Cloudflare operates one of the world's largest networks, with data centers in 300+ cities. It provides CDN (content delivery), DDoS protection, Zero Trust networking, and Workers (serverless compute at the edge). 20%+ of all websites use Cloudflare. Its network processes 57M+ HTTP requests per second. Cloudflare's ambition is to be the internet's security and performance layer.
Key relationships in depth
Cloudflare and Microsoft have a Zero Trust security partnership where Cloudflare One integrates with Microsoft Azure Active Directory and Microsoft Entra ID for identity-aware access control. Cloudflare's network (running in 300+ cities globally) acts as a proxy layer for Microsoft 365 traffic, providing DDoS protection, Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA), and Secure Web Gateway services for Azure and M365 customers.
Why it matters: Microsoft's 400M+ Microsoft 365 users need security at the network edge, not just at the endpoint. Cloudflare's globally distributed network handles traffic before it reaches Azure data centers, filtering attacks and enforcing access policies. The partnership helps Microsoft differentiate its enterprise security stack by integrating best-in-class CDN and network security.
Cloudflare & NVIDIA
Cloudflare and NVIDIA partnered to bring AI inference capabilities to Cloudflare's global edge network. Cloudflare Workers AI uses NVIDIA GPU hardware deployed across Cloudflare's 300+ data center locations globally to run AI model inference at the network edge. Cloudflare's AI Gateway product provides observability, caching, and rate-limiting for AI API calls including NVIDIA NIM microservices, allowing enterprises to manage AI costs and performance. The partnership positions Cloudflare as the NVIDIA distribution layer for low-latency AI inference at the edge, reducing round-trip time for AI-powered applications.
Why it matters: AI inference delivered from centralized cloud data centers adds 50-200ms latency that degrades real-time AI application experiences. Cloudflare's edge network spans 300+ locations within 50ms of 95% of the world's internet population, enabling NVIDIA GPU-powered inference closer to end users. For NVIDIA, Cloudflare represents a distribution channel to bring NIM microservices to the edge without NVIDIA building its own CDN infrastructure. Cloudflare's 20M+ internet properties using its network create immediate demand for edge AI inference that NVIDIA GPUs can serve.
Cloudflare operates as a strategic partner to Google Cloud, with Cloudflare's network services complementing GCP's infrastructure and the two companies co-selling edge security and CDN solutions to enterprise customers. Cloudflare Workers AI competes directly with Google Cloud's Vertex AI inference products, but the companies also collaborate through Cloudflare's integration with Google Cloud Armor and the shared use of Google's fiber backbone for peering.
Why it matters: Cloudflare's global edge network of 330+ data centers provides last-mile performance optimization that Google's own CDN cannot fully replicate for all traffic patterns, making Cloudflare a complementary layer even for GCP-hosted applications. Google benefits from Cloudflare's large enterprise customer base as an entry point for deeper GCP migrations.
Cloudflare & Amazon
Cloudflare and Amazon Web Services have a competitive and complementary dynamic in the cloud and edge networking market. Cloudflare's CDN and DDoS protection services compete directly with Amazon CloudFront and AWS Shield for enterprise content delivery and security. However, Cloudflare integrates with AWS through partnerships where enterprises use Cloudflare for edge security and CDN while running backend workloads on AWS. Cloudflare's AWS Marketplace listing enables enterprises to procure Cloudflare services against their AWS committed spend. Cloudflare's Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) also complements AWS private networking services for hybrid enterprise architectures.
Why it matters: Most of Cloudflare's 20M+ internet properties use underlying cloud infrastructure from AWS, making Cloudflare effectively a security and performance layer sitting in front of AWS-hosted applications. Enterprises running on AWS frequently adopt Cloudflare for superior DDoS protection, WAF capabilities, and global CDN performance that AWS CloudFront cannot match in customization and breadth. Cloudflare's AWS Marketplace availability makes this complementary deployment easy for AWS-committed enterprises to procure.
Relationships are compiled by VexMap from company filings, announcements and reporting, and last reviewed September 2026. Spotted something wrong? Tell us. Not investment advice.