We use a variety of tools and services to help manage your sites. One such service is called "CloudFlare" and it offers a range of features from security to page optimization. Their DNS servers are among the fastest responding DNS servers on the Internet. DNS servers provide a listing of where a domain's different services can be located at .
CloudFlare essentially sites between the Internet and the server your site is running on. When a visitor goes to your site, their browser will connect to a CloudFlare access point, a network node. This network node will then connect to the server that your site is running on. By using their own network, Cloudflare can bypass slow or congested connections in different parts of the world. This core functionality is called proxying. A side benefit of proxying is that migrations between servers, platforms, and hosts can be done with minimal maintenance windows. As we need to balance our server fleets, internal migrations are benefited with proxying. Without proxying, a migration requires hours of propagation time and that will greatly vary among visitors, browsers, computers, and internet connections.
CloudFlare's proxying also adds in the ability to add layers of security, optimization, bot protections, and others -- some are free and some are only available on their paid plans.
CloudFlare also provides DNS (Domain Name Server) services. Without DNS, the Internet would not know where to send a visitor to a site, not know what server to send mail to, etc. DNS acts a directory for domains. Their DNS services are fast and that is important, though a small part, for a first time page load.
