies like Amazon and Uber? Aren't they all still basically trying to become indispensable private monopolies within their given niches?
When you look at Sales/Marketing expenses it changes depending on your perspective (and underlying facts). It could be that they are spending ~60 million a year to get ~100 million NPV worth of customers. In that case, they're not losing money. They're making an investment that will return cash in future years. On the other hand, that 60 million could represent a bunch of discounts and incentives. Then they'd be selling $1 worth of stuff for $0.90 and once they stop doing that their market share evaporates.