Rebel Alliance expands services to Cloudflare CDN

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Integrating the Hybrid Cloud

As far and fast as cloud computing is embedding itself into the enterprise, there remain many cloud-resistant applications and services.

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I wrote about the Bandwidth Alliance back in April. I'm pleased to report they've expanded their team with the addition of Cloudflare - and with zero transfer fees between the Backblaze B2 storage service and Cloudflare's content delivery network (CDN).

What's the catch? You have to use the economical Backblaze B2 storage service AND Cloudflare with any plan - including the free one! The secret sauce is a direct connection between B2 and Cloudflare, enabling near-instant data transfers between the two.

You simply designate a B2 bucket, log in to your Cloudflare account - or create one - add your B2-based web site, complete the DNS record and billing info, and check the SSL settings. Once the changes propagate, you're live.

You can host web site content and media for delivery worldwide over Cloudflare's CDN. Need to transcode media? There are zero transfer fees between B2 and Packet's compute services as well.

Bandwidth Alliance

Besides Backblaze and Cloudflare, the Alliance includes Automattic - makers of WordPress - DigitalOcean, IBM Cloud, Microsoft Azure, Packet, and other cloud and networking companies. Some pretty well-heeled rebels.

The Storage Bits take

I have a bias against real or de facto monopolies. AWS and Google may have shown the way, but now competition is working its magic to get better services and lower prices.

While AWS and Google have attractive storage prices, the transfer fees add up quickly. The question you have to ask yourself is: "can I afford free?"

Courteous comments welcome, of course.