What is the Cloudflare CDN?
The Cloudflare content distribution network is the most popular CDN in the world. It is currently used by tens of millions of websites.
In order to understand how Cloudflare works, it's necessary to look at how content loads on the web.
When visiting a website without Cloudflare, a visitor’s request leads to the loading of content from the server where the site is stored.
If there are too many visitor requests sent to the server at the same time, the server may be overloaded. As a result, the website may become slow or dysfunctional.
This is something you will obviously want to avoid. That is why Cloudflare has developed a solution for this.
Cloudflare has placed its extensive worldwide network of servers as an intermediary between the site and the web server. Visitors to the site no longer connect directly to the server, but to the Cloudflare network which has already stored the content of the site.
It is this network that loads the content via a chosen server depending on the location of the visitor. The CDN always chooses the closest server. By doing this, Cloudflare relieves servers and ensures that visitors can see the requested content faster.
The advantage of a CDN is that this feature allows the visitor to communicate with the nearest Cloudflare server. And Cloudlfare offers servers in nearly 100 countries, ensuring fast loading of websites anywhere in the world. This is therefore an essential element for sites with an international audience.
Cloudflare’s CDN offers even more benefits. It includes an integrated cache module. This caching module allows all visited pages not to be loaded by the server for each visitor.
With Cloudflare, you have maximum control over your cache. You decide which pages should be cached, you can create special rules and define for how long different contents should be cached.
How does Cloudflare work?
In order to understand how Cloudflare works, it's necessary to look at how content loads on the web.
When visiting a website without Cloudflare, a visitor’s request leads to the loading of content from the server where the site is stored.
If there are too many visitor requests sent to the server at the same time, the server may be overloaded. As a result, the website may become slow or dysfunctional.
This is something you will obviously want to avoid. That is why Cloudflare has developed a solution for this.
Cloudflare has placed its extensive worldwide network of servers as an intermediary between the site and the web server. Visitors to the site no longer connect directly to the server, but to the Cloudflare network which has already stored the content of the site.
It is this network that loads the content via a chosen server depending on the location of the visitor. The CDN always chooses the closest server. By doing this, Cloudflare relieves servers and ensures that visitors can see the requested content faster.
CDN Cloudflare?
The advantage of a CDN is that this feature allows the visitor to communicate with the nearest Cloudflare server. And Cloudlfare offers servers in nearly 100 countries, ensuring fast loading of websites anywhere in the world. This is therefore an essential element for sites with an international audience.
Cloudflare’s CDN offers even more benefits. It includes an integrated cache module. This caching module allows all visited pages not to be loaded by the server for each visitor.
With Cloudflare, you have maximum control over your cache. You decide which pages should be cached, you can create special rules and define for how long different contents should be cached.
Updated on: 20/02/2023
Thank you!