[TechSparks 2020] How Cloudflare is leading digital transformation without compromising on security and performance

COVID-19 has transformed the way businesses and enterprises function across the world. The pandemic has been a wake-up call for businesses to accelerate digital transformation.

But how have these transformations been happening? Is it at the cost of security or by compromising on performance and reliability?

Addressing the audience virtually at YourStory’s flagship event TechSparks 2020, Samuel Sathyajith, Head of India and SAARC, at web infrastructure and website security company Cloudflare, spoke about how organisations can be safe and secure and, at the same time, be fast and reliable with Cloudflare.

Samuel said, “The world around us is changing more rapidly than we can anticipate. Digital transformation is helping organisations create competitive differentiators, which give them an advantage over the competition.”

Samuel, who has 24 years of experience in the networking and IT security industry, was country manager for Arbor Networks before he joined Cloudflare, and said the old model of the corporate network has been made obsolete by mobile SaaS, and the public cloud.

“The events of 2020 have only accelerated the need for a new model. Network, as a service with zero trust networking, is the future, and we are proud to be enabling that future with Cloudflare,” he said.

Digital business transformation has, in fact, reversed the network and security architecture. It has shifted the focus from the data centre to the user; the focus is now on the identity of the user or the device, not the data centre.

Today, enterprises need a unified cloud platform with a single control plane, which can provide network connectivity and ensure security, with enhanced user experience.

Cloudflare’s unique platform aims to deliver security and performance on a ubiquitous cloud network, which means that it is closer to the origin of service. It claims to improve network performance and security, while reducing cost and complexity.

As a universal proxy, Cloudflare One sits between users and the resources they access, securing and filtering traffic in both directions.

“Whether it is filtering bots, DDoS attacks, attempting to harm any web applications or a volumetric attack, bringing down the entire network or an outbound traffic from a user or a mobile device or a mobile user accessing an application - in your data centre or as SaaS applications from a public WiFi network - origin to the eyeballs are served by Cloudflare Edge that accelerates traffic but also secures, filters, and delivers it efficiently to its destination,” he said. 

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The reverse also holds true. Resources return traffic back to the users and to the networks. 

Samuel said the added security never compromises on performance. “As we optimise the flows of data, leveraging our global network scale and intelligence, we deliver security with enhanced performance.” 

Focussing on three key pillars – safer internet, faster internet and to make it more efficient and reliable – Cloudflare now has a global network of more than 200 cities across the world, with over 25 million internet properties and more than three million customers.

Samuel said Cloudflare has a network capacity of 42 terabytes and the company had been blocking an average of more than 72 billion cyber threats, every single day.

TechSparks - YourStory's annual flagship event - has been India's largest and most important technology, innovation, and entrepreneurship summit for over a decade, bringing together entrepreneurs, policymakers, technologists, investors, mentors, and business leaders for stories, conversations, collaborations, and connections that matter. As TechSparks 2020 goes all virtual and global in its 11th edition, we want to thank you for the tremendous support we've received from all of you throughout our journey and give a huge shoutout to our sponsors of TechSparks 2020.