This Week in NET

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 
• Inside Gen 13: how we built our most powerful server yet

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

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.

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

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

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

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 

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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

In this episode of This Week in NET, host João Tomé is joined by Matt “TK” Taylor (Senior Product Manager) and Matt Kane (Senior Principal Systems Engineer) to discuss EmDash, a new CMS launched by Cloudflare as a modern, serverless alternative inspired by WordPress.

Built on Astro and designed for today’s developer workflows, EmDash combines the familiarity of traditional CMS platforms with a modern architecture: serverless deployment, TypeScript throughout, and a plugin system designed to solve one of WordPress’s biggest challenges — security.

The conversation explores why plugin vulnerabilities account for the vast majority of WordPress security issues, and how EmDash addresses that by running plugins in sandboxed Worker isolates with tightly scoped permissions. Matt and Matt also discuss how AI agents were used during development, why the project is MIT licensed, and how the CMS is designed from the ground up to work with AI agents through MCP and structured content.

Later in the episode we see the EmDash playground, how WordPress sites can be imported in minutes, and how developers can start building plugins and extensions today.

More info:

Introducing EmDash — the spiritual successor to WordPress that solves plugin security

Try out the EmDash admin interface here: https://emdashcms.com/playground 

⏱️ Timestamps

00:45 — Intro: EmDash launch and April 1 announcement

02:09 — What EmDash is and why Cloudflare built it

04:07 — Why WordPress architecture struggles on modern infrastructure

06:30 — Scaling storage, media, and modern hosting models

07:00 — The plugin ecosystem: WordPress’s strength and weakness

08:19 — Matt Taylor’s background in CMS and media platforms

09:03 — Matt Kane’s work with Astro and Gatsby

11:21 — How the idea for EmDash started inside the Astro community

13:36 — Building the CMS with AI agents

17:21 — Sandbox plugins with Cloudflare Dynamic Workers

19:17 — Solving the plugin security problem

22:16 — Why EmDash is MIT licensed

25:52 — Early feedback from Yoast and the WordPress ecosystem

27:05 — Designing a CMS for AI agents and MCP workflows

30:43 — Demo: the EmDash playground and dashboard

33:22 — Flexible content types and built-in SEO

35:05 — Editing directly on the live page

37:18 — Early community feedback and plugins already appearing

39:03 — x402 and the future of agent-era monetization

40:17 — SEO architecture and plugin extensibility

41:43 — What’s next for EmDash

In this episode of This Week in NET, host João Tomé is joined by Michelle Chen from Cloudflare’s AI product team to discuss the rise of open models, the launch of Kimi 2.5 on Workers AI, and why enterprises are rethinking the cost of proprietary AI.

Michelle explains how Cloudflare’s security team used Kimi to scan internal codebases and found more than 40 confirmed security issues — at a fraction of the cost of proprietary models. The conversation explores why open models are rapidly becoming competitive with closed alternatives, how Cloudflare builds efficiency with custom inference engines and prefix caching, and what the Replicate acquisition means for bring-your-own-model workflows on Workers AI.

Later in the episode, we also hear from Dina Kozlov about Dynamic Workers and Code Mode (now in open beta), followed by another Women of Cloudflare segment with Alexandra Messe Rodriguez.

⏱️ Timestamps

00:00 — Cold open: Kimi finds 40+ security issues

00:30 — Intro and Cloudflare blog highlights

03:06 — Michelle Chen joins the show

05:44 — The rise of open models and Kimi 2.5

07:14 — Finding 40+ security issues with AI

10:40 — The real cost of running AI agents

16:26 — Making inference efficient: caching, kernels, and architecture

19:42 — Replicate and bring-your-own-model on Workers AI

25:08 — Favorite AI use case: fashion e-commerce images

29:05 — Dina Kozlov: Dynamic Workers and Code Mode

33:13 — Women of Cloudflare: Alexandra Messe Rodriguez

In this episode of This Week in NET, host João Tomé is joined by Chema Alonso, Vice President and Head of International Development at Cloudflare.

Chema shares how a 1998 paper on SQL injection launched his career in hacking, his path from running a startup in Madrid to becoming a Microsoft MVP for 14 years, and how he ended up leading cybersecurity at Telefónica for more than a decade — after telling them “you don’t have enough money to make me work for you.” He also explains why he left Telefónica in 2025 to join Cloudflare, and what surprised him about the company’s technical depth.

The conversation explores how AI is changing cybersecurity, from AI agents competing in Capture-the-Flag contests to automated attack chains running around the clock. Chema also discusses the black market for zero-day vulnerabilities, Cloudflare’s role in Europe, and how AI may reshape the economics of the Internet.

We also hear the story behind his famous beanie hat, a Bluetooth exploit that Apple initially called “a feature” until Steve Wozniak got involved and a quick-fire round covering his first computer, favorite hacks, admired researchers, and why Gemini once hallucinated that he went to jail.

⏱️ Timestamps 

01:00 — How SQL injection in 1998 started his career

02:36 — From startup to Microsoft MVP to training Spain's cyber forces

04:36 — Black Hat, Def Con, and the global hacking scene

05:53 — How Telefonica recruited Chema

08:49 — 20 years of daily blogging as "brain gym"

10:27 — The beanie hat origin story

14:34 — Why he left Telefonica to join Cloudflare

17:41 — What customers are most worried about: AI security

22:55 — Cloudflare's role in Europe: sovereignty, resilience, and growth

26:58 — How AI is disrupting the Internet's business model

28:44 — The evolution of hacking: from phreaking to AI agents

37:42 — The Dirty Tooth iPhone Bluetooth exploit and Steve Wozniak

41:39 — Quick-fire round: first computer, favorite hack, Kevin Mitnick

43:58 — Google Gemini hallucinated that Chema went to jail

46:49 — The future of the Internet and Cloudflare

In this episode of This Week in NET, Heather Orsi, Director of Strategic Finance & Investor Relations at Cloudflare, shares her unusual career path across finance, startups, and tech, and what it means to communicate Cloudflare’s story to investors and analysts.

Heather talks about her first days at Cloudflare just after the IPO, what it takes to explain a highly technical company to Wall Street, and how finance, strategy, and storytelling come together in investor relations.

This conversation is part of the Women of Cloudflare series for Women’s Empowerment Month.

Check the Cloudflare Blog:

https://blog.cloudflare.com

🎧 Subscribe for weekly conversations about the Internet and Cloudflare:

https://ThisWeekinNET.com

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⏱️ Timestamps

00:38 — From banking and startups to Cloudflare

02:21 — Joining Cloudflare right after the IPO

04:16 — Explaining a deeply technical company to investors

06:31 — Communicating Cloudflare’s story to analysts

08:51 — The role of investor relations inside a tech company

11:16 — Being a woman in finance and tech

13:11 — Advice for people starting a career in finance

In this episode of This Week in NET, host João Tomé is joined by Cloudflare’s new Chief Marketing Officer, Jeff Samuels, to explore how marketing is evolving in the age of AI.

We discuss why brand still wins, how marketers are becoming “context engineers,” and how Cloudflare connects deep technical products to clear narratives that resonate with customers.

We also touch on the role of real-world events like RSA Conference, where Cloudflare will be present, and why in-person moments still matter in an increasingly AI-driven, digital-first world.

⏱️ Timestamps

01:44 — News roundup (AI, policy, product updates)

03:25 — Meet Jeff Samuels (Cloudflare CMO)

04:07 — Background: startups, policy, global experience

06:46 — From product to marketing mindset

08:25 — Lessons from OpenDNS and Cisco

11:47 — Marketing in tech: empathy and understanding systems

13:27 — Lifecycle marketing and customer connection

15:05 — Why Cloudflare (people, mission, opportunity)

16:49 — Marketing as the “architect” of go-to-market

18:38 — Brand vs demand

20:48 — Events like RSA and why they still matter

27:02 — AI and the shift to orchestration

31:39 — What’s next for Cloudflare marketing

34:02 — Quick fire: skills, mistakes, brand vs performance

36:49 — Advice for marketers entering tech

37:27 — One word for Cloudflare: opportunity