The Daily Brief When Cloudflare sneezes, the internet catches a cold
Dec 10, 2025
Explore how small errors at Cloudflare can cause internet-wide outages. Discover the central role of this company in web traffic management and the vulnerabilities of early web infrastructure. Transitioning to a greener economy is also on the agenda, examining how countries can industrialize sustainably without harming the environment. China's dominance in cleantech manufacturing and its implications for global economics are discussed. Tune in for insights on the balance of growth and sustainability in today's market.
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Internet Has Quietly Centralized
- The internet has centralized into a small set of infrastructure providers that route and secure most traffic.
- Cloudflare acts like a global utility, creating a meta-layer that most websites depend on.
Cloudflare's Fast Onboarding Story
- Cloudflare pioneered easy-to-use CDN and security services that any site could enable in minutes and often for free.
- That shift let small sites gain enterprise-level speed and DDoS protection without complex onboarding.
How Cloudflare Protects And Speeds Sites
- Cloudflare operates as a reverse proxy and Anycast CDN to mask origin IPs and serve cached content from the nearest hub.
- This both speeds delivery and lets Cloudflare inspect and block malicious traffic before it reaches origin servers.