{"id":633,"date":"2019-08-02T11:41:43","date_gmt":"2019-08-02T10:41:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.easydeploy.io\/blog\/?p=633"},"modified":"2019-08-02T11:48:59","modified_gmt":"2019-08-02T10:48:59","slug":"cloudflare-cdn-setup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.easydeploy.io\/blog\/cloudflare-cdn-setup\/","title":{"rendered":"My Experience on Setting up Cloudflare CDN"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cloudflare<\/a> is one of the most popular Content Delivery Network (CDN) services available in the market. Prior to Cloudflare, we were using Amazon CloudFront CDN for our websites. However, we found the pricing model of CloudFront expensive and not suitable for our client\u2019s websites. My intent here is not to mention the cons of CloudFront (as it has some advantages which other services don\u2019t have) but to share my experience of setting up Cloudflare CDN.<\/span><\/p>\n

How does Cloudflare CDN Work?<\/h2>\n

Content Delivery Network is a group of servers which integrates together in order to provide the fast delivery of the internet content. Let\u2019s see how and why CDN is important for the fast delivery of the content.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Earlier, to access a domain, the request from the client machine was directed to the server directly that was hosting the domain. Usually, there would be some delay to serve the request (the delay depends upon the geographical location between the Server and the Client).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Nowadays, due to the tangential increase in the <\/span>number of users<\/b> the server machine will not be able to process each and every request. If there are a large number of users it will take more time to serve the request and there is more probability of <\/span>server crash.<\/b><\/p>\n

So, in order to avoid this, we are going to set up a <\/span>Cloudflare account<\/b> with <\/span>CDN<\/b> which is going to be in between the client and the server. The below diagram shows the exact function of Cloudflare CDN:<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Cloudflare

Image Credit: https:\/\/support.cloudflare.com\/hc\/en-us\/articles\/205177068-How-does-Cloudflare-work-<\/p><\/div>\n

Once a Cloudflare account is set up, we move to implement the <\/span>CDN service <\/b>between the<\/span> Client <\/b>and the<\/span> Server<\/b> which will <\/span>cache the static content<\/b> of our domain. Also, it will <\/span>serve the client request<\/b> so that the contents will be <\/span>delivered fast<\/b> with <\/span>reduced payload<\/b> to the server.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Cloudflare CDN service will download the <\/span>Static contents<\/b> of the website and it will be served from its server (i.e CDN Server) to the Client with enhanced <\/span>security features<\/b>. It will <\/span>replicate our content<\/b> to its <\/span>data centers<\/b> so our content will be delivered to the client in a hassle-free manner. As of now, Cloudflare has <\/span>180 data centers<\/b> distributed around the world. The request by the client is served by the <\/span>nearest geographically<\/b> located data center.<\/span><\/p>\n

Cloudflare also offers us with <\/span>free DNS service<\/b> so that we can host our domain after purchasing the domain from the domain registrars, it offers us with <\/span>free SSL certificates<\/b> so that our domain will be safe and the client data will be secured.<\/span><\/p>\n

Cloudflare account offers us four plans such as <\/span>Free<\/b>, <\/span>Pro,<\/b> Business,<\/b> and <\/span>Enterprise edition<\/b>. The free version is suited for small domains and the Pro version is for professional websites and blogs which require basic security and performance. The business plan is for small e-commerce websites with prioritized email support and the Enterprise plan is for companies requiring enterprise-grade security with 24\/7 Phone, Email, Chat support and guaranteed uptime.<\/span><\/p>\n

Advantages of Cloudflare<\/h4>\n