Expanding the reach of Cloudflare Network Interconnect

Cloudflare Network Interconnect (CNI) has always been positioned as the most direct path into Cloudflare's network for organizations that need its performance, privacy, and security features. The original launch in August 2020 opened roughly 150 physical locations and 25 partner locations. Data center partner additions during Security Week expanded that further. Now, Cloudflare is widening the on-ramp again: customers can connect to Cloudflare from their existing Layer 2 service fabric across more than 1,600 locations.

Two new partners are joining the CNI Partner Program: CoreSite Open Cloud Exchange (OCX) and Infiny by Epsilon. Combined with all existing partner locations being made available, the total footprint for private, secure Cloudflare connections now stands at 1,638 locations. For network and security teams, this means the option to interconnect from the fabric they already operate, rather than requiring presence in a Cloudflare data center or a specific partner facility.

Interconnect Anywhere — Reach Cloudflare’s network from 1,600+ locations

Security over your choice of fabric

The core idea is straightforward: companies can reach Cloudflare's network and security products—such as Magic Transit, Magic WAN, and Cloudflare Access—without hopping across shared public internet paths. Instead, traffic flows over software-defined networking (SDN) provider fabrics via a layer 2 connection. Cloudflare's global network of 200+ data centers ensures that a low-latency, secure connection point is nearby regardless of where the customer attaches to a partner fabric.

This expansion also supports redundancy. With more locations to choose from, customers can establish multiple secure paths to Cloudflare, improving reliability. As both Cloudflare and partner networks grow, the distance between customer and Cloudflare's edge continues to shrink.

How a fabric-based connection works

Consider a company—call it Acme Corp—that needs to secure employee access and protect its own services from network attacks. Acme has purchased Magic Transit and Cloudflare Access, and is evaluating Magic WAN. Rather than accepting the latency and congestion risks of public internet transit, Acme architects its network to use a software-defined fabric with CNI.

The provisioning process is designed to be simple. Acme visits its partner portal and requests a virtual layer 2 connection to Cloudflare, chooses bandwidth, and submits. Cloudflare accepts the connection, returns BGP session establishment details, and can set up a turn-up call if needed.

Fabric Partner Enabled Locations
PacketFabric 180+
Megaport 700+
Equinix Fabric 46+
Console Connect 440+
CoreSite Open Cloud Exchange 22+
Infiny by Epsilon 250+

Testimonials from PacketFabric, Megaport, CoreSite, and Epsilon each highlight different benefits, but the consistent thread is that organizations can provision hybrid architectures faster, reduce exposure to DDoS attacks, and simplify connectivity through private on-demand networks that span hundreds of locations across multiple countries.

What expands when a new location comes online

[Insert description of Figure 1: Connection Established with Cloudflare Network Interconnect]

When a customer establishes a CNI connection to a fabric partner, the link operates over layer 2 and is configured through the partner's user interface. The partnership model means the customer does not need to be physically located in the same data center as Cloudflare—the fabric carries traffic to Cloudflare's network securely and privately.

[Insert description of Figure 2: Shorter Customer Path with Incremental Partner Locations]

Each time Cloudflare brings a new data center online and connects it to a partner fabric, all customers in that region benefit from the shorter path and reduced latency. The value of the interconnect grows with every additional location added to the combined footprint.

Self-serve provisioning and next steps

For teams that prefer to provision the connection themselves, Cloudflare has published partner-specific documentation:

Customers already using one of these SDN providers can contact their fabric partner account team to get connected. Those not currently using a fabric but interested in the approach can reach out to their Cloudflare account team to explore options.