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Rachelwht
2021-07-01

Nice article

Cloudflare's Moat (Why It's Better Than The Big Boys)<blockquote>Cloudflare的护城河（为什么它比大公司更好）</blockquote>

Summary After my last article, I got a lot of questions about what Cloudflare's moat is. Can it fig

Cloudflare's Moat (Why It's Better Than The Big Boys)<blockquote>Cloudflare的护城河（为什么它比大公司更好）</blockquote>

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{"i18n":{"language":"zh_CN"},"data":{"magic":2,"id":158276746,"tweetId":"158276746","gmtCreate":1625153184785,"gmtModify":1633944175206,"author":{"id":3567811008638662,"idStr":"3567811008638662","authorId":3567811008638662,"authorIdStr":"3567811008638662","name":"Rachelwht","avatar":"https://static.tigerbbs.com/84de3dc6cb213c756733512bcdfc3bcc","vip":1,"userType":1,"introduction":"","boolIsFan":false,"boolIsHead":false,"crmLevel":11,"crmLevelSwitch":0,"individualDisplayBadges":[],"fanSize":4,"starInvestorFlag":false},"themes":[],"images":[],"coverImages":[],"extraTitle":"","html":"<html><head></head><body>Nice article</body></html>","htmlText":"<html><head></head><body>Nice article</body></html>","text":"Nice article","highlighted":1,"essential":1,"paper":1,"likeSize":1,"commentSize":1,"repostSize":0,"favoriteSize":0,"link":"https://laohu8.com/post/158276746","repostId":1148587912,"repostType":4,"repost":{"id":"1148587912","kind":"news","pubTimestamp":1625151495,"share":"https://www.laohu8.com/m/news/1148587912?lang=zh_CN&edition=full","pubTime":"2021-07-01 22:58","market":"us","language":"en","title":"Cloudflare's Moat (Why It's Better Than The Big Boys)<blockquote>Cloudflare的护城河（为什么它比大公司更好）</blockquote>","url":"https://stock-news.laohu8.com/highlight/detail?id=1148587912","media":"seekingalpha","summary":"Summary\n\nAfter my last article, I got a lot of questions about what Cloudflare's moat is. Can it fig","content":"Summary<blockquote>总结</blockquote> <ul> <li>After my last article, I got a lot of questions about what Cloudflare's moat is. Can it fight off the giants in this space: Amazon, Microsoft, Akamai?</li> <li>Cloudflare has a Software-Defined-Networking or SDN, which gives it a much more flexible and programmable network.</li> <li>With the Internet of Things about to explode, a huge percentage of data will never leave the edge cloud.</li> </ul> <img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/9052b8744f400e2a1fcd5e28c02a9fd0\" tg-width=\"1536\" tg-height=\"1025\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\">Anthony Harvey/Getty Images Entertainment<blockquote><ul><li>在我的上一篇文章之后，我收到了很多关于Cloudflare护城河是什么的问题。它能打败这个领域的巨头：亚马逊、微软、Akamai吗？</li><li>Cloudflare有一个软件定义的网络或SDN，这为它提供了一个更加灵活和可编程的网络。</li><li>随着物联网即将爆发，很大一部分数据将永远不会离开边缘云。</li></ul>安东尼·哈维/盖蒂图片社</blockquote> Introduction<blockquote>介绍</blockquote> Almost two months ago,I published an article&nbsp;about Cloudflare (NET), in which I argued that Cloudflare was worth its premium price. The stock is up about 30% since then but for me, as a long-term investor, the story hasn't changed, so that's not the reason why I write this article.<blockquote>大约两个月前，我发表了一篇关于Cloudflare(NET)的文章，其中我认为Cloudflare值得其溢价。自那以后，该股上涨了约30%，但对我来说，作为一名长期投资者，情况并没有改变，所以这不是我写这篇文章的原因。</blockquote> After that article, I got a lot of questions about the moat of Cloudflare and a lot of people seem to think that Cloudflare can be crushed by the big players in this field. And of course, with giants like Amazon (AMZN), Google (GOOG) (GOOGL), Microsoft (MSFT) and Akamai (AKAM) in this industry, I understand the question.<blockquote>在那篇文章之后，我收到了很多关于Cloudflare护城河的问题，很多人似乎认为Cloudflare可以被该领域的大玩家压垮。当然，这个行业有亚马逊（AMZN）、谷歌（GOOG）（GOOGL）、微软（MSFT）和Akamai（AKAM）等巨头，我理解这个问题。</blockquote> But Cloudflare is much more than just a CDN network. After 25 years, CDN has become a commodity. Cloudflare has something special to protect it from the giants in this space, though. Of course, they will be there and they will take a certain percentage of the market, together probably a majority even, but that doesn't matter with such a huge market. After all, for the edge cloud, we are about where we were more than a decade ago for the core cloud (AWS, Azure...) and that means very early. The potential is huge.<blockquote>但是Cloudflare不仅仅是一个CDN网络。25年后，CDN已经成为一种商品。不过，Cloudflare有一些特殊的东西可以保护它免受这个领域巨头的攻击。当然，他们会在那里，他们会占据一定比例的市场，甚至可能是大多数，但对于如此巨大的市场来说，这并不重要。毕竟，对于边缘云来说，我们大约是十多年前核心云（AWS、Azure...）这意味着很早。潜力巨大。</blockquote> Before we start, just a quick thought. I think that the term 'moat' has been overused in recent years. A moat is supposed to be impenetrable and there are only very few companies who have that. Mostly they are the biggest companies in our world. So, you could argue that the title should have been Cloudflare's competitive advantage. The reason why I still used the word moat is that most people use that term.<blockquote>在我们开始之前，先想一想。我认为“护城河”这个词近年来被过度使用了。护城河应该是坚不可摧的，但只有极少数公司拥有这一点。大多数情况下，他们是我们世界上最大的公司。因此，你可能会说这个头衔应该是Cloudflare的竞争优势。我仍然使用护城河这个词的原因是大多数人都使用这个词。</blockquote> Cloudflare is developer-friendly<blockquote>Cloudflare对开发人员友好</blockquote> There are several CDN providers. Akamai is the big pure legacy player and 1,500 POPs (points-of-presence) and approximately 300,000 servers in 136 countries worldwide. If you know that Cloudflare has about 200 POPs, you could think that there is no way that it can fight Akamai.<blockquote>有几个CDN提供商。Akamai是一家大型纯传统企业，在全球136个国家/地区拥有1,500个POP（接入点）和大约300,000台服务器。如果您知道Cloudflare有大约200个POP，您可能会认为它不可能与Akamai竞争。</blockquote> But POPs and CDN in general are commodities, cutting-edge technology and that's where Cloudflare is in a league of its own.<blockquote>但总的来说，POPs和CDN都是商品、尖端技术，这就是Cloudflare独树一帜的地方。</blockquote> The difference between Cloudflare and the rest of the CDNs is that Cloudflare is really developer-focused. I know, you hear that a lot, but I will try to explain what that means in the context of Cloudflare and CDNs. We have to become a bit technical but I will try to simplify without dumbing it down.<blockquote>Cloudflare与其他CDN的区别在于Cloudflare真正以开发人员为中心。我知道，您经常听到这句话，但我将尝试在Cloudflare和CDN的上下文中解释这意味着什么。我们必须变得有点技术性，但我会尽量简化而不降低它。</blockquote> SDN<blockquote>SDN</blockquote> First, you have to understand what SDN means. It stands for software-defined networking and it is a way in which you can manage your network. SDN improves both the network performance as the monitoring.<blockquote>首先，你要明白SDN是什么意思。它代表软件定义的网络，是一种管理网络的方式。SDN提高了网络性能和监控能力。</blockquote> An SDN architecture separates the network control from the hardware infrastructure. In that way, it's easier to control the whole network. This differs from the older network structure, which is hierarchical. This image shows the difference between the SDN and hierarchical structure.<blockquote>SDN架构将网络控制与硬件基础设施分开。那样的话，更容易控制整个网络。这与旧的网络结构不同，旧的网络结构是分层的。此图显示了SDN和分层结构之间的区别。</blockquote> <img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/420d12a5a54ff415c3572ebeedb84abe\" tg-width=\"850\" tg-height=\"545\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\"><blockquote></blockquote> As you can see, the forward layer (which handles the traffic) and the control layers are separated in an SDN structure.<blockquote>如您所见，转发层（处理流量）和控制层在SDN结构中是分开的。</blockquote> Because there's so much more data being used in our society, because networks become more and more complex, and because we all expect networks to perform better, a hierarchical structure is becoming more and more something of the past.<blockquote>因为在我们的社会中有如此多的数据被使用，因为网络变得越来越复杂，因为我们都期望网络表现得更好，分层结构越来越成为过去。</blockquote> SDNs give much more flexibility and control because you can adapt centrally. This means that the whole network becomes directly programmable, instead of all the separate parts individually. This saves a lot of time, of course, and makes sure that updates can be more easily deployed. It makes SDN somewhat similar to cloud computing.<blockquote>SDN提供了更大的灵活性和控制力，因为您可以集中适应。这意味着整个网络变得可直接编程，而不是所有单独的部分单独编程。当然，这节省了大量时间，并确保更新可以更容易地部署。它使得SDN有些类似于云计算。</blockquote> Cloudflare itself&nbsp;gives a great analogy between SDN and hierarchical networking:<blockquote>Cloudflare本身对SDN和分层网络进行了很好的类比：</blockquote> Think of the difference between typing an essay on a typewriter and typing it in a word processing application: Any changes to the typewritten essay mean it has to be retyped, while a word processing document can be revised endlessly. Similarly, SDN technology lets admins reconfigure their networks from a computer, instead of continually plugging and unplugging cables and devices. Edge computing<blockquote>想想在打字机上打字和在文字处理应用程序中打字之间的区别：对打字文章的任何更改都意味着必须重新打字，而文字处理文档可以无休止地修改。同样，SDN技术允许管理员从计算机重新配置他们的网络，而不是不断地插拔电缆和设备。边缘计算</blockquote> The difference between Cloudflare and the competition is in how it has constructed the architecture of its POPs (points of presence, the servers that are distributed around the world) and especially the networks in between those POPs. Cloudflare has a structure that makes the network between its POPs programmable too, so-called edge computing.<blockquote>Cloudflare与竞争对手的区别在于它如何构建其POP（存在点，分布在世界各地的服务器）的架构，尤其是这些POP之间的网络。Cloudflare的结构使其POP之间的网络也可编程，即所谓的边缘计算。</blockquote> Edge computing is especially important for the Internet of Things or IoT. These devices generate a huge amount of data. Cloud computing as we know it works great but not for the IoT data flood. IoT devices are easily hackable for example, but there are also performance problems.<blockquote>边缘计算对于物联网或IoT尤为重要。这些设备会产生大量的数据。我们所知的云计算非常有效，但不适用于物联网数据洪流。例如，物联网设备很容易被黑客攻击，但也存在性能问题。</blockquote> Besides those problems, what do you do with the huge amount of data? One solution is to store it in huge data lakes and that's why there is so much excitement around a company like Snowflake (SNOW) for example. But edge computing is better for IoT solutions. It can handle and store the data on the device that generated it and let them interact:<blockquote>除了那些问题，你如何处理海量的数据？一种解决方案是将其存储在巨大的数据湖中，这就是为什么像Snowflake（SNOW）这样的公司如此令人兴奋。但边缘计算更适合物联网解决方案。它可以在生成数据的设备上处理和存储数据，并让它们进行交互：</blockquote> <img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/125a664a9d2e846b78709093a829ffb9\" tg-width=\"1024\" tg-height=\"684\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\"><blockquote></blockquote> Cloudflare may have fewer POPs but they are built from the ground up as SDN architectures and they are much more powerful, which gives it the flexibility and customizability to have really powerful edge computing.<blockquote>Cloudflare的POP可能较少，但它们是作为SDN架构从头开始构建的，功能更加强大，这使其具有灵活性和可定制性，可以拥有真正强大的边缘计算。</blockquote> Competition from the big boys<blockquote>来自大男孩的竞争</blockquote> For the legacy players, Akamai in the first place, but also Amazon, Google, and Microsoft's it's not simple to change their whole infrastructure. Akamai, with its 1,500 POPs and 300,000 servers now has a disadvantage because of that size. It's virtually impossible to start all over again. Akamai, Microsoft, Google and Amazon are all developing their own edge computing capabilities but because of their architectural disadvantages, their edge computing won't perform like that of Cloudflare. Because of Cloudflare's SDN structure, which is much more programmable and flexible, customers have much more control over the entire network, globally, instead of the individual POPs. That's a huge competitive advantage.<blockquote>对于传统玩家来说，首先是Akamai，还有Amazon、Google和微软，改变他们的整个基础设施并不简单。Akamai拥有1,500个POP和300,000台服务器，现在由于其规模而处于劣势。几乎不可能从头再来。Akamai、微软、Google和Amazon都在开发自己的边缘计算能力，但由于它们的架构劣势，它们的边缘计算性能不会像Cloudflare那样。由于Cloudflare的SDN结构更具可编程性和灵活性，客户可以在全球范围内更好地控制整个网络，而不是单个POP。这是一个巨大的竞争优势。</blockquote> Cloudflare foresaw the SDN revolution in CDNs and that's why it has made its servers much more powerful and it needs much fewer POPs than the legacy players in this field. The POPs are much better interconnected too. Cloudflare's co-founder Lee Holloway,that tragic computer genius, has laid the foundations for Cloudflare's flexible architecture and that's why Cloudflare's network has the structure and capabilities it has now.<blockquote>Cloudflare预见到了CDN中的SDN革命，这就是为什么它使其服务器更加强大，并且比该领域的传统参与者需要更少的POP。持久性有机污染物的相互联系也更好。Cloudflare的联合创始人Lee Holloway是一位悲惨的计算机天才，他为Cloudflare的灵活架构奠定了基础，这就是Cloudflare的网络拥有现在的结构和功能的原因。</blockquote> Amazon's Jeff Bezos has been known to say: \"Your profit margin is my opportunity.\" It seems that Matthew Prince now thinks the same about Amazon's AWS and he's not afraid to show it, in this&nbsp;tweet&nbsp;for example:<blockquote>众所周知，亚马逊的杰夫·贝索斯曾说过：“你的利润率就是我的机会。”马修·普林斯(Matthew Prince)现在似乎对亚马逊的AWS也有同样的想法，而且他并不害怕表现出来，例如在这条推文中：</blockquote> <img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/9b2a749523fa2bc73eaea4a15efddc59\" tg-width=\"584\" tg-height=\"254\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\"><blockquote></blockquote> The moat and applications<blockquote>护城河和应用</blockquote> By being a programmable network, Cloudflare can make the typical extra applications of a CDN network faster and especially smarter. I understand that this is vague and that's why I will give some applications that are a consequence of this.<blockquote>作为一个可编程网络，Cloudflare可以使CDN网络的典型额外应用程序更快，尤其是更智能。我知道这是模糊的，这就是为什么我会给出一些应用程序，这是一个结果。</blockquote> <ul> <li>traffic routing: the network can automatically detect and avoid problem areas, outages, DDoS attacks, etc.</li> <li>choosing the best distribution form automatically (cloud, on-prem, multi-cloud)</li> <li>making smart routing decisions based on the content form (files, pictures, video, gaming), the location of the end-user, which device is used, etc.</li> </ul> These are just some examples. There are more and with 5G on the horizon, this will only accelerate. There are so many future-oriented solutions that need high-speed internet and big data handling. Again, a few examples.<blockquote><ul><li>流量路由：网络可以自动检测和避免问题区域、中断、DDoS攻击等。</li><li>自动选择最佳分发形式（云、本地、多云）</li><li>根据内容形式（文件、图片、视频、游戏）、最终用户的位置、使用的设备等做出智能路由决策。</li></ul>这些只是一些例子。还有更多，随着5G的到来，这只会加速。有如此多面向未来的解决方案需要高速互联网和大数据处理。再举几个例子。</blockquote> Autonomous vehicles need to decide in a fraction of a second to stop for an unforeseen maneuver from another car. Ideally, these cars can communicate with each other to avoid collisions but you don't want latency there. Traffic could be much more distributed too, in the way that data traffic is distributed, for example.<blockquote>自动驾驶汽车需要在几分之一秒内决定停下来，以应对另一辆车的不可预见的动作。理想情况下，这些汽车可以相互通信以避免碰撞，但您不希望那里有延迟。流量也可以更加分布式，例如，以数据流量的分布式方式。</blockquote> The edge could also be crucial for health devices to have constant and fast internet. If someone is monitored for heart problems and his heart fails, every second can mean the difference between life and death. Or think of autonomous robot surgery possibilities. Faster really means better and the edge is faster (and cheaper).<blockquote>这种优势对于健康设备拥有持续快速的互联网也至关重要。如果有人被监测心脏问题，他的心脏衰竭了，每一秒都可能意味着生与死的区别。或者想想自主机器人手术的可能性。更快真的意味着更好，边缘更快（也更便宜）。</blockquote> But most of all, the edge will be used for IoT. I know from somebody who works at the computer department of Coca-Cola UK for example that all of their fridges are connected to the edge cloud. They can all be controlled centrally. If one doesn't work, if the temperature of all of them has to be adapted, if one uses more electricity, this can all be seen.<blockquote>但最重要的是，边缘将用于物联网。例如，我从在可口可乐英国公司计算机部门工作的人那里了解到，他们所有的冰箱都连接到边缘云。它们都可以集中控制。如果一个不工作，如果所有的温度都要适应，如果一个用电多，这都可以看到。</blockquote> Cloudflare can easily shift strategies because of its lean and flexible underlying structure. Cloudflare opened up its network for 3rd party developers in June of 2017. This is how Matthew Prince, Cloudflare's CEO,announced&nbsp;it:<blockquote>Cloudflare可以轻松转变策略，因为它具有精益和灵活的底层结构。Cloudflare于2017年6月向第三方开发者开放了其网络。Cloudflare首席执行官Matthew Prince是这样宣布的：</blockquote> Prior to today, if you wanted to write code that took full advantage of Cloudflare's global network you needed to be a Cloudflare employee. Our team is able to run code on thousands of servers in hundreds of locations around the world and modify our customers' packets as they flow through our network in order to make their web site, application, or API faster and more secure. Today, we open that access to the rest of the world. This led to edge computing. Cloudflare already rolled out Cloudflare Workers in 2017. This is what Matthew Prince, Cloudflare's CEO,wrote about Workers a year ago:<blockquote>在今天之前，如果您想编写充分利用Cloudflare全球网络的代码，您需要成为Cloudflare员工。我们的团队能够在全球数百个地点的数千台服务器上运行代码，并在客户的数据包流经我们的网络时对其进行修改，以使其网站、应用程序或API更快、更安全。今天，我们向世界其他地方开放了这一通道。这导致了边缘计算。Cloudflare已经在2017年推出了Cloudflare Workers。这是Cloudflare首席执行官Matthew Prince一年前写的关于员工的文章：</blockquote> We announced Cloudflare Workers nearly three years ago and it's been generally available for the last two years. Over that time, we've seen hundreds of thousands of developers write tens of millions of lines of code that now run across Cloudflare's network. Just last quarter, 20,000 developers deployed for the first time a new application using Cloudflare Workers. Fastly has launched Compute@Edge recently too, its edge computing platform. An edge cloud platform exists between the IoT devices and the serversandbetween the servers themselves.<blockquote>我们在大约三年前宣布了Cloudflare Workers，它在过去两年中已经普遍可用。在那段时间里，我们看到成千上万的开发人员编写了数千万行代码，这些代码现在在Cloudflare的网络中运行。就在上个季度，20,000名开发人员首次使用Cloudflare Workers部署了新应用程序。Fastly最近也推出了其边缘计算平台Compute@Edge。物联网设备和服务器之间存在边缘云平台和在服务器之间。</blockquote> <img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/97d4327fc2095f720864a949f6cc2fc7\" tg-width=\"1280\" tg-height=\"902\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\"><blockquote></blockquote> While speed was seen as the killer application at first, Matthew Prince has changed his mind from the reality that he sees. He calls it Matthew's Hierarchy of Developers' Needs:<blockquote>虽然速度起初被视为杀手级应用，但马修·普林斯已经改变了他所看到的现实的想法。他评级了Matthew的开发者需求层次：</blockquote> <img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/5c78a80e43fafa20827c8876af1ef3de\" tg-width=\"640\" tg-height=\"362\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\"><blockquote></blockquote> The beginning of a new era in computing<blockquote>计算新时代的开始</blockquote> This is the beginning of a new era of computing and there are many ways in which this could develop. CDNs aren't just meant for fast distribution and security anymore but it becomes a completely programmable network on their own.<blockquote>这是一个新的计算时代的开始，有许多方式可以发展。CDN不再仅仅意味着快速分发和安全，而是成为一个完全可编程的网络。</blockquote> Cloudflare clearly has the lead and the first-mover advantage and it is almost impossible for CDNs such as Akamai or Limelight Networks (LLNW) to overtake our Potential Multibaggers for years and years because of their hierarchical structure. Although Amazon and Akamai already have some edge computing capabilities, it won't have the powerful programming capabilities Cloudflare's edge computing because the edge servers are not directly connected to each other.<blockquote>Cloudflare显然具有领先优势和先发优势，由于其分层结构，Akamai或Limelight Networks(LLNW)等CDN多年来几乎不可能超越我们潜在的多包商。虽然亚马逊和Akamai已经拥有了一些边缘计算能力，但它不会拥有Cloudflare边缘计算的强大编程能力，因为边缘服务器之间没有直接连接。</blockquote> Edge computing could become, over time, as big as cloud computing now and it will probably take away a part of the market of AWS, Azure and others. Not that those will shrink. The explosion of data will make that most IoT data will never leave the edge. That will become more than half of all data. For requests, this will be even much more.<blockquote>随着时间的推移，边缘计算可能会变得像现在的云计算一样大，它可能会夺走AWS、Azure和其他公司的一部分市场。并不是说这些会缩小。数据的爆炸将使大多数物联网数据永远不会离开边缘。这将成为所有数据的一半以上。对于请求，这将会更多。</blockquote> This transforms all that Cloudflare offers right now, including CDN, into an application, one of the many to come. And that's what is so exciting about this company. The market of edge computing is impossible to calculate as we can't even imagine what the applications will be. Cloudflare will continue to roll out new applications and its customers can build new applications too, just as they can on AWS, for example.<blockquote>这将Cloudflare目前提供的所有功能（包括CDN）都转化为应用程序，这是未来众多应用程序之一。这就是这家公司令人兴奋的地方。边缘计算的市场是无法计算的，因为我们甚至无法想象应用会是什么。Cloudflare将继续推出新的应用程序，其客户也可以构建新的应用程序，就像他们在AWS上一样。</blockquote> Conclusion<blockquote>结论</blockquote> In this article, I tried to explain the competitive advantage that Cloudflare has over the big players in this field. Of course, there is much more to know about the technological advancements in this space but I wanted to give you an overview of the industry and why Cloudflare has a competitive advantage.<blockquote>在本文中，我试图解释Cloudflare相对于该领域大公司的竞争优势。当然，关于这一领域的技术进步还有很多需要了解的，但我想向您概述一下该行业以及Cloudflare为何具有竞争优势。</blockquote> This opportunity is simply too big and companies like Amazon, Microsoft and Google will definitely play an important role in this market. But because of its architectural advantage, Cloudflare prevails when it comes to quality and speed. The optionality of its programmable network is much higher than that of other players.<blockquote>这个机会太大了，像亚马逊、微软和谷歌这样的公司肯定会在这个市场上发挥重要作用。但由于其架构优势，Cloudflare在质量和速度方面占上风。其可编程网络的可选性远高于其他玩家。</blockquote> In the meantime, keep growing!<blockquote>同时，继续成长！</blockquote>","collect":0,"html":"<!DOCTYPE html>\n<html>\n<head>\n<meta http-equiv=\"Content-Type\" content=\"text/html; charset=utf-8\" />\n<meta name=\"viewport\" content=\"width=device-width,initial-scale=1.0,minimum-scale=1.0,maximum-scale=1.0,user-scalable=no\"/>\n<meta name=\"format-detection\" content=\"telephone=no,email=no,address=no\" />\n<title>Cloudflare's Moat (Why It's Better Than The Big Boys)<blockquote>Cloudflare的护城河（为什么它比大公司更好）</blockquote></title>\n<style type=\"text/css\">\na,abbr,acronym,address,applet,article,aside,audio,b,big,blockquote,body,canvas,caption,center,cite,code,dd,del,details,dfn,div,dl,dt,\nem,embed,fieldset,figcaption,figure,footer,form,h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6,header,hgroup,html,i,iframe,img,ins,kbd,label,legend,li,mark,menu,nav,\nobject,ol,output,p,pre,q,ruby,s,samp,section,small,span,strike,strong,sub,summary,sup,table,tbody,td,tfoot,th,thead,time,tr,tt,u,ul,var,video{ font:inherit;margin:0;padding:0;vertical-align:baseline;border:0 }\nbody{ font-size:16px; line-height:1.5; color:#999; background:transparent; }\n.wrapper{ overflow:hidden;word-break:break-all;padding:10px; }\nh1,h2{ font-weight:normal; line-height:1.35; margin-bottom:.6em; }\nh3,h4,h5,h6{ line-height:1.35; margin-bottom:1em; }\nh1{ font-size:24px; }\nh2{ font-size:20px; }\nh3{ font-size:18px; }\nh4{ font-size:16px; }\nh5{ font-size:14px; }\nh6{ font-size:12px; }\np,ul,ol,blockquote,dl,table{ margin:1.2em 0; }\nul,ol{ margin-left:2em; }\nul{ list-style:disc; }\nol{ list-style:decimal; }\nli,li p{ margin:10px 0;}\nimg{ max-width:100%;display:block;margin:0 auto 1em; }\nblockquote{ color:#B5B2B1; border-left:3px solid #aaa; padding:1em; }\nstrong,b{font-weight:bold;}\nem,i{font-style:italic;}\ntable{ width:100%;border-collapse:collapse;border-spacing:1px;margin:1em 0;font-size:.9em; }\nth,td{ padding:5px;text-align:left;border:1px solid #aaa; }\nth{ font-weight:bold;background:#5d5d5d; }\n.symbol-link{font-weight:bold;}\n/* header{ border-bottom:1px solid #494756; } */\n.title{ margin:0 0 8px;line-height:1.3;color:#ddd; }\n.meta {color:#5e5c6d;font-size:13px;margin:0 0 .5em; }\na{text-decoration:none; color:#2a4b87;}\n.meta .head { display: inline-block; overflow: hidden}\n.head .h-thumb { width: 30px; height: 30px; margin: 0; padding: 0; border-radius: 50%; float: left;}\n.head .h-content { margin: 0; padding: 0 0 0 9px; float: left;}\n.head .h-name {font-size: 13px; color: #eee; margin: 0;}\n.head .h-time {font-size: 12.5px; color: #7E829C; margin: 0;}\n.small {font-size: 12.5px; display: inline-block; transform: scale(0.9); -webkit-transform: scale(0.9); transform-origin: left; -webkit-transform-origin: left;}\n.smaller {font-size: 12.5px; display: inline-block; transform: scale(0.8); -webkit-transform: scale(0.8); transform-origin: left; -webkit-transform-origin: left;}\n.bt-text {font-size: 12px;margin: 1.5em 0 0 0}\n.bt-text p {margin: 0}\n</style>\n</head>\n<body>\n<div class=\"wrapper\">\n<header>\n<h2 class=\"title\">\nCloudflare's Moat (Why It's Better Than The Big Boys)<blockquote>Cloudflare的护城河（为什么它比大公司更好）</blockquote>\n</h2>\n<h4 class=\"meta\">\n\nseekingalpha2021-07-01 22:58\n\n</h4>\n</header>\n<article>\nSummary<blockquote>总结</blockquote> <ul> <li>After my last article, I got a lot of questions about what Cloudflare's moat is. Can it fight off the giants in this space: Amazon, Microsoft, Akamai?</li> <li>Cloudflare has a Software-Defined-Networking or SDN, which gives it a much more flexible and programmable network.</li> <li>With the Internet of Things about to explode, a huge percentage of data will never leave the edge cloud.</li> </ul> <img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/9052b8744f400e2a1fcd5e28c02a9fd0\" tg-width=\"1536\" tg-height=\"1025\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\">Anthony Harvey/Getty Images Entertainment<blockquote><ul><li>在我的上一篇文章之后，我收到了很多关于Cloudflare护城河是什么的问题。它能打败这个领域的巨头：亚马逊、微软、Akamai吗？</li><li>Cloudflare有一个软件定义的网络或SDN，这为它提供了一个更加灵活和可编程的网络。</li><li>随着物联网即将爆发，很大一部分数据将永远不会离开边缘云。</li></ul>安东尼·哈维/盖蒂图片社</blockquote> Introduction<blockquote>介绍</blockquote> Almost two months ago,I published an article&nbsp;about Cloudflare (NET), in which I argued that Cloudflare was worth its premium price. The stock is up about 30% since then but for me, as a long-term investor, the story hasn't changed, so that's not the reason why I write this article.<blockquote>大约两个月前，我发表了一篇关于Cloudflare(NET)的文章，其中我认为Cloudflare值得其溢价。自那以后，该股上涨了约30%，但对我来说，作为一名长期投资者，情况并没有改变，所以这不是我写这篇文章的原因。</blockquote> After that article, I got a lot of questions about the moat of Cloudflare and a lot of people seem to think that Cloudflare can be crushed by the big players in this field. And of course, with giants like Amazon (AMZN), Google (GOOG) (GOOGL), Microsoft (MSFT) and Akamai (AKAM) in this industry, I understand the question.<blockquote>在那篇文章之后，我收到了很多关于Cloudflare护城河的问题，很多人似乎认为Cloudflare可以被该领域的大玩家压垮。当然，这个行业有亚马逊（AMZN）、谷歌（GOOG）（GOOGL）、微软（MSFT）和Akamai（AKAM）等巨头，我理解这个问题。</blockquote> But Cloudflare is much more than just a CDN network. After 25 years, CDN has become a commodity. Cloudflare has something special to protect it from the giants in this space, though. Of course, they will be there and they will take a certain percentage of the market, together probably a majority even, but that doesn't matter with such a huge market. After all, for the edge cloud, we are about where we were more than a decade ago for the core cloud (AWS, Azure...) and that means very early. The potential is huge.<blockquote>但是Cloudflare不仅仅是一个CDN网络。25年后，CDN已经成为一种商品。不过，Cloudflare有一些特殊的东西可以保护它免受这个领域巨头的攻击。当然，他们会在那里，他们会占据一定比例的市场，甚至可能是大多数，但对于如此巨大的市场来说，这并不重要。毕竟，对于边缘云来说，我们大约是十多年前核心云（AWS、Azure...）这意味着很早。潜力巨大。</blockquote> Before we start, just a quick thought. I think that the term 'moat' has been overused in recent years. A moat is supposed to be impenetrable and there are only very few companies who have that. Mostly they are the biggest companies in our world. So, you could argue that the title should have been Cloudflare's competitive advantage. The reason why I still used the word moat is that most people use that term.<blockquote>在我们开始之前，先想一想。我认为“护城河”这个词近年来被过度使用了。护城河应该是坚不可摧的，但只有极少数公司拥有这一点。大多数情况下，他们是我们世界上最大的公司。因此，你可能会说这个头衔应该是Cloudflare的竞争优势。我仍然使用护城河这个词的原因是大多数人都使用这个词。</blockquote> Cloudflare is developer-friendly<blockquote>Cloudflare对开发人员友好</blockquote> There are several CDN providers. Akamai is the big pure legacy player and 1,500 POPs (points-of-presence) and approximately 300,000 servers in 136 countries worldwide. If you know that Cloudflare has about 200 POPs, you could think that there is no way that it can fight Akamai.<blockquote>有几个CDN提供商。Akamai是一家大型纯传统企业，在全球136个国家/地区拥有1,500个POP（接入点）和大约300,000台服务器。如果您知道Cloudflare有大约200个POP，您可能会认为它不可能与Akamai竞争。</blockquote> But POPs and CDN in general are commodities, cutting-edge technology and that's where Cloudflare is in a league of its own.<blockquote>但总的来说，POPs和CDN都是商品、尖端技术，这就是Cloudflare独树一帜的地方。</blockquote> The difference between Cloudflare and the rest of the CDNs is that Cloudflare is really developer-focused. I know, you hear that a lot, but I will try to explain what that means in the context of Cloudflare and CDNs. We have to become a bit technical but I will try to simplify without dumbing it down.<blockquote>Cloudflare与其他CDN的区别在于Cloudflare真正以开发人员为中心。我知道，您经常听到这句话，但我将尝试在Cloudflare和CDN的上下文中解释这意味着什么。我们必须变得有点技术性，但我会尽量简化而不降低它。</blockquote> SDN<blockquote>SDN</blockquote> First, you have to understand what SDN means. It stands for software-defined networking and it is a way in which you can manage your network. SDN improves both the network performance as the monitoring.<blockquote>首先，你要明白SDN是什么意思。它代表软件定义的网络，是一种管理网络的方式。SDN提高了网络性能和监控能力。</blockquote> An SDN architecture separates the network control from the hardware infrastructure. In that way, it's easier to control the whole network. This differs from the older network structure, which is hierarchical. This image shows the difference between the SDN and hierarchical structure.<blockquote>SDN架构将网络控制与硬件基础设施分开。那样的话，更容易控制整个网络。这与旧的网络结构不同，旧的网络结构是分层的。此图显示了SDN和分层结构之间的区别。</blockquote> <img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/420d12a5a54ff415c3572ebeedb84abe\" tg-width=\"850\" tg-height=\"545\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\"><blockquote></blockquote> As you can see, the forward layer (which handles the traffic) and the control layers are separated in an SDN structure.<blockquote>如您所见，转发层（处理流量）和控制层在SDN结构中是分开的。</blockquote> Because there's so much more data being used in our society, because networks become more and more complex, and because we all expect networks to perform better, a hierarchical structure is becoming more and more something of the past.<blockquote>因为在我们的社会中有如此多的数据被使用，因为网络变得越来越复杂，因为我们都期望网络表现得更好，分层结构越来越成为过去。</blockquote> SDNs give much more flexibility and control because you can adapt centrally. This means that the whole network becomes directly programmable, instead of all the separate parts individually. This saves a lot of time, of course, and makes sure that updates can be more easily deployed. It makes SDN somewhat similar to cloud computing.<blockquote>SDN提供了更大的灵活性和控制力，因为您可以集中适应。这意味着整个网络变得可直接编程，而不是所有单独的部分单独编程。当然，这节省了大量时间，并确保更新可以更容易地部署。它使得SDN有些类似于云计算。</blockquote> Cloudflare itself&nbsp;gives a great analogy between SDN and hierarchical networking:<blockquote>Cloudflare本身对SDN和分层网络进行了很好的类比：</blockquote> Think of the difference between typing an essay on a typewriter and typing it in a word processing application: Any changes to the typewritten essay mean it has to be retyped, while a word processing document can be revised endlessly. Similarly, SDN technology lets admins reconfigure their networks from a computer, instead of continually plugging and unplugging cables and devices. Edge computing<blockquote>想想在打字机上打字和在文字处理应用程序中打字之间的区别：对打字文章的任何更改都意味着必须重新打字，而文字处理文档可以无休止地修改。同样，SDN技术允许管理员从计算机重新配置他们的网络，而不是不断地插拔电缆和设备。边缘计算</blockquote> The difference between Cloudflare and the competition is in how it has constructed the architecture of its POPs (points of presence, the servers that are distributed around the world) and especially the networks in between those POPs. Cloudflare has a structure that makes the network between its POPs programmable too, so-called edge computing.<blockquote>Cloudflare与竞争对手的区别在于它如何构建其POP（存在点，分布在世界各地的服务器）的架构，尤其是这些POP之间的网络。Cloudflare的结构使其POP之间的网络也可编程，即所谓的边缘计算。</blockquote> Edge computing is especially important for the Internet of Things or IoT. These devices generate a huge amount of data. Cloud computing as we know it works great but not for the IoT data flood. IoT devices are easily hackable for example, but there are also performance problems.<blockquote>边缘计算对于物联网或IoT尤为重要。这些设备会产生大量的数据。我们所知的云计算非常有效，但不适用于物联网数据洪流。例如，物联网设备很容易被黑客攻击，但也存在性能问题。</blockquote> Besides those problems, what do you do with the huge amount of data? One solution is to store it in huge data lakes and that's why there is so much excitement around a company like Snowflake (SNOW) for example. But edge computing is better for IoT solutions. It can handle and store the data on the device that generated it and let them interact:<blockquote>除了那些问题，你如何处理海量的数据？一种解决方案是将其存储在巨大的数据湖中，这就是为什么像Snowflake（SNOW）这样的公司如此令人兴奋。但边缘计算更适合物联网解决方案。它可以在生成数据的设备上处理和存储数据，并让它们进行交互：</blockquote> <img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/125a664a9d2e846b78709093a829ffb9\" tg-width=\"1024\" tg-height=\"684\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\"><blockquote></blockquote> Cloudflare may have fewer POPs but they are built from the ground up as SDN architectures and they are much more powerful, which gives it the flexibility and customizability to have really powerful edge computing.<blockquote>Cloudflare的POP可能较少，但它们是作为SDN架构从头开始构建的，功能更加强大，这使其具有灵活性和可定制性，可以拥有真正强大的边缘计算。</blockquote> Competition from the big boys<blockquote>来自大男孩的竞争</blockquote> For the legacy players, Akamai in the first place, but also Amazon, Google, and Microsoft's it's not simple to change their whole infrastructure. Akamai, with its 1,500 POPs and 300,000 servers now has a disadvantage because of that size. It's virtually impossible to start all over again. Akamai, Microsoft, Google and Amazon are all developing their own edge computing capabilities but because of their architectural disadvantages, their edge computing won't perform like that of Cloudflare. Because of Cloudflare's SDN structure, which is much more programmable and flexible, customers have much more control over the entire network, globally, instead of the individual POPs. That's a huge competitive advantage.<blockquote>对于传统玩家来说，首先是Akamai，还有Amazon、Google和微软，改变他们的整个基础设施并不简单。Akamai拥有1,500个POP和300,000台服务器，现在由于其规模而处于劣势。几乎不可能从头再来。Akamai、微软、Google和Amazon都在开发自己的边缘计算能力，但由于它们的架构劣势，它们的边缘计算性能不会像Cloudflare那样。由于Cloudflare的SDN结构更具可编程性和灵活性，客户可以在全球范围内更好地控制整个网络，而不是单个POP。这是一个巨大的竞争优势。</blockquote> Cloudflare foresaw the SDN revolution in CDNs and that's why it has made its servers much more powerful and it needs much fewer POPs than the legacy players in this field. The POPs are much better interconnected too. Cloudflare's co-founder Lee Holloway,that tragic computer genius, has laid the foundations for Cloudflare's flexible architecture and that's why Cloudflare's network has the structure and capabilities it has now.<blockquote>Cloudflare预见到了CDN中的SDN革命，这就是为什么它使其服务器更加强大，并且比该领域的传统参与者需要更少的POP。持久性有机污染物的相互联系也更好。Cloudflare的联合创始人Lee Holloway是一位悲惨的计算机天才，他为Cloudflare的灵活架构奠定了基础，这就是Cloudflare的网络拥有现在的结构和功能的原因。</blockquote> Amazon's Jeff Bezos has been known to say: \"Your profit margin is my opportunity.\" It seems that Matthew Prince now thinks the same about Amazon's AWS and he's not afraid to show it, in this&nbsp;tweet&nbsp;for example:<blockquote>众所周知，亚马逊的杰夫·贝索斯曾说过：“你的利润率就是我的机会。”马修·普林斯(Matthew Prince)现在似乎对亚马逊的AWS也有同样的想法，而且他并不害怕表现出来，例如在这条推文中：</blockquote> <img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/9b2a749523fa2bc73eaea4a15efddc59\" tg-width=\"584\" tg-height=\"254\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\"><blockquote></blockquote> The moat and applications<blockquote>护城河和应用</blockquote> By being a programmable network, Cloudflare can make the typical extra applications of a CDN network faster and especially smarter. I understand that this is vague and that's why I will give some applications that are a consequence of this.<blockquote>作为一个可编程网络，Cloudflare可以使CDN网络的典型额外应用程序更快，尤其是更智能。我知道这是模糊的，这就是为什么我会给出一些应用程序，这是一个结果。</blockquote> <ul> <li>traffic routing: the network can automatically detect and avoid problem areas, outages, DDoS attacks, etc.</li> <li>choosing the best distribution form automatically (cloud, on-prem, multi-cloud)</li> <li>making smart routing decisions based on the content form (files, pictures, video, gaming), the location of the end-user, which device is used, etc.</li> </ul> These are just some examples. There are more and with 5G on the horizon, this will only accelerate. There are so many future-oriented solutions that need high-speed internet and big data handling. Again, a few examples.<blockquote><ul><li>流量路由：网络可以自动检测和避免问题区域、中断、DDoS攻击等。</li><li>自动选择最佳分发形式（云、本地、多云）</li><li>根据内容形式（文件、图片、视频、游戏）、最终用户的位置、使用的设备等做出智能路由决策。</li></ul>这些只是一些例子。还有更多，随着5G的到来，这只会加速。有如此多面向未来的解决方案需要高速互联网和大数据处理。再举几个例子。</blockquote> Autonomous vehicles need to decide in a fraction of a second to stop for an unforeseen maneuver from another car. Ideally, these cars can communicate with each other to avoid collisions but you don't want latency there. Traffic could be much more distributed too, in the way that data traffic is distributed, for example.<blockquote>自动驾驶汽车需要在几分之一秒内决定停下来，以应对另一辆车的不可预见的动作。理想情况下，这些汽车可以相互通信以避免碰撞，但您不希望那里有延迟。流量也可以更加分布式，例如，以数据流量的分布式方式。</blockquote> The edge could also be crucial for health devices to have constant and fast internet. If someone is monitored for heart problems and his heart fails, every second can mean the difference between life and death. Or think of autonomous robot surgery possibilities. Faster really means better and the edge is faster (and cheaper).<blockquote>这种优势对于健康设备拥有持续快速的互联网也至关重要。如果有人被监测心脏问题，他的心脏衰竭了，每一秒都可能意味着生与死的区别。或者想想自主机器人手术的可能性。更快真的意味着更好，边缘更快（也更便宜）。</blockquote> But most of all, the edge will be used for IoT. I know from somebody who works at the computer department of Coca-Cola UK for example that all of their fridges are connected to the edge cloud. They can all be controlled centrally. If one doesn't work, if the temperature of all of them has to be adapted, if one uses more electricity, this can all be seen.<blockquote>但最重要的是，边缘将用于物联网。例如，我从在可口可乐英国公司计算机部门工作的人那里了解到，他们所有的冰箱都连接到边缘云。它们都可以集中控制。如果一个不工作，如果所有的温度都要适应，如果一个用电多，这都可以看到。</blockquote> Cloudflare can easily shift strategies because of its lean and flexible underlying structure. Cloudflare opened up its network for 3rd party developers in June of 2017. This is how Matthew Prince, Cloudflare's CEO,announced&nbsp;it:<blockquote>Cloudflare可以轻松转变策略，因为它具有精益和灵活的底层结构。Cloudflare于2017年6月向第三方开发者开放了其网络。Cloudflare首席执行官Matthew Prince是这样宣布的：</blockquote> Prior to today, if you wanted to write code that took full advantage of Cloudflare's global network you needed to be a Cloudflare employee. Our team is able to run code on thousands of servers in hundreds of locations around the world and modify our customers' packets as they flow through our network in order to make their web site, application, or API faster and more secure. Today, we open that access to the rest of the world. This led to edge computing. Cloudflare already rolled out Cloudflare Workers in 2017. This is what Matthew Prince, Cloudflare's CEO,wrote about Workers a year ago:<blockquote>在今天之前，如果您想编写充分利用Cloudflare全球网络的代码，您需要成为Cloudflare员工。我们的团队能够在全球数百个地点的数千台服务器上运行代码，并在客户的数据包流经我们的网络时对其进行修改，以使其网站、应用程序或API更快、更安全。今天，我们向世界其他地方开放了这一通道。这导致了边缘计算。Cloudflare已经在2017年推出了Cloudflare Workers。这是Cloudflare首席执行官Matthew Prince一年前写的关于员工的文章：</blockquote> We announced Cloudflare Workers nearly three years ago and it's been generally available for the last two years. Over that time, we've seen hundreds of thousands of developers write tens of millions of lines of code that now run across Cloudflare's network. Just last quarter, 20,000 developers deployed for the first time a new application using Cloudflare Workers. Fastly has launched Compute@Edge recently too, its edge computing platform. An edge cloud platform exists between the IoT devices and the serversandbetween the servers themselves.<blockquote>我们在大约三年前宣布了Cloudflare Workers，它在过去两年中已经普遍可用。在那段时间里，我们看到成千上万的开发人员编写了数千万行代码，这些代码现在在Cloudflare的网络中运行。就在上个季度，20,000名开发人员首次使用Cloudflare Workers部署了新应用程序。Fastly最近也推出了其边缘计算平台Compute@Edge。物联网设备和服务器之间存在边缘云平台和在服务器之间。</blockquote> <img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/97d4327fc2095f720864a949f6cc2fc7\" tg-width=\"1280\" tg-height=\"902\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\"><blockquote></blockquote> While speed was seen as the killer application at first, Matthew Prince has changed his mind from the reality that he sees. He calls it Matthew's Hierarchy of Developers' Needs:<blockquote>虽然速度起初被视为杀手级应用，但马修·普林斯已经改变了他所看到的现实的想法。他评级了Matthew的开发者需求层次：</blockquote> <img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/5c78a80e43fafa20827c8876af1ef3de\" tg-width=\"640\" tg-height=\"362\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\"><blockquote></blockquote> The beginning of a new era in computing<blockquote>计算新时代的开始</blockquote> This is the beginning of a new era of computing and there are many ways in which this could develop. CDNs aren't just meant for fast distribution and security anymore but it becomes a completely programmable network on their own.<blockquote>这是一个新的计算时代的开始，有许多方式可以发展。CDN不再仅仅意味着快速分发和安全，而是成为一个完全可编程的网络。</blockquote> Cloudflare clearly has the lead and the first-mover advantage and it is almost impossible for CDNs such as Akamai or Limelight Networks (LLNW) to overtake our Potential Multibaggers for years and years because of their hierarchical structure. Although Amazon and Akamai already have some edge computing capabilities, it won't have the powerful programming capabilities Cloudflare's edge computing because the edge servers are not directly connected to each other.<blockquote>Cloudflare显然具有领先优势和先发优势，由于其分层结构，Akamai或Limelight Networks(LLNW)等CDN多年来几乎不可能超越我们潜在的多包商。虽然亚马逊和Akamai已经拥有了一些边缘计算能力，但它不会拥有Cloudflare边缘计算的强大编程能力，因为边缘服务器之间没有直接连接。</blockquote> Edge computing could become, over time, as big as cloud computing now and it will probably take away a part of the market of AWS, Azure and others. Not that those will shrink. The explosion of data will make that most IoT data will never leave the edge. That will become more than half of all data. For requests, this will be even much more.<blockquote>随着时间的推移，边缘计算可能会变得像现在的云计算一样大，它可能会夺走AWS、Azure和其他公司的一部分市场。并不是说这些会缩小。数据的爆炸将使大多数物联网数据永远不会离开边缘。这将成为所有数据的一半以上。对于请求，这将会更多。</blockquote> This transforms all that Cloudflare offers right now, including CDN, into an application, one of the many to come. And that's what is so exciting about this company. The market of edge computing is impossible to calculate as we can't even imagine what the applications will be. Cloudflare will continue to roll out new applications and its customers can build new applications too, just as they can on AWS, for example.<blockquote>这将Cloudflare目前提供的所有功能（包括CDN）都转化为应用程序，这是未来众多应用程序之一。这就是这家公司令人兴奋的地方。边缘计算的市场是无法计算的，因为我们甚至无法想象应用会是什么。Cloudflare将继续推出新的应用程序，其客户也可以构建新的应用程序，就像他们在AWS上一样。</blockquote> Conclusion<blockquote>结论</blockquote> In this article, I tried to explain the competitive advantage that Cloudflare has over the big players in this field. Of course, there is much more to know about the technological advancements in this space but I wanted to give you an overview of the industry and why Cloudflare has a competitive advantage.<blockquote>在本文中，我试图解释Cloudflare相对于该领域大公司的竞争优势。当然，关于这一领域的技术进步还有很多需要了解的，但我想向您概述一下该行业以及Cloudflare为何具有竞争优势。</blockquote> This opportunity is simply too big and companies like Amazon, Microsoft and Google will definitely play an important role in this market. But because of its architectural advantage, Cloudflare prevails when it comes to quality and speed. The optionality of its programmable network is much higher than that of other players.<blockquote>这个机会太大了，像亚马逊、微软和谷歌这样的公司肯定会在这个市场上发挥重要作用。但由于其架构优势，Cloudflare在质量和速度方面占上风。其可编程网络的可选性远高于其他玩家。</blockquote> In the meantime, keep growing!<blockquote>同时，继续成长！</blockquote>\n<div class=\"bt-text\">\n\n\n 来源：<a href=\"https://seekingalpha.com/article/4437429-cloudflares-moat-why-its-better-than-the-big-boys-net\">seekingalpha</a>\n为提升您的阅读体验，我们对本页面进行了排版优化\n\n\n</div>\n</article>\n</div>\n</body>\n</html>\n","type":0,"thumbnail":"","relate_stocks":{"NET":"Cloudflare, Inc."},"source_url":"https://seekingalpha.com/article/4437429-cloudflares-moat-why-its-better-than-the-big-boys-net","is_english":true,"share_image_url":"https://static.laohu8.com/e9f99090a1c2ed51c021029395664489","article_id":"1148587912","content_text":"Summary\n\nAfter my last article, I got a lot of questions about what Cloudflare's moat is. Can it fight off the giants in this space: Amazon, Microsoft, Akamai?\nCloudflare has a Software-Defined-Networking or SDN, which gives it a much more flexible and programmable network.\nWith the Internet of Things about to explode, a huge percentage of data will never leave the edge cloud.\n\nAnthony Harvey/Getty Images Entertainment\nIntroduction\nAlmost two months ago,I published an article about Cloudflare (NET), in which I argued that Cloudflare was worth its premium price. The stock is up about 30% since then but for me, as a long-term investor, the story hasn't changed, so that's not the reason why I write this article.\nAfter that article, I got a lot of questions about the moat of Cloudflare and a lot of people seem to think that Cloudflare can be crushed by the big players in this field. And of course, with giants like Amazon (AMZN), Google (GOOG) (GOOGL), Microsoft (MSFT) and Akamai (AKAM) in this industry, I understand the question.\nBut Cloudflare is much more than just a CDN network. After 25 years, CDN has become a commodity. Cloudflare has something special to protect it from the giants in this space, though. Of course, they will be there and they will take a certain percentage of the market, together probably a majority even, but that doesn't matter with such a huge market. After all, for the edge cloud, we are about where we were more than a decade ago for the core cloud (AWS, Azure...) and that means very early. The potential is huge.\nBefore we start, just a quick thought. I think that the term 'moat' has been overused in recent years. A moat is supposed to be impenetrable and there are only very few companies who have that. Mostly they are the biggest companies in our world. So, you could argue that the title should have been Cloudflare's competitive advantage. The reason why I still used the word moat is that most people use that term.\nCloudflare is developer-friendly\nThere are several CDN providers. Akamai is the big pure legacy player and 1,500 POPs (points-of-presence) and approximately 300,000 servers in 136 countries worldwide. If you know that Cloudflare has about 200 POPs, you could think that there is no way that it can fight Akamai.\nBut POPs and CDN in general are commodities, cutting-edge technology and that's where Cloudflare is in a league of its own.\nThe difference between Cloudflare and the rest of the CDNs is that Cloudflare is really developer-focused. I know, you hear that a lot, but I will try to explain what that means in the context of Cloudflare and CDNs. We have to become a bit technical but I will try to simplify without dumbing it down.\nSDN\nFirst, you have to understand what SDN means. It stands for software-defined networking and it is a way in which you can manage your network. SDN improves both the network performance as the monitoring.\nAn SDN architecture separates the network control from the hardware infrastructure. In that way, it's easier to control the whole network. This differs from the older network structure, which is hierarchical. This image shows the difference between the SDN and hierarchical structure.\n\nAs you can see, the forward layer (which handles the traffic) and the control layers are separated in an SDN structure.\nBecause there's so much more data being used in our society, because networks become more and more complex, and because we all expect networks to perform better, a hierarchical structure is becoming more and more something of the past.\nSDNs give much more flexibility and control because you can adapt centrally. This means that the whole network becomes directly programmable, instead of all the separate parts individually. This saves a lot of time, of course, and makes sure that updates can be more easily deployed. It makes SDN somewhat similar to cloud computing.\nCloudflare itself gives a great analogy between SDN and hierarchical networking:\n\n Think of the difference between typing an essay on a typewriter and typing it in a word processing application: Any changes to the typewritten essay mean it has to be retyped, while a word processing document can be revised endlessly. Similarly, SDN technology lets admins reconfigure their networks from a computer, instead of continually plugging and unplugging cables and devices.\n\nEdge computing\nThe difference between Cloudflare and the competition is in how it has constructed the architecture of its POPs (points of presence, the servers that are distributed around the world) and especially the networks in between those POPs. Cloudflare has a structure that makes the network between its POPs programmable too, so-called edge computing.\nEdge computing is especially important for the Internet of Things or IoT. These devices generate a huge amount of data. Cloud computing as we know it works great but not for the IoT data flood. IoT devices are easily hackable for example, but there are also performance problems.\nBesides those problems, what do you do with the huge amount of data? One solution is to store it in huge data lakes and that's why there is so much excitement around a company like Snowflake (SNOW) for example. But edge computing is better for IoT solutions. It can handle and store the data on the device that generated it and let them interact:\n\nCloudflare may have fewer POPs but they are built from the ground up as SDN architectures and they are much more powerful, which gives it the flexibility and customizability to have really powerful edge computing.\nCompetition from the big boys\nFor the legacy players, Akamai in the first place, but also Amazon, Google, and Microsoft's it's not simple to change their whole infrastructure. Akamai, with its 1,500 POPs and 300,000 servers now has a disadvantage because of that size. It's virtually impossible to start all over again. Akamai, Microsoft, Google and Amazon are all developing their own edge computing capabilities but because of their architectural disadvantages, their edge computing won't perform like that of Cloudflare. Because of Cloudflare's SDN structure, which is much more programmable and flexible, customers have much more control over the entire network, globally, instead of the individual POPs. That's a huge competitive advantage.\nCloudflare foresaw the SDN revolution in CDNs and that's why it has made its servers much more powerful and it needs much fewer POPs than the legacy players in this field. The POPs are much better interconnected too. Cloudflare's co-founder Lee Holloway,that tragic computer genius, has laid the foundations for Cloudflare's flexible architecture and that's why Cloudflare's network has the structure and capabilities it has now.\nAmazon's Jeff Bezos has been known to say: \"Your profit margin is my opportunity.\" It seems that Matthew Prince now thinks the same about Amazon's AWS and he's not afraid to show it, in this tweet for example:\n\nThe moat and applications\nBy being a programmable network, Cloudflare can make the typical extra applications of a CDN network faster and especially smarter. I understand that this is vague and that's why I will give some applications that are a consequence of this.\n\ntraffic routing: the network can automatically detect and avoid problem areas, outages, DDoS attacks, etc.\nchoosing the best distribution form automatically (cloud, on-prem, multi-cloud)\nmaking smart routing decisions based on the content form (files, pictures, video, gaming), the location of the end-user, which device is used, etc.\n\nThese are just some examples. There are more and with 5G on the horizon, this will only accelerate. There are so many future-oriented solutions that need high-speed internet and big data handling. Again, a few examples.\nAutonomous vehicles need to decide in a fraction of a second to stop for an unforeseen maneuver from another car. Ideally, these cars can communicate with each other to avoid collisions but you don't want latency there. Traffic could be much more distributed too, in the way that data traffic is distributed, for example.\nThe edge could also be crucial for health devices to have constant and fast internet. If someone is monitored for heart problems and his heart fails, every second can mean the difference between life and death. Or think of autonomous robot surgery possibilities. Faster really means better and the edge is faster (and cheaper).\nBut most of all, the edge will be used for IoT. I know from somebody who works at the computer department of Coca-Cola UK for example that all of their fridges are connected to the edge cloud. They can all be controlled centrally. If one doesn't work, if the temperature of all of them has to be adapted, if one uses more electricity, this can all be seen.\nCloudflare can easily shift strategies because of its lean and flexible underlying structure. Cloudflare opened up its network for 3rd party developers in June of 2017. This is how Matthew Prince, Cloudflare's CEO,announced it:\n\n Prior to today, if you wanted to write code that took full advantage of Cloudflare's global network you needed to be a Cloudflare employee. Our team is able to run code on thousands of servers in hundreds of locations around the world and modify our customers' packets as they flow through our network in order to make their web site, application, or API faster and more secure. Today, we open that access to the rest of the world.\n\nThis led to edge computing. Cloudflare already rolled out Cloudflare Workers in 2017. This is what Matthew Prince, Cloudflare's CEO,wrote about Workers a year ago:\n\n We announced Cloudflare Workers nearly three years ago and it's been generally available for the last two years. Over that time, we've seen hundreds of thousands of developers write tens of millions of lines of code that now run across Cloudflare's network.\n\n\n Just last quarter, 20,000 developers deployed for the first time a new application using Cloudflare Workers.\n\nFastly has launched Compute@Edge recently too, its edge computing platform. An edge cloud platform exists between the IoT devices and the serversandbetween the servers themselves.\n\nWhile speed was seen as the killer application at first, Matthew Prince has changed his mind from the reality that he sees. He calls it Matthew's Hierarchy of Developers' Needs:\n\nThe beginning of a new era in computing\nThis is the beginning of a new era of computing and there are many ways in which this could develop. CDNs aren't just meant for fast distribution and security anymore but it becomes a completely programmable network on their own.\nCloudflare clearly has the lead and the first-mover advantage and it is almost impossible for CDNs such as Akamai or Limelight Networks (LLNW) to overtake our Potential Multibaggers for years and years because of their hierarchical structure. Although Amazon and Akamai already have some edge computing capabilities, it won't have the powerful programming capabilities Cloudflare's edge computing because the edge servers are not directly connected to each other.\nEdge computing could become, over time, as big as cloud computing now and it will probably take away a part of the market of AWS, Azure and others. Not that those will shrink. The explosion of data will make that most IoT data will never leave the edge. That will become more than half of all data. For requests, this will be even much more.\nThis transforms all that Cloudflare offers right now, including CDN, into an application, one of the many to come. And that's what is so exciting about this company. The market of edge computing is impossible to calculate as we can't even imagine what the applications will be. Cloudflare will continue to roll out new applications and its customers can build new applications too, just as they can on AWS, for example.\nConclusion\nIn this article, I tried to explain the competitive advantage that Cloudflare has over the big players in this field. Of course, there is much more to know about the technological advancements in this space but I wanted to give you an overview of the industry and why Cloudflare has a competitive advantage.\nThis opportunity is simply too big and companies like Amazon, Microsoft and Google will definitely play an important role in this market. But because of its architectural advantage, Cloudflare prevails when it comes to quality and speed. The optionality of its programmable network is much higher than that of other players.\nIn the meantime, keep growing!","news_type":1,"symbols_score_info":{"NET":0.9}},"isVote":1,"tweetType":1,"viewCount":1052,"commentLimit":10,"likeStatus":false,"favoriteStatus":false,"reportStatus":false,"symbols":[],"verified":2,"subType":0,"readableState":1,"langContent":"EN","currentLanguage":"EN","warmUpFlag":false,"orderFlag":false,"shareable":true,"causeOfNotShareable":"","featuresForAnalytics":[],"commentAndTweetFlag":false,"andRepostAutoSelectedFlag":false,"upFlag":false,"length":11,"xxTargetLangEnum":"ORIG"},"commentList":[],"hasMoreComment":false,"orderType":2}

Cloudflare's Moat (Why It's Better Than The Big Boys)<blockquote>Cloudflare的护城河（为什么它比大公司更好）</blockquote>

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