How Cloudflare Is Handling COVID-19 Disruptions
Cloudflare has published a set of frequently asked questions detailing how the company is responding to the COVID-19 pandemic. The company states that it does not anticipate any significant disruptions to its services, thanks to a combination of pre-existing disaster recovery plans and new, pandemic-specific measures.
Cloudflare's cross-functional Business Continuity Team (BCT) is leading the response. The group meets daily to assess whether updates or communications need to be sent to customers, partners, and employees. It is also monitoring COVID-19 related events globally and has developed tailored continuity plans for each office and function, including work-from-home policies and regional resources.
Operational Impact and Office Status
Because Cloudflare's business is largely digital and rarely requires in-person activity, the company does not expect a significant impact to its products or services. Troubleshooting and platform maintenance are performed by employees at dispersed global locations, and on-premises support is not required for the vast majority of offerings. Products can be used without manual intervention from Cloudflare staff.
Cloudflare offices in the US, EMEA, Sydney, and Singapore are physically closed, with all employees working remotely. In Beijing, staff are split into two groups that alternate between working from home and working in the office.
The company has also imposed travel restrictions to countries recommended by government agencies. All non-essential business travel, including inter-office trips, is postponed, and requirements are being updated according to regional health authority guidance.
Customer Support and Communication
Cloudflare does not operate call centers. Its support personnel remain available 24 hours a day, regardless of employee location. The Customer Support Team is fully operational and will contact customers in the event of an outage or incident using the same methods as always, which vary based on contract. For real-time updates, customers can consult the public status page at www.cloudflarestatus.com.
Cloudflare has also worked with critical business partners and suppliers to ensure there is minimal to no impact on the business or its customers. Vendors responsible for communicating service disruptions will go through the standard Customer Support channels.
Network Resilience and Data Center Failover
In the event of a data center outage, Cloudflare relies on its Anycast network, which includes over 200 Points of Presence (PoPs) that manage failover traffic. Traffic would simply be rerouted to alternate locations. More details on the network architecture are available at https://www.cloudflare.com/network/.
The Infrastructure and Engineering teams are proactively ensuring that sufficient capacity is available at the most critical PoPs during this period. For any questions not covered in the FAQ, customers can reach the Customer Support Team through normal channels.
