The TOS clause, for reference: https://www.cloudflare.com/terms/#:~:text=(f)%20perform%20or... (ctrl-f benchmark )
The Cloudflare terms prohibit benchmarking without their explicit permission.
Am I the only having cognitive dissonance here? I was confused how they complained about not being able to perform benchmarks but then… ran a benchmark? There must be some distinction here that I’m missing
However, I see that the TOS says you may not "perform or publish" benchmarks. Seems this still violates the "or publish" part, even if Fastly avoided doing the performing. What would be the point of forbidding publishing if it is already forbidden to perform said benchmarks in the first place? The TOS seems to also forbid publishing on the benchmark even when someone else performs the Fastly part of the benchmark.
Edit: It must be the TOS doesn't apply if you don't use the service.
From "Cloudflare Self-Serve Subscription Agreement" https://www.cloudflare.com/terms/ , "2.2 Restrictions. Unless otherwise expressly permitted in writing by Cloudflare, you will not and you have no right to: [...] (f) perform or publish any benchmark tests or analyses relating to the Services without Cloudflare’s written consent;"
From "ENTERPRISE SUBSCRIPTION TERMS OF SERVICE" https://www.cloudflare.com/enterpriseterms/ , "2.3. Restrictions and Acceptable Use. Customer must not: [...] (i) perform or publish any performance or benchmark tests or analyses relating to the Service, other than solely for Customer’s internal use;"
Generally, it sounds like the kind of thing that would be obvious to a lawyer (we want to prohibit random people badmouth our product, right?) but stupid to engineers.
The best outcome would be if Fastly and Cloudflare both dropped any language limiting benchmarking and sharing of results.
If they want to protect their brands, the most common sense requirement would be "We require you to tell us, within X hours after publishing, of benchmarks you're publishing and send us a copy of the article in which you published them (or link if publicly accessible)."
> So instead, we ran the same tests (echoing headers and measuring TTFB via Catchpoint) against our own platform