Tiered Caching, One Hop at a Time
Cloudflare's global network of over 200 data centers is built to serve content from the location closest to each visitor. That works perfectly when content is already in cache. When it's not, a data center must reach back to the origin server, which adds latency and puts unnecessary load on your infrastructure.
Tiered caching addresses this by organizing data centers into a hierarchy. Only a subset of upper-tier data centers are allowed to contact the origin; lower tiers fetch from those upper tiers instead. The result is fewer total connections to the origin, better bandwidth efficiency, and lower costs—since you only pay for the data transfer between the client and the edge, not the hops between Cloudflare's own data centers.
From Static Tiers to Dynamic Selection
Previously, Argo Tiered Cache relied on a fixed set of Cloudflare's largest and most-connected data centers as upper tiers. Any one of them could pull content from an origin on a cache miss. While that approach works globally, it's not always the most efficient for cost-sensitive customers who want data to flow through a single, best-connected path.
The new Smart Tiered Cache Topology changes that. Instead of using a static collection, it uses Argo's real-time performance and routing data—collected from every request across Cloudflare's network—to dynamically identify the single data center with the lowest latency to each of your origins. That one data center becomes the only upper tier for that origin, with a secondary data center ready as failover.
Automatic Setup
The new topology is the default behavior for Argo Tiered Cache. Once Argo is enabled, no additional configuration is needed:
- Log into your Cloudflare account.
- Go to the Traffic tab in the dashboard.
- Confirm that Argo is active.
- Non-Enterprise customers are automatically enrolled in Smart Tiered Cache Topology.
Enterprise customers can choose which topology generation type to apply to their zones.
Self-serve Argo customers are automatically enrolled in Smart Tiered Cache Topology
Enterprise customers can determine the tiered cache topology that works best for them.
Visibility Into Your Cache Topology
Alongside the performance and cost improvements, the dashboard now includes analytics specific to your custom topology. In the Cache tab's Tiered Cache section, you'll find:
- Primary Data Center and Secondary Data Center: which locations were selected as the best upper tier and its failover.
- Cached Hits and Hit Ratio: the proportion of requests served by the upper tier versus those forwarded to the origin.
- Bytes Saved: total data transferred from the upper tier to lower tiers, showing the bandwidth saved by keeping origin traffic to a single hop.
Smart Tiered Cache Topology integrates with existing Cloudflare products and is available to Argo customers now. Log in to your Cloudflare account and check the Traffic tab for more details.
