Be everywhere at once
Cloudflare runs servers in many cities. The goal is to serve each user from a nearby location, cutting latency and absorbing traffic before it reaches the origin.
Anycast routing
Every edge location announces the same IP address using anycast. The internet's routing naturally sends a user to the topologically nearest location announcing that address, with no client logic required.
- Many locations share one anycast address
- Routing steers users to the nearest edge
- The origin server sits behind the edge
Edge cache and edge compute
Static responses are cached at the edge, so most requests never touch the origin. Lightweight code can also run at the edge, transforming or generating responses close to the user.
Latency drops because the answer comes from nearby, and the origin is shielded because most requests are absorbed at the edge.
Key idea
Use anycast so users reach the nearest edge automatically, then serve from edge caches and edge compute to cut latency and shield the origin.