CloudFlare Provides Availability, Performance, and Security

It is no secret that Liquid Web is a partner with CloudFlare, one of the largest Content Delivery Networks (CDN) on the globe. CDNs can play a huge role in the overall website, store, or application performance, especially if the intended audiences are global, or the business intends to grow from a regional to a national audience.

Additionally, as your store or application grows in popularity, a CDN can help to offset some of the performance load from your servers on to CloudFlare’s and provide an additional layer of security against attack. The more traffic your store or application brings in, the more potential for a malicious attack there will be.

Store owners and application developers may not fully realize the potential benefits a CDN may be able to have on their store or application availability, performance, or security.

Why Do I Need to Consider Using a Content Delivery Network?

Is your website, application or store having the following symptoms or requiring the following:

• Dealing with large video or photo media on your site?
• Slow page load speeds or overall slow server performance?
• Large bandwidth usage?
• Lower SEO authority on core business keywords?
• Substantial traffic to the site but lower than average conversion rates?
• Experiencing DDoS attacks or other malicious attacks resulting in website, application or store downtime?

These are telltale signs that you need to look into CloudFlare Content Delivery Networking and speak with your hosting representative on which CDN package and add-ons are correct for your website/application.

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What’s Included in the Free CloudFlare Tier?

When you activate our free CloudFlare tier, you are receiving a Global CDN, Rocket Loader, DDoS Mitigation, Shared SSL support for HTTPS sites, and Traffic Analytics. These are all necessities for your website or application in case you are to receive users from across the globe (CDN), an attack on your application (DDoS Mitigation) or want to convince your users you run a secure website (Shared SSL). Our Free CloudFlare Tier will offer all this to you with a few clicks of a button in your My.Liquidweb.com interface.

Last but not least, you’ll also receive CloudFlare RailGun product which is normally a paid service if you were to sign up with CloudFlare directly and not with LiquidWeb.

Here’s a tutorial on how to get started.

Benefits of a Modern CDN Such as CloudFlare

Let’s break down some key points on the benefits of utilizing a modern Content Delivery Network and how they can impact your website or online application:

1. Availability
2. Performance
3. Security

1. Availability to Get a CDN With Hosting

CDNs are no secret to web developers. You can sign up with just about any hosting company and obtain a CDN service from them. If you are to become a Liquid Web customer, you gain our free CloudFlare Global CDN which consists of 155 data centers around the world! There is no excuse to not have a global CDN implemented on your website.

By implementing a CDN on your website, application, or store, you are taking steps to secure your site and boost performance for your users. Take a look below on what benefits you are adding to your online presence.

2. Performance Boost to a Website Using a CDN

Obtaining a CDN for free is one thing, but know that you are doing your server a favor as you’ll gain performance by offloading content to the Content Delivery Network. You will have more CPU, RAM and disk resources to assist your core server’s stack. Additional services such as Rocket Loader and RailGun will drive further performance.

• Rocket Loader will prioritize your website’s content by deferring the loading of all Javascript until after the initial page renders. Pages that contain Javascript can dramatically increase the loading experience for your users.
• Railgun is a web proxy system that allows dynamic content for a website to be cached while also having changes show on the site instantly. If your site has a lot of visitors coming from other countries, page load times for those users will be reduced. This will also lower your bandwidth usage of your server as files will be delivered via caching.

3. Additional Security Protection From DDoS and Other Malicious Attacks

When you are caching out your media content, you are also giving your media a layer of security. This layer protects data from theft and loss but also ensures optimal CDN availability. CloudFlare can assist with fending off website attacks that can diminish or interrupt network performance. Without the security layer of a CDN, malicious attacks can have a negative effect on revenue and reputation.

Not only are you protecting yourself with CloudFlare’s security options, but you are also protecting your clients’ information you may be holding, such as sensitive data for credit card numbers, personal addresses, and other identifiable information. This is information, that if leaked out, could be devastating for your business even after an attack has occurred. Trust can be lost with your clients if they are to find there was a large compromise of their private data from your website/application.

It is important that all customers consider the higher tier security packages LiquidWeb has to offer with CloudFlare. Don’t make the mistake of having your customer’s data potentially exposed due to lack of security.

CloudFlare also offers separate packages for specific security needs, such as Liquid Web’s Web Application Firewall with the built-in ruleset powered via CloudFlare. This product will strengthen your existing sites with the following methods:

• Block visitors by IP range or country: Think of a web application firewall that operates based on a blacklist from previously known attacks. This can block visitors by IP, or country if they are repeat offenders, and filter out malicious traffic.
• Content scraping protection: CloudFlare offers rate limit requests, modification of HTML markup at regular intervals and using CAPTCHA’s for high-traffic requesters. These are all methods put into place to stop content scrapers.
• Reputation-based threat protection: IPs with poor reputations will be challenged when they attempt to visit your website. This will make it harder for repeat offenders to be able to bring harm to your site.

Customers That Can Benefit From a Content Delivery Network

Whether you are a small business running 5 to 10 websites or a massive online store selling 10k products, you need to consider integrating a CDN. With all the given above, obtaining a CDN service for free is only going to assist your business and your online user experience.

Some potential business types that will benefit from a CDN could be:

How Do I Get Started?

Here is a short tutorial on how to install CloudFlare for free on your Liquid Web account. Also, check out the different CloudFlare plans available from Liquid Web.