Why Cloudflare Is Moving Its Edge Fleet to Arm
Cloudflare’s business model rests on a massive base of free customers. Serving that traffic profitably means running one of the most energy-efficient networks in the industry. The company’s latest step in that direction is a long-awaited shift to Arm-based server CPUs. After first experimenting with Arm silicon in November 2017, Cloudflare began deploying its first Arm-based processors — designed by Ampere — in July 2021.
The move is justified by clear efficiency gains. Compared with the AMD Rome CPUs used in the previous generation of edge servers (Gen X), the new Arm processors handle 57% more Internet requests per watt. That advantage also holds against AMD’s newer Milan chips, which Cloudflare is deploying as well but which deliver only 39% more requests per watt than Rome in the existing fleet. Cloudflare expects further efficiency improvements as Arm deployment widens and its software is tuned for the architecture.
The cumulative effect is substantial: with Arm, Cloudflare can now process over ten times as many requests per watt as it did with servers designed in 2013.
Pressure on x86 Vendors
Cloudflare’s results highlight a growing gap between Arm and x86 in energy efficiency at the edge. The company is hopeful that wider adoption of Arm servers will push Intel and AMD to treat power consumption as a priority, especially given that x86 chips still account for the vast majority of global data center energy use. Cloudflare’s argument is straightforward: reducing the carbon footprint of the Internet requires efficiency gains across the entire industry, and competitive pressure is one of the most effective levers to drive those changes.
