This Week in NET

Inside Cloudflare's Gen 13 Servers: Trading Cache for Cores

In this episode of This Week in NET, JQ Lau and Victor Hwang from our Network & Infrastructure Strategy team walk us through Cloudflare's 13th generation of servers — the machines that power a significant part of the internet across 330+ cities worldwide. The Gen 13 program doubled compute density by jumping from 96 to 192 cores, but that came with an 83% drop in L3 cache. The team explains how a bold hardware bet, combined with Cloudflare's FL2 Rust-based software rewrite, turned that trade-off into a win across throughput, latency, and power efficiency. From counterintuitive fan physics to credit card pen tests on chassis intrusion switches, this conversation covers the full stack: CPUs, memory, storage, networking, security, and what's next — including post-quantum readiness at the hardware layer. Mentioned blog posts: * Launching Cloudflare's Gen 13 servers: trading cache for cores for 2x edge compute performance  [https://blog.cloudflare.com/gen13-launch/] * Inside Gen 13: how we built our most powerful server yet [https://blog.cloudflare.com/gen13-config/] Timestamps 00:53 — Blog recap: what Cloudflare announced (including agents can now actually create Cloudflare accounts, buy domains, and deploy) 03:52 — From Gen 11 to Gen 13: the evolution of Cloudflare's servers 05:04 — Doubling compute power while cutting cache by 83% 06:54 — The journey to choosing the right CPU 10:04 — Scratchpad vs bookshelf: cache and memory explained 12:08 — Why 192 cores won over 128 cores 15:35 — FL2: Cloudflare's Rust-based software rewrite 18:12 — Hardware and software co-design: why neither works alone 18:37 — Memory, storage, and networking upgrades 22:18 — Dual GPU support and future accelerators 23:25 — Inside the Gen 13 chassis: what changed visually 24:51 — Why adding a 5th fan saves power (counterintuitive physics) 25:59 — Server security: memory encryption, PCIe encryption, intrusion detection 30:12 — 50% better performance per watt and what that means at scale 33:54 — The Austin lab: where hardware gets tested before production 35:10 — How AI helped design Gen 13 37:13 — 500 terabits per second: Cloudflare's network milestone 38:30 — What's next: Gen 14, rack-scale design, and post-quantum hardware 41:16 — Supply chain planning: lessons from COVID and the AI buildout

From IBM and Cisco to Cloudflare: 30 Years in Enterprise Sales | Vinti Batiste

In this episode of This Week in NET, Vinti Batiste, VP of Sales for US Enterprise at Cloudflare, shares her 30-year journey across IBM, Cisco, and now Cloudflare — and what it really means to be in enterprise sales. Vinti talks about growing Cloudflare's enterprise business 80% year over year, the moment Michelle Zatlyn walked into her first all-hands, how she uses AI to prepare for customer meetings, and why sales is really a math problem. This conversation is part of the Women of Cloudflare series.

Cloudflare’s Agents Week: Building Infrastructure for AI Agents

In this special Agents Week edition of This Week in NET, host João Tomé is joined by Ming Lu (Principal Product Manager) and Anni Wang (Product Manager) to recap Cloudflare’s first-ever Agents Week. The conversation explores why the Internet and the cloud were not designed for an AI-agent world, and what infrastructure needs to change as software agents begin generating code, running workflows, and interacting directly with online services. Ming and Anni walk through several announcements from Cloudflare’s Agents Week, including new tools for agent infrastructure, memory, developer workflows, AI Gateway, email, artifacts, browser automation, security, and agent-ready websites. At the end of the episode, there is also a fun recap video made by Zeke Sikelianos (Principal Systems Engineer, Developer Relations), using a deepfake version of himself to summarize the week’s announcements through Thursday. Check all the blogs and CFTV videos on our Agents Week Hub [http://cloudflare.com/agents-week] 0:27 — Intro: special Agents Week edition 0:41 — Ming Lu and Anni Wang join the show 3:13 — Main takeaway from Agents Week 6:40 — Monday: Agent Cloud, sandboxes, containers, and CLI 11:34 — Tuesday: security, Cloudflare Mesh, and enterprise MCP 17:02 — Wednesday: Project Think, browser automation, and Agent Lee 24:23 — Thursday: Email Service, Artifacts, and the AI platform 31:53 — Friday: feature flags, agent readiness, shared compression, and memory 40:15 — What’s still coming after Friday 42:04 — Feedback and reaction from the week 45:23 — Zeke Sikelianos deepfake recap video

“It’s Quite a Shock”: The Quantum Deadline Is Real

In this World Quantum Day special edition of This Week in NET, host João Tomé is joined by Bas Westerbaan (Principal Research Engineer) and Sharon Goldberg (Senior Director, Product) to explain why the timeline for post-quantum cryptography may be arriving sooner than expected. Recent research suggests the number of qubits required to break today’s encryption could fall dramatically, accelerating the urgency for companies and the Internet ecosystem to migrate to post-quantum security. Google has set a 2029 migration target, and Cloudflare is working toward a similar timeline. Bas, who has spent years deploying post-quantum cryptography at Cloudflare, explains why the shift from theoretical risk to practical planning is happening now, what “Q-Day” would actually mean, and why upgrading the Internet’s cryptography is one of the largest coordinated security transitions ever attempted. The episode also covers the difference between post-quantum encryption and authentication, how quantum computers work, and what organisations should start doing today to prepare. Check the Cloudflare Blog: blog.cloudflare.com/post-quantum-roadmap Timestamps 0:00 — Cold open: “It’s quite a shock” 0:40 — World Quantum Day and why this matters now 2:30 — Sharon Goldberg: the big picture of post-quantum cryptography 4:20 — Why Cloudflare is targeting 2029 7:00 — Encryption vs authentication and the “harvest now, decrypt later” risk 10:50 — Bas Westerbaan: background and path into cryptography 18:30 — How quantum computers actually work 23:40 — Why RSA and elliptic-curve cryptography are vulnerable 28:10 — Why the quantum timeline may be accelerating 33:00 — Cloudflare’s post-quantum deployment progress 40:20 — How AI could help the industry migrate faster 48:10 — What companies should start doing today 58:00 — Quick-fire round and the Internet in a post-quantum world

Cloudflare Agents Week Preview: What to Expect

In this short edition of This Week in NET, host João Tomé joins from the island of Madeira for a quick preview of Cloudflare’s first Agents Week. João is joined by Ming Lu (Principal Product Manager at Replicate) and Anni Wang (Product Manager) to discuss why AI agents are becoming one of the biggest shifts happening on the Internet right now. They explore how agents are starting to generate more code than developers, why the Internet is moving toward agents interacting with other agents, and what infrastructure is needed to build and run them securely at scale. The conversation also previews some of the themes of Agents Week: building and running agents on Cloudflare’s platform, securing agent access to tools and data, managing the large volumes of data agents generate, and how the web itself may change as machines increasingly consume content. Check our Agents Week site: cloudflare.com/agents-week [http://cloudflare.com/agents-week]  ⸻ Timestamps 01:11 — Meet Ming Lu and Anni Wang 01:55 — What Agents Week is and why Cloudflare launched it 02:44 — Why agents are becoming a major shift for the Internet 04:33 — Why agents need new infrastructure for compute, storage, and security 05:02 — The rise of personal and enterprise agents 06:43 — Running agents on Cloudflare’s platform 07:34 — Security challenges when agents access tools and data 09:13 — How agents may change how the web is consumed 10:23 — Managing the massive data agents generate 11:21 — Working with multiple AI models and switching between them 12:43 — What it’s like launching a Cloudflare Innovation Week 14:07 — The energy and chaos of building announcements 14:52 — Final thoughts and what to expect next week