Cloudflare’s Strengths Shine but Perceived Gaps Persist

ETR Insights presents an interview with a panel of senior technology executives: Cloudflare remains their default perimeter for web performance and security, though most are holding spending steady, with only modest increases for expanded DDoS, bot management, and WAF coverage. Panelists like Cloudflare’s lightweight CDN, though find that their emerging SASE stack, while cheaper, is less mature relative to competitors like Zscaler. Persistent service quirks, technical gaps, and limited enterprise-grade management capabilities can also frustrate. Cloudflare Workers serves latency-sensitive edge functions and complex Web-application-firewall logic; panelists see upside if Cloudflare can convert its vast traffic telemetry into truly automated, AI-driven defenses without adding cost or oversight. Read on to learn more about Cloudflare’s “pay-as-you-grow” economics, skepticism that raw CDN speed will displace hyperscalers, and why some panelists find Cloudflare’s AI-driven API Shield too expensive to sustain. … **Several users express concern that Cloudflare launches products before they are fully enterprise-ready. Issues with incomplete DNS firewall features and UI limitations hinder deeper adoption of newer or advanced capabilities **Operational complexity at scale.**Managing Cloudflare across many domains or clients can be cumbersome. Lack of bulk update functionality in the UI and a heavy reliance on APIs or manual scripts are cited as pain points for multi-tenant or agency use **Cautious optimism for SASE adoption. … A significant complaint: small functional oddities persist for years, and quirks in core services. *“We’ve kind of had to trip on it ourselves or find it out through a support ticket,” *says one SVP, *“and then just kind of adjust our workflow or configuration to kind of work around it.” *Another CISO attempted to move DNS-resolution to Cloudflare, only to pull back when promised capabilities failed to materialize. … *“It's all very manual, which I don't love. It's a point solution we don't use very often, and it's not across all of our clients. It’s for very particular problems that we find that don't have a kind of prepackaged solution within Cloudflare already.” *Past Terraform gaps also sound to have slowed broader rollout. … *One executive imagines a potential arbitrage play. ... One SVP, whose firm advises clients on Cloudflare contracts, notes upselling has intensified, in particular attempts to dislodge Zscaler. Some of their clients struggle to understand which Cloudflare services are truly necessary, while others find that hurried purchases end up discarded at renewal. Again, follow-on is an issue. Within enterprise, *“They get [the product] out, and then it takes a while to get all the enterprise-grade features added after it's in the marketplace.” *Although the company’s support teams are improving, our panelists want to see deeper product maturity and steadier account guidance before declaring Cloudflare a fully enterprise-ready platform. *“They’ve been more responsive to that in probably the last four months. While aggressive and while cross-selling, I think they tend to be more willing to maybe put in a little bit of work now.” ... *“The primary thing that stopped us is existing contracts with existing players. When we're coming up on a renewal and have the opportunity, then we'll do an actual POC and determine whether or not those gaps have been reduced, and whether we can live with them if the associated cost delta is big enough.” *Panelists agreed that Cloudflare must shore up administrative features and step up executive-level sales outreach. *“If the organization team who has to make this decision doesn’t get much communication with Cloudflare, or time to spend on the comparison, then they may get more inclined towards another product like Zscaler.” * Panelists appreciate Cloudflare’s rapid, credit-card-driven onboarding and low-maintenance operation once initial settings are dialed in, though ones juggling dozens of customer domains complain the platform lacks true multi-site management, forcing them to rely on APIs and infrastructure-as-code scripts for routine bulk updates. *“Being forced to use an API—that's kind of their default answer to anything—that's also been a point of frustration.” *An effort to secure white-label enterprise agreements fell apart on overly restrictive terms. Cloudflare’s appeal is clear to power users, but cracks are showing at scale. *“What I like is that Cloudflare is innovative and cost-effective, and what I dislike is that they're slow to deliver enterprise-grade functionality.” *