As the status of COVID-19 continues to impact people and businesses around the world, Cloudflare is committed to providing awareness and transparency to our customers, employees, and partners about how we are responding. We do not anticipate any significant disruptions in Cloudflare services.
Our Business Continuity Team is monitoring the situation closely and all company personnel are kept up to date via multiple internal communication channels including a live chat room. Customers and the public are encouraged to visit this blog post for the latest information.
You can check the status of our network at www.cloudflarestatus.com. For COVID-19-related questions that aren’t answered below, please contact our Customer Support Team.
Does Cloudflare have a Business Continuity Team (BCT)?
Yes, Cloudflare’s Business Continuity Team is a cross-functional, geographically diverse group dedicated to navigating through a health crisis like COVID-19 as well as a variety of other scenarios that may impact employee safety and business continuity.
What is Cloudflare’s Business Continuity Plan in the light of COVID-19?
In addition to Cloudflare’s existing Disaster Recovery Plan we have implemented the following strategies:
Daily Business Continuity Team meetings to determine if updates, changes, or communication need to be provided to customers, partners, and employees.
Global monitoring of COVID-19 related events and impact.
Tailored business continuity plans per office and function, including work from home policies and regional resources.
Can the essential aspects of the product or service, requiring employee interaction, be performed by employees working from alternate locations or at their homes?
Fortunately the nature of Cloudflare business is digital and rarely requires in-person activity. At this time we do not anticipate significant impact to products or services. Some teams are adjusting to teleworking but at this time we have not identified a service-level impact.
Which components of the product or service are reliant on employees performing a specific action vs. which ones are automated activities?
Troubleshooting and maintenance of the platform is performed by Cloudflare employees in globally dispersed locations. On-prem support is not required for the vast majority of our products and services.
Products can be used without the need for manual interaction from Cloudflare employees.
What is the response for your customer support team? Do you have call centers?
Cloudflare does not have call centers. Our support personnel will continue to provide assistance 24 hours a day to customers no matter their location as usual.
Have you implemented any travel restrictions or social distancing protocols?
Yes, Cloudflare has implemented travel restrictions to countries as recommended by government agencies. Employees are encouraged to postpone all non-essential business travel at this time including inter-office travel. We are monitoring regional guidance from health authorities and updating our requirements as needed.
Do any of Cloudflare’s vendors have any new or emerging concerns about their ability to deliver goods or services during a pandemic?
Cloudflare has taken an extra step to work with critical business partners and suppliers to ensure that there will be minimal to no impact to the business or our customers.
Are Cloudflare offices closed?
Cloudflare offices in the US, EMEA, Sydney, and Singapore are physically closed and we have moved to a full teleworking model.
In Beijing, employees have been split into two groups. Each group will be alternating between working from home and working in the office.
What are your plans to ensure minimal impact to services?
Cloudflare’s business continuity team has worked with organization leaders to prepare for the challenges of COVID-19 and many other scenarios. We are confident in our ability to limit impact to services because of our preparation.
Do you anticipate any service disruption or support by either yourself or your subcontractors due to COVID-19?
At this time we do not anticipate any service disruptions due to COVID-19. We are monitoring the situation closely and will update as information becomes available.
What happens if one of our data centers goes down? Who will remedy it? Does it require a person to be on-prem?
Due to the nature of the Anycast network, we have over 200 Points of Presence (PoPs) that manage failover traffic. Traffic would simply be rerouted to other locations. Learn about the Anycast network here: https://www.cloudflare.com/network/.
The Infrastructure and Engineering teams are working proactively to ensure that enough capacity is available at our most critical PoPs. We feel confident in our ability to service our most critical facilities with our approved partner.
Which vendor contact is responsible for communicating any disruption in their service to customers?
Our Customer Support Team is fully operational and will reach out as they would with any other outage or incident. Methods vary based on contract.
What is the communication method they will be using to inform customers of an interruption? (For example, if they would normally call your office phone, and you are working remotely, your desk phone may no longer be the best option)
You can check the status of our services at www.cloudflarestatus.com. Additionally, our Customer Support Team is fully operational and will reach out as they would with any other outage or incident. Methods vary based on contract.
Who can I reach out to for comments or concerns?
For questions not answered above, customers can reach out to our Customer Support Team via normal means.