Navigating the Clouds: Jimdo’s Journey to Cloudflare and Beyond
Unpacking the Tech Moves: From Midnight Crisis to Cloudflare Collaboration
Disclaimer: Because I am not a native speaker, and my English is not the best, I got the help of ChatGPT-4 to redact this article.
Under Siege: The Midnight Call to Cloudflare
Two years back, we at Jimdo had our eyes on some security gaps. We had a plan to patch things up long-term but hadn’t hit the execution button just yet. Then, out of nowhere, a hefty DDoS attack smacked us right in the face, zeroing in on our Dolphin CMS setup, likely triggered by an enumeration attack on our *.jimdosite.com domains. Boom, we were looking at a nasty outage. At 1 a.m., there I was, huddled in a war-room with our CTO, sifting through code and downing coffee like water. While the team was knee-deep in logs trying to figure out what hit us, I picked up the phone and hit up Cloudflare on their emergency line. This wasn’t just about warding off the immediate attack, but a step towards beefing up our defense mechanism. It was in the middle of that chaos, with alarms buzzing and code flying across screens, that we kicked off a partnership with Cloudflare, turning a page in our playbook on tackling cyber threats head-on.
The ink on the contract dried almost as quickly as it was signed. Cloudflare saw the storm we were in and believed their anti-DDoS solution could be our shelter. Sure, signing a deal while the house is on fire doesn’t get you the bargain of the century, but we had a good gut feel about the solution on the table. In a blink, or say less than 15 minutes, one of their engineers was right there with us, elbows deep in configurations to shield our setup. Our legacy system threw a few curveballs, leading to a bit of trial and error. But before long, we saw the tide turn. The attack was pared down to a drizzle, with about 95% of the malicious traffic filtered out. What was left, our internal scaling system could handle without breaking a sweat. This was real-time problem-solving, with a dash of adrenaline and a chunk of code, turning a dire straits situation into a controlled, manageable scenario.
From Quick Fixes to Quality Shields: Amping Up the Firewall and Caching Game
After that initial firefight, we dusted off and took a harder look at the setup. The quick and dirty had served its purpose, but now was the time for some fine-tuning. We rolled up our sleeves and dived into tweaking the Web Application Firewall (WAF) and the caching system. The goal was simple: crank up efficiency and cut down vulnerability. With a bit of elbow grease, we managed to skyrocket our cache-hit rate from around 60% to a whopping ~85% for all the free domains. This wasn’t just a numbers game; it was about building a sturdier shield and a more streamlined operation. The reduced attack surface was a hard punch against potential threats, and hey, it didn’t hurt that we shaved off some operational costs too. This phase was about turning a reactive move into a proactive strategy, dialing down the risks while cranking up performance.
Unveiling More Layers: Shifting Gears with Cloudflare’s SSL for SaaS
As we delved deeper into Cloudflare’s toolkit over the past year, it dawned on us that we were dealing with much more than just a CDN or a WAF system. We were tapping into a modern Cloud provider with a treasure trove of solutions. Take our TLS certificate generation process for instance. Whenever a customer snagged a custom domain like www.example.com from us, we needed to whip up an HTTPS certificate for it. Our go-to method was a homegrown system that chatted up LetsEncrypt (given our silver partner status with them) to generate the certificates. But, with more than 10 million websites on our new system, and the clock ticking on certificate renewals, this setup started to feel like a hamster wheel. Plus, the maintenance chunk it bit off our budget was a constant reminder of the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO). Enter Cloudflare’s SSL for SaaS solution. It was like they had plucked the system right out of our wish-list, offering a ready-made solution to a problem we’d wrestled with in-house for years. This move wasn’t just about offloading a task; it was about embracing a solution that meshed with our scale and pace, trimming down maintenance hours while keeping our domains secure and trustworthy.
Bot Busting: Trimming Traffic, Boosting Security
With the entire fleet of our new Dolphin system websites now anchored in Cloudflare, we had a front-row seat to the traffic show. Cloudflare’s analytics and logging system became our lens into who’s knocking on our digital doors and how. It was like flipping on the lights in a dark room. We could now spot most of the bots mingling with genuine traffic. Our curiosity piqued, we turned to their Bot Management & Protection product to see what more we could do. The results? A solid cut of 30% in our traffic, which was mostly just noise from malicious scrapers, rogue bots or sometimes misconfigurations on our customers’ side. And here’s the kicker — the cost of rolling out this bot protection was entirely offset by the reduction in traffic. It was like Cloudflare handed us a free ticket to ramp up security for our customers. This move didn’t just trim down unwanted traffic, it beefed up our defense without nicking our budget, a win-win in the truest sense.
Scaling Up, Costing Down: The Unseen Perks of Vendor Consolidation
As we wove Cloudflare deeper into our operations, yes, our spending on their services ticked up. But here’s where the plot twists: our Total Cost of Ownership (TOC) was on a downhill slope. It was like paying more upfront at a bulk store to save on the long run. This was more than just a trade-off; it was a strategic consolidation that opened up a bunch of side doors for us. First off, having a heftier volume of business with Cloudflare nudged open the doors for better contract negotiations. The bigger our deal, the bigger the discounts that rolled in. Then there was the simplification of our legal and compliance hoops. Fewer vendors in the mix meant fewer contracts to juggle and fewer compliance checklists to tick off. And let’s not forget the tech knowledge that started humming through our corridors. Having a go-to vendor meant we had a common tech language brewing across teams. Our systems too started looking less like a tangled spaghetti dish and more like a well-orchestrated symphony. Fewer components dangling in our setup led to better observability, making it easier to spot and iron out kinks. And oh, the sweet reduction in maintenance chores. By offloading certain chunks of our infrastructure to Cloudflare, we were cutting down on the internal components that needed our care and feeding. This move didn’t just amp up reliability but freed up our time to tackle bigger fish. In essence, consolidating on Cloudflare was like cleaning up our operational attic, making room for more streamlined, efficient processes.
One Roof, Many Gains: Migrating CDNs to Cloudflare
The journey didn’t stop at just bolstering security or simplifying processes. We eyed the bigger picture and decided to herd all our CDNs under Cloudflare’s roof. This was about getting a sweeter deal price-wise and knitting a single, unified system for easier upkeep. The ability to mold everything with Terraform was a cherry on top, injecting a level of consistency we craved. And as we played around, we stumbled upon Cloudflare’s Regional Tiered Cache feature. Flipping that switch cranked up our static assets cache rate from an already impressive 92% to a whopping 99.2%. This was more than just about numbers; it was about chopping down egress bandwidth from AWS to the outside world, a move that echoed sweetly on our budget given AWS networking’s hefty price tag (just peek at Cloudflare’s blog on AWS’s Egregious Egress or Duckbill Group’s breakdown on AWS data transfer costs). Every percentage point we shaved off meant fewer bytes trickling out of AWS and lighter bills at the end of the month. The switch to Cloudflare wasn’t just a technical maneuver; it was a strategic play, one that’s continuing to pay off as we dive deeper. This move brought along a sleeker setup, better cost dynamics, and a beefed-up cache game, all bundled with the simplicity of Terraform configurations. It’s like finding a partner that not only talks tech but talks smart savings and smoother operations.
Discoveries Galore: Unveiling Hidden Gems in Cloudflare’s Suite
As we nestled into Cloudflare’s ecosystem, something unexpected yet delightful unfolded. It wasn’t just about the services we signed up for; it was about stumbling upon additional utilities tucked within our plan. It’s akin to moving into a new home and discovering hidden compartments filled with goodies. Take Cloudflare Tunnels for instance. We needed a nifty way to parade some Pull Request code to the outside digital world on a temporary basis. And voila, a couple of our teams found Cloudflare Tunnels to be the perfect fit for this act. The deal was sweetened by the fact that we could whip up unlimited tunnels without a price tag. Then there was the Marketing Tooling team, who realized they could shift gears on bulk-redirects using Cloudflare, leading them to migrate a k8s service onto this new playground. And the surprises didn’t end there. Another squad saw potential in housing some consent-manager logic for cookies within Cloudflare Workers. These weren’t just isolated experiments; they were testimonies to Cloudflare morphing into a technology enabler for us. It was like having a Swiss Army knife, where we kept unfolding tools we didn’t know we had, each opening doors to solve problems in a simpler or more efficient manner. Cloudflare ceased to be just a vendor; it became a sandbox where our teams could test, iterate, and deploy solutions, all under one tech-savvy roof.
Forward Bound: Embarking on an Expanded Partnership
As we cast our gaze forward, the roadmap is clear: to migrate an increasing array of operations to a dependable ally like Cloudflare. This isn’t solely a pursuit of cost optimization, although the favorable impact on our Cost Of Goods Sold (COGS) has certainly brought a smile to our CFO’s face. It’s about crafting a simpler, more efficient, and more secure digital backbone for our enterprise. Our aspirations stretch across various dimensions — we aim to delve deeper into Cloudflare Workers, shift numerous S3 buckets to R2, and leverage the Image Optimization tool to fine-tune our online visuals. There’s also a keen interest in harnessing Pages for marketing sites, exploring the capabilities of Workers AI, D1, Turnstile, and a few more offerings in the Cloudflare portfolio. Our engineers, brimming with a rekindled enthusiasm, are at the forefront of these explorations. There’s a palpable buzz, reminiscent of the early days of Amazon AWS when the cloud horizon was fresh and brimming with possibilities. As they tinker with Cloudflare’s suite, the promise of discovering novel solutions and honing our operational prowess keeps the excitement alive. Cloudflare has transcended from being a mere vendor to a valued partner, its repertoire of tools acting as a catalyst in our ongoing quest for operational excellence and innovation.
A Personal Byte: Ascending Through Cloud-enabled Mastery
Embarking on the Cloudflare voyage has been more than just a corporate endeavor; it has been a ladder of personal and professional ascent for me. Call it “being egoist” if you may, but introducing Cloudflare to a company isn’t a maiden voyage for me, and each expedition has come with its own set of rewards. It’s not merely about integrating a robust tool; it’s about showcasing tangible value, carving out cost efficiencies, and elevating the operational prowess of our enterprise. These strides have not just resonated through the technical corridors of Jimdo but have propelled my journey from an Engineering Manager (EM) position to now spearheading the Cloud Architecture realm as the Head of Engineering.
This trajectory is a testimony to the transformative essence Cloudflare brings to the table — an essence that doesn’t just resonate on the company’s balance sheets, but reverberates through individual career pathways. And the story doesn’t end with me. The door at Jimdo is wide open for tech enthusiasts keen on exploring, innovating, and growing amidst a culture fueled by Cloudflare’s technological vigor. As we venture further into the digital horizon, I invite you to be a part of our team, to share in our quest for operational excellence, and to script your own story of growth and success. The synergy of Cloudflare’s tech suite and Jimdo’s vision creates a fertile ground for professional evolution. Here’s your invitation to join us, to be a part of a journey where technology isn’t just a tool, but a catalyst for corporate and personal advancement.
Beyond Bytes: The Human Sync in Our Partnership
In the digital realm where zeros and ones reign supreme, the human touch often gets eclipsed. Yet, as our engagement with Cloudflare unfolded, the human dimension emerged as a compelling chapter of our narrative. Our encounters with the Cloudflare crew, whether it was during visits to their London abode or through interactive sessions, breathed a warmth into the technical tapestry of our collaboration. Engaging face-to-face with their product team, we weren’t just another client on their roster; our voices echoed in their halls. Despite not being a colossal entity in the business domain, our dialogues with Cloudflare’s Product Managers were marked by genuine attentiveness. They didn’t just lend an ear; they volleyed back with counter-solutions, manifesting a true spirit of partnership. Unlike the larger cloud moguls where premium support often feels like an impersonal, pay-to-play hotline, our discourse with Cloudflare had a personal resonance. It’s rare in an industry where faces change with the seasons, but here we were, dialoguing with individuals who’ve been part of the Cloudflare fabric for half a decade or more. This human longevity fostered a camaraderie, allowing for candid conversations, joint planning, and a shared understanding of the challenges and prospects at both technical and fiscal strata. It’s this essence of partnership — the synergy of human and digital threads — that distinguishes our Cloudflare journey. We transitioned from being mere customers to becoming Cloudflare partners, a sentiment we believe is reciprocated. This human-centric ethos, intertwined with technological prowess, encapsulates the fulcrum of a partnership that’s poised to navigate the digital waves ahead with a shared compass.
I personally want to thank all the people who helped us in this transition.
Follow us at https://jimdoverse.com and me on Medium at Luca Cipriani
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