This morning’s Cloudflare outage affected millions of websites across the globe.
If you’ve ever tried loading your favorite website only to see an error message saying something like “Connection timed out” or “Host unreachable,” there’s a good chance the problem wasn’t your connection—it was Cloudflare.
Cloudflare is one of the most important companies on the internet, yet most people have never heard of it. And when Cloudflare goes down, huge parts of the web go with it.
Let’s break down what Cloudflare is and why outages make it feel like the entire internet is collapsing.
What Is Cloudflare?
Cloudflare is a global network that sits between websites and visitors. While many think of it as “just a CDN,” it actually performs several mission-critical roles that keep the web fast, secure, and reliable.
For businesses who care about performance and security (and they should), Cloudflare’s role is similar to what we talk about in our post on why strong cybersecurity is one of your best marketing tools.
Here’s what Cloudflare does:
1. Security & DDoS Protection
Cloudflare shields websites from cyberattacks before they ever reach the server.
For many companies, this plays a major part in overall website safety—right alongside fundamentals like maintaining an SSL certificate, which we cover here:
Why SSL matters for your business website →
2. Content Delivery & Speed Optimization
Cloudflare’s global network of data centers delivers content from the closest location to the visitor, making sites load faster and reducing stress on your hosting.
For readers who want help improving overall website performance, check out our guide on SEO and how it fuels business growth.
3. DNS (Domain Name System)
Cloudflare runs one of the world’s fastest DNS systems.
DNS translates human-friendly names—like yourdomain.com—into server IP addresses.
When Cloudflare’s DNS has trouble, websites become unreachable even when the host is working fine.
4. Reliability & Traffic Routing
Cloudflare can keep a site online even if its server hiccups, thanks to caching, load balancing, and smart routing.
Why the Internet Breaks When Cloudflare Goes Down
Even brief Cloudflare outages can create huge ripple effects across the web. Here’s why so many sites crash:
1. Cloudflare Handles a Massive Portion of the Web
Nearly 20% of the internet routes through Cloudflare.
That includes:
- ecommerce stores
- SaaS apps
- APIs
- media sites
- payment portals
- gaming platforms
- government services
When Cloudflare has issues, it’s not “a website” that goes down—it’s thousands.
2. DNS Outages Make Sites Unreachable
If Cloudflare’s DNS fails:
- browsers can’t find domains
- apps can’t reach servers
- APIs fail
- login systems break
The servers may be fine, but the “internet phonebook” is unreachable.
3. Cloudflare Sits Between Users and Websites
Most sites route traffic through Cloudflare.
So if Cloudflare goes down:
- your website might still be running
- but nobody can reach it
It’s like having a perfectly good store with a locked front door.
4. Many Sites Depend on Cloudflare’s Cached Files
If Cloudflare-hosted files—like CSS, JS, or fonts—fail to load, entire pages can break.
We see this often with poorly optimized websites, which is why proper SEO and local hosting (not external dependences) is so important:
SEO can make your site faster, safer, and more resilient →
Is Cloudflare Too Big to Fail?
Many experts see Cloudflare as critical internet infrastructure—similar to AWS, Google Cloud, or major ISPs.
When Cloudflare experiences an outage, it often affects:
- banking
- ecommerce
- work apps
- gaming
- news
- online payments
- authentication systems
This shows how centralized the modern internet has become.
How Businesses Can Protect Themselves
If your business depends on its website, here are steps to reduce your risk:
✔ Use multi-DNS providers
This prevents total failure when a single provider has issues.
✔ Use local hosting for important CSS/JS
Don’t rely on third-party CDNs for critical files.
✔ Have a fallback “origin-only” mode
Some hosts allow bypassing Cloudflare temporarily.
✔ Monitor uptime
Tools like UptimeRobot or BetterStack help detect outages instantly.
And if you want help optimizing your website for security, SEO, or speed, visit 10K Web & Co.
We build fast, secure, professional sites for Minnesota businesses:
👉 https://10kweb.co
