In September 2021, we shared extensive benchmarking results of 1,000 networks all around the world. The results showed that on a range of tests (TCP connection time, time to first byte, time to last byte), and on different measures (p95, mean), Cloudflare was the fastest provider in 49% of the top 1,000 networks around the world.
Since then, we’ve expanded our testing to cover not just 1,000 but 3,000 networks, and we’ve worked to continuously improve performance, with the ultimate goal of being the fastest everywhere and an intermediate goal to grow the number of networks where we’re the fastest by at least 10% every Innovation Week. We met that goal Platform Week May 2022), and we’re carrying the work over to Cloudflare One Week (June 2022).
We’re excited to share that Cloudflare was the fastest provider in 1,290 of the top 3,000 most reported networks, up from 1,280 even one month ago during Platform Week.
Measuring what matters
To quantify global network performance, we have to get enough data from around the world, across all manner of different networks, comparing ourselves with other providers. We use Real User Measurements (RUM) to fetch a 100kB file from different providers. Users around the world report the performance of different providers.
The more users who report the data, the higher fidelity the signal is. The goal is to provide an accurate picture of where different providers are faster, and more importantly, where Cloudflare can improve. You can read more about the methodology in the original Speed Week blog post here.
Latest data on network performance
Here’s how the breakdown of the fastest networks looked during Platform Week (May 2022):
Here’s how that graph looks now during Cloudflare One Week (June 2022):
In addition to being the fastest across popular networks, Cloudflare is also committed to being the fastest provider in every country.
Here’s how the map of the fastest provider by country looked during Platform Week (May 2022):
And here’s how that map looks during Cloudflare One Week (June 2022):
Cloudflare became faster in more Eastern European countries during this time specifically.
Network performance in a Zero Trust world
A zero trust provider needs to not only secure your users on the public Internet, but it also needs to optimize the public Internet. Moving to Zero Trust doesn’t just reduce the need for corporate networks, it also allows user traffic to flow to resources more naturally.
However, given your Zero Trust provider is going to be the gatekeeper for all your users and all your applications, performance is a critical aspect to evaluate. Cloudflare is constantly improving our network to ensure that users always have the best experience, and this comes not just from routing fixes, but also through expanding peering arrangements and adding new locations.
This tireless effort helps make us faster in more networks than anyone else, and allows us to deliver all of our services with high performance that customers expect. We know many organizations are just starting their Zero Trust journey, and that a priority of that project is to improve user experience, and we’re excited to keep obsessing over the performance in our network to make sure your teams have a seamless experience in any location.
Interested in learning more about how our Zero Trust products benefit from these improvements? Check out the full roster of our announcements from Cloudflare One Week.