Acquisition adds secure remote infrastructure access to Cloudflare One, safeguarding customers’ most critical systems

Cloudflare, Inc. (NYSE: NET), the leading connectivity cloud company, today announced the acquisition of BastionZero, a Zero Trust infrastructure access platform, to further strengthen remote access to core IT systems for customers of Cloudflare One, the company’s secure access service edge (SASE) platform.

Combined with existing Cloudflare One capabilities, the acquisition of BastionZero gives IT and security teams Zero Trust controls for infrastructure like servers, Kubernetes clusters, and databases. This expands the scope of Cloudflare’s VPN replacement solution beyond apps and networks to infrastructure resources. As a result, security teams can centralize management of even more of their hybrid IT environment, while using standard Zero Trust practices to keep DevOps teams productive and secure.

With traditional virtual private network (VPN) security set-ups, developers and systems architects are granted overly permissive and long-lived access to a company’s most sensitive systems, such as servers and databases. In a world of hybrid work, this is an increasingly costly, risky, and outdated approach, hindering the ability to securely deploy new systems and react to a fast-changing business environment.

“The world of work has changed dramatically. Employees have the expectation that they can effectively do their work from anywhere. There’s no reason why teams managing an organization’s most important systems can’t have the same flexibility,” said Matthew Prince, co-founder and CEO, Cloudflare. “Incorporating BastionZero into Cloudflare One gives IT teams access to an organization's most critical inner workings securely, wherever they are. Millions of organizations around the world trust Cloudflare to protect their systems and data so they can focus on their business and their customers. The addition of BastionZero is just one more way we can protect them like no one else can.”

Adding BastionZero’s technology to Cloudflare One will give hybrid and remote IT teams access to their most critical assets remotely, resulting in:

• Increased security: Eliminating the need and risk of long-lived passwords and credentials by making it even easier to abide by Zero Trust principles for system access.
• Increased compliance: Ensuring just-in-time permissions for every person trying to access core systems and servers—such as developers and systems administrators—even if they’re working remotely, while following centralized policy controls with identity-aware logging.
• Increased control: Enabling individuals to have access to information and systems only when they need it with “just-in-time” policy options.
• Reduced complexity: Removing the need for legacy workaround security patches between systems (e.g. jump hosts) and more quickly granting access across complex infrastructure with policy controls and observability.

“Scalable and secure remote access to company servers and other infrastructure is table stakes for every IT and development team,” said Sharon Goldberg, Co-founder and CEO at BastionZero. “But home-grown solutions increasingly create security risks and operational costs. This acquisition enables us to deeply integrate BastionZero’s unique cryptographic approach for simple passwordless infrastructure access into the world’s largest secure access service edge (SASE) network. We’re proud to join Cloudflare to help companies provide Zero Trust access to their most critical infrastructure assets.” Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. acted as exclusive financial advisor to BastionZero on this transaction.

Launched in 2020, Cloudflare One is one of the fastest-growing platforms for secure access service edge (SASE) and security service edge (SSE) services. Companies worldwide rely on Cloudflare One to ensure only the right employees have access to the right internal systems and data at the right time with minimal burden on employees. This acquisition will expand Cloudflare's cloud security capabilities in the SASE market.

According to Gartner^Ⓡ, “Over the next five years, the market for secure access service edge will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 29%, reaching over $25 billion by 2027. The underlying SASE products that buyers will use will be split between single-vendor and dual-vendor approaches.”

Cloudflare One is a key part of Cloudflare’s connectivity cloud, enabling organizations to bring more IT security tools onto a single platform and making it easier to implement secure access to all their resources, from developer access to technical infrastructure to ever-expanding cloud services.

To learn more, please check out the resources below:

• Blog: https://blog.cloudflare.com/cloudflare-acquires-bastionzero
• Sign up for updates: https://www.cloudflare.com/lp/infrastructure-access/

Gartner Forecast analysts: secure access service edge, worldwide, Nat Smith, Neil MacDonald, Christian Canales, Andrew Lerner, Jonathan Forest, John Watts, Shailendra Upadhyay, Charlie Winckless, 10 October 2023. GARTNER is a registered trademark and service mark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and internationally and is used herein with permission. All rights reserved.

About Cloudflare

Cloudflare, Inc. (NYSE: NET) is the leading connectivity cloud company on a mission to help build a better Internet. It empowers organizations to make their employees, applications and networks faster and more secure everywhere, while reducing complexity and cost. Cloudflare’s connectivity cloud delivers the most full-featured, unified platform of cloud-native products and developer tools, so any organization can gain the control they need to work, develop, and accelerate their business.

Powered by one of the world’s largest and most interconnected networks, Cloudflare blocks billions of threats online for its customers every day. It is trusted by millions of organizations – from the largest brands to entrepreneurs and small businesses to nonprofits, humanitarian groups, and governments across the globe.

Learn more about Cloudflare’s connectivity cloud at cloudflare.com/connectivity-cloud. Learn more about the latest Internet trends and insights at https://radar.cloudflare.com.

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Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, which statements involve substantial risks and uncertainties. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements because they contain words such as “may,” “will,” “should,” “expect,” “explore,” “plan,” “anticipate,” “could,” “intend,” “target,” “project,” “contemplate,” “believe,” “estimate,” “predict,” “potential,” or “continue,” or the negative of these words, or other similar terms or expressions that concern Cloudflare’s expectations, strategy, plans, or intentions. However, not all forward-looking statements contain these identifying words. Forward-looking statements expressed or implied in this press release include, but are not limited to, statements regarding the capabilities and effectiveness of Cloudflare’s secure access service edge (SASE) platform and other products technology and BastionZero products and technology, the benefits to Cloudflare’s customers from using Cloudflare’s SASE platform and other products and technology and BastionZero products and technology, the timing of when Cloudflare’s SASE platform and BastionZero products and technology and or any of their related features will be fully integrated and generally available to all current and potential Cloudflare customers, Cloudflare’s plans and objectives for, and the timing of, the integration of BastionZero products and technology into Cloudflare’s SASE platform, Cloudflare’s technological development, future operations, growth, initiatives, or strategies, and comments made by Cloudflare’s CEO and others. Actual results could differ materially from those stated or implied in forward-looking statements due to a number of factors, including but not limited to, risks detailed in Cloudflare’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), including Cloudflare’s Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q filed on May 2, 2024, as well as other filings that Cloudflare may make from time to time with the SEC.

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