What's cool here - is that in order to work, you need a ton of existing infrastructure. Trying to forklift build that probably would have been a disaster. So, instead, Cloudflare bided their time building their DDOS product, which everyone wanted and was willing to pay for, which let them get operational expertise, staffing, technology, and, importantly massive internet infrastructure that had been tested the hell out of.
Then, instead of taking the big leap, they took an incremental step with WARP, (their VPN), and let consumers bang on it for a year (approx 10mm end users).
All along - they've been working towards this vision - which is really comprehensive.
Reminds me of how Amazon destroyed the original IAAS/PAAS providers Loudcloud, etc... not by trying to compete with them, but by doing 1% of what Loudcloud did, but very well, for a lot of people. Then 2%, then 4% ....
Amazing how companies that start off building small "trivial" things can use that to lever themselves up to complex and comprehensive ecosystems.
WARP, Magic Transit, CNI - all of them were precursors to this vision. Which, if they pull it off, is going to be $$$.
Then, instead of taking the big leap, they took an incremental step with WARP, (their VPN), and let consumers bang on it for a year (approx 10mm end users). All along - they've been working towards this vision - which is really comprehensive.
Reminds me of how Amazon destroyed the original IAAS/PAAS providers Loudcloud, etc... not by trying to compete with them, but by doing 1% of what Loudcloud did, but very well, for a lot of people. Then 2%, then 4% ....
Amazing how companies that start off building small "trivial" things can use that to lever themselves up to complex and comprehensive ecosystems.
WARP, Magic Transit, CNI - all of them were precursors to this vision. Which, if they pull it off, is going to be $$$.