Item: Cloudflare
Rating: 10
Author: Rico Pagliuca

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Ease of use, affordability, security, performance: pick four.

Started using Cloudflare for web performance, security improvements, and DDoS protection. Have since used its incredibly flexible Workers platform [the web's ultimate Swiss Army knife], at-cost domain name registration, 1.1.1.1 and WARP, and am now implementing my first enterprise Magic-WAN and Zero Trust rollout.

Pros and Cons

Products adapt to shifting needs of the web [and internet]; keep your biz safe.
Unparalleled security and internet engineering expertise; keep your bits safe.
Plurality of presence points nearer to end users; shift your bits fast

Newer features sometimes launch with scant documentation or support [c.f. recent workers AI]
Centralization is a worry
They could improve their marketing or product integration; they offer SO much it's sometimes hard to parse

Return on Investment

We're only just implementing the Magic-WAN and Magic Firewall but they're going to save us inordinate amounts of time by saving us going through a slow, ineffective, and insufficiently urgent MSP support process.

Onboarding

Onboarding is ongoing and so far smooth. The process is clear, the documentation and communication from Cloudflare has been excellent [our MSP we're leaving on the other hand....]. Our company's needs are relatively straightforward and noncomplex so not much of a hard test on that front.

Support Rating

Key Insights

Do you think Cloudflare delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with Cloudflare's feature set?

Yes

Did Cloudflare live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of Cloudflare go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy Cloudflare again?

Yes

Other Software Used

Atlassian Confluence, Microsoft 365, Zendesk Support Suite, monday.com

Likelihood to Recommend

I asked my current boss if he'd heard of Cloudflare on day one at my current role. We're now implementing Magic-WAN and Magic Firewall as a replacement to our MSP-managed Fortinet solution [keeping hardware in place, but massively upgrading our control plane with Cloudflare's easy, optimized interface].

Where is it well suited? Any place you need peace of mind as to security, assurances about performance, and where ease of use is appreciated [your CCIEs may not appreciate Cloudflare but your IT staff writ large will, as will users who get faster help].

Usability Pros and Cons

Pros	Cons
Like to use Relatively simple Easy to use Technical support not required Consistent Quick to learn Convenient Feel confident using Familiar	None

Easy Tasks

DNS Zone management
Firewall rules
Analytics

Difficult Tasks

Email not yet fully integrated
Zaraz

Usability

Clearly layed out and snappy, responsive interface make managing resources a breeze

Cloudflare provides the best value for spend in multiple challenging areas of IT.

Overall Satisfaction with Cloudflare