Check out these brand new videos on how to optimize CloudFlare

Someone once said that the best things in life are free and I can’t agree more. I want to draw the attention of the CloudFlare community to a great resource that helps maximize the value of our product. Troy Hunt, an experienced trainer and blogger, has produced a video course on using CloudFlare. The video series is available through Pluralsight, an online training site for developers.

Because the folks at Pluralsight think that this is a great resource, the video tutorials are being offered to everyone for a week absolutely for free.

So what can you expect to learn? The course kicks off by explaining what CloudFlare brings to the table, and then sets up a site on CloudFlare, including configuring the name server records with your DNS provider. All of this helps get things up and running quickly. Then it gets deeper.

One module of the course is devoted to understanding more about SSL and further strengthening the implementation. For example, CloudFlare’s SSL rates high on the Qualys SSL Labs Test and scores an “A” right out of the box. But you can make it better – an “A+” – just by enabling HSTS. However, you really want to understand what this means before turning it on as it can have undesired consequences as well. The course goes through this as well as explaining and configuring other aspects of the SSL implementation which further strengthens the security profile of the website behind CloudFlare.

Another module looks at managing the firewall application, an important aspect of how CloudFlare protects your website. Understanding the role of things like challenge pages and interstitial pages is important as is understanding what events cause them to be triggered and how you can customize the thresholds to suit your specific needs. Again, it’s about helping people really understand what’s going on inside CloudFlare’s free offering so that they can make the most of the service.

So that’s it – an hour and 38 minutes of everything you need to start really maximizing your CloudFlare experience and it’s free for the next week on Pluralsight. Enjoy!

P.S. CloudFlare is not affiliated nor will it profit from the course. We help spread the word because it benefits our customers.