We just got word that the Wall Street Journal named CloudFlare the Most Innovative Network & Internet Technology Company of 2011. The WSJ received more than 600 entries from companies in 31 countries around the world. Here's the blurb about CloudFlare that will appear in tomorrow's edition of the WSJ:
Network and Internet TechnologiesCloudFlare Inc. of San Francisco earned top honors in this category with a service that helps secure and speed up the performance of websites.
CloudFlare sits between a website's hosting service and a visitor's computer, sending traffic through its own network of data centers around the globe. Its security feature automatically detects threats from excessive spam, surveillance from malicious programs known as "bots" and denial-of-service attacks; all sites that use CloudFlare are then protected if the threat reappears.
Threat-detection systems can slow down Internet page loading because they add an extra layer between a website and its visitors. CloudFlare's developers, however, refined the code running its systems so that most pages load as much as 40% faster.
The LulzSec hacker group, which used CloudFlare's service to protect a website where it boasted of its exploits, praised CloudFlare after the service successfully fended off a barrage of attacks designed to bring down the site.
You can read the full story about the award and other winners on the WSJ's website.