Cloudflare has been on a roll over the last week, first with a privacy focused analytics platform and now WordPress focused optimization, from WP Tavern, Cloudflare Launches Automatic Platform Optimization for WordPress: “The effects of using APO are similar to hosting static files on a CDN, but without the need to manage a complicated tech stack. Content creators retain their ability to create dynamic websites without any changes to their workflow for the sake of performance.” I will be very curious to see how static site generating hosts like Strattic will react and how they will counter the message that you can use any host as long as APO is installed. Many hosts are already up-selling Cloudflare as part of their solutions and even making it a core component of performant hosting like Convesio. Performance and speed have been a topic here for a while as well as the critical component of load testing with the likes of Supervisor.com.

CDN Big Picture

This will require a much deeper dive but a couple of thoughts are raised by APO and CDNs in general. First, does a robust CDN economy grow and minimize the value of hosting companies in general? Second, are development platform fights like WordPress vs Jamstack going to only apply to engineers since it won’t matter what the platform is if everything is optimized at the edge? Last, will Cloudflare start taking a direct stake in the hosting space whether by having a direct offering, or investing in or acquiring hosts? Cloudflare is a publicly traded company so I have to imagine these kinds of scenarios are already being evaluated and considered.

Moving and Shaking

BobWP has “moved” to DoTheWoo, check out the interview. I attend a ton of webinars and I have to say the GoWP How to Use Omnichannel Marketing to Drive Customer Retention is one of better ones I’ve attended in a while. Let’s get shaking at some fun and informative events happening now and coming up: Page Builder Summit is in progress through tomorrow, and WP Agency Summit is coming October 12. As usual, keep your calendar up to date from the events page.