Mike Genstil

Author Archives: Mike Genstil

IBM Cloud Internet Services protects any cloud – now with Cloudflare Spectrum and Workers

At Cloudflare, we have an ambitious mission of helping to build a better Internet. Partnerships are a core part of how we achieve this mission. Last year we joined forces with IBM. Their expertise and deep relationships with the world's largest organizations are highly complementary with Cloudflare's cloud-native, API-first architecture that provides superior security, performance, and availability for Internet-facing workloads.  Our shared goal of enabling and supporting a hybrid and multi-cloud world is becoming a greater component of our combined message to the market.

As we prepare for the IBM Think customer conference in San Francisco this week, the Cloudflare team is excited about the opportunities ahead. We closed 2018 with momentum, bringing several of the world’s leading brands onto the Cloud Internet Services (CIS) platform in 2018. Customers have used CIS for several purposes, including:

  • The CIS Global Load Balancer provides high availability across IBM Cloud regions for customers in Europe, North America, and Latin America
  • CIS caching capabilities have ensured availability and performance for world spectator events with high traffic spikes
  • The CIS authoritative DNS delivers greater availability and performance for Internet-facing workloads supporting thousands of developers

At Think, please visit Cloudflare at our booth (#602). In addition, Continue reading

IBM Cloud, Now Powered by Cloudflare

IBM Cloud, Now Powered by Cloudflare

IBM Cloud, Now Powered by Cloudflare

A Tale of Two New Relationships

Late last spring, we were seeking to expand our connections inside of IBM. IBM had first become a direct Cloudflare customer in 2016, when its X-force Exchange business selected Cloudflare, instead of traditional scrubbing center solutions, for DDoS protection, WAF, and Load Balancing. We had friendly relationships with several people inside of IBM’s Softlayer business. We learned that the IBM “Networking Tribe” was evaluating various solutions to fill product gaps that their cloud customers were experiencing for DDoS, DNS, WAF, and load balancing.

In trying to engage with the people leading the effort, I made a casual phone call late on a Friday afternoon to one of the IBMers based in Raleigh, NC. When he understood that I was from Cloudflare, he replied, “Oh, I know Cloudflare. You guys do DDoS protection, right?” I replied, “Well, yes, we do offer DDoS protection, but we also offer a number of other security and performance services.” He indicated that he would be in the Bay Area two weeks later, and that he would bring his team to our office if we could make the time.

Also late last spring, my wife delivered our baby Continue reading