CloudFlare goes to the cloud for security and protection

Give CloudFlare five minutes they?ll supercharge any website. The firm?s software is a cloud-based firewall that also improves load time.

It?s a protection and acceleration solution that provides real time analytics. Traffic is routed through their own intelligent global network. Each delivery of a client?s webpage is automatically optimized so visitors never have to wait for slow loading pages.

CloudFlare also works to limit bots and crawlers that can waste bandwidth and server resources. Spam and other attacks are significantly reduced and as the number of users increase, so does the system?s speed. Users are immediately notified of visitors who are infected.

The system can be used with any website, domain or platform. It quickly installs in five minutes or less and there?s no additional software or hardware is ever needed. Users must add their website to the system, which requires a small change in the domain?s DNS settings, but no other change in the site?s existing code is required. It can be turned off anytime the user desires.

The core service is free for those who want an automatic security and performance solution. Statistics are provided about all traffic to the website and it?s updated every 24 hours. The software provides tracking of outbound links and geo-location lookup of any visitor?s IP.

The Pro edition is just $20 per month for the first site, $5 for each additional site and $1 for each subdomain. It provides users with all the core services, in addition to more control over their site and advanced security. Virtual real time statistics are provided, along with advanced DNS management and offline browsing. The system is updated every 15 minutes. Traffic can be blocked by country or IP range, and it provides protection from email harvesting and hotlinking. The system analyzes resources and optimization to enable the best possible experience for visitors.

CloudFlare was co-founded by CEO Matthew Prince and officially launched on Sept. 27, 2010. The project originally began as a system to track spammers that harvested email addresses and was named Honey Pot. Thousands of websites in over 185 countries participated in testing the software. It performed as intended, and users also experienced a 30 percent increase in the speed at which websites loaded. The free and Pro edition is offered, and CloudFlare is currently at work on an Enterprise option of its software for high-traffic sites that may encounter more threats and require faster loading pages.

For more information, visit the website at http://www.cloudflare.com.

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