The Superior Court of Infrastructure Decisions
Infrastructure Division · Courtroom 443 · The Year of Outages
Case No. 2021-EDGE-0608
The People (IT Procurement)
— versus —
Cloudflare, Akamai, Fastly, Bunny.net & AWS CloudFront
OFFICIAL TRANSCRIPT OF PROCEEDINGS
Hearing Date: Throughout Calendar Year 2021
Before the Honorable Judge Uptime, Presiding
Counsel for the People: Attorney Latency, Esq.
Court Reporter: The Internet Archive
EXHIBIT COPY
Witness No. 1 — Cloudflare, Inc. — Direct Examination
THE CLERK: The People call Cloudflare, Incorporated, to the stand.
THE WITNESS (CLOUDFLARE): Present, Your Honor. Founded 2009, San Francisco.
ATTORNEY LATENCY (EXAMINATION):
State for the record your network size as of 2021.
Approximately 250 cities across 100+ countries. Our Anycast network routes every request to the nearest data center. We also expanded our backbone significantly this year.
And your pricing model?
Our free tier includes CDN, DDoS protection, universal SSL, and basic WAF rulesets. Pro is $20/month per domain. Business is $200/month. Enterprise is custom.
Exhibit A — Cloudflare 2021 Feature Summary
Workers: Serverless V8 isolates at edge, KV storage, Cron Triggers, Durable Objects (beta) · R2 Storage: Announced Sept 2021 — S3-compatible, $0 egress fees · Pages: Static site hosting (GA April 2021) · DDoS: Unmetered on all plans, mitigated 17.2M rps attack in Aug 2021 · Security: WAF, bot management, API Shield · Free tier: Genuinely usable CDN + DDoS + SSL at no cost
Describe the August 2021 DDoS attack you mitigated.
On August 19, 2021, our systems automatically detected and mitigated a 17.2 million request-per-second DDoS attack — the largest HTTP DDoS attack reported at that time. The attack lasted less than 30 seconds. Our autonomous edge detection handled it without human intervention.
What about R2 — the storage product you announced?
R2 was announced in September 2021. The key differentiator is zero egress fees for stored objects, while maintaining S3 API compatibility. It directly challenges traditional cloud data transfer pricing.
OBJECTION — COUNSEL FOR AWS CLOUDFRONT
Implies predatory pricing against a competitor's storage model.
THE COURT: Overruled. The witness may describe their own pricing strategy. Proceed.
What weaknesses should the jury be aware of?
In 2021, advanced WAF custom rules required the Business plan at $200/month. Free and Pro support was community-forum only — no guaranteed response times. Workers had memory limits of 128 MB, and Durable Objects were still in beta. Some enterprise customers felt our support couldn't match Akamai's dedicated account teams.
Court notes: Witness credible. Free tier remarkably generous. R2 announcement strategically significant for the market.
Witness No. 2 — Fastly, Inc. — Cross-Examination
THE CLERK: The People call Fastly, Incorporated.
THE WITNESS (FASTLY): Present. Founded 2011, San Francisco.
ATTORNEY LATENCY (EXAMINATION):
Let us address the matter directly. On June 8, 2021, your service experienced a major global outage. Describe what happened.
OBJECTION — COUNSEL FOR FASTLY
Request to note that service was restored within one hour.
THE COURT: Noted. The witness will provide the full timeline. Proceed.
At approximately 09:50 UTC on June 8, 2021, a latent software bug — introduced in a May 12th update — was triggered when a customer made a routine configuration change. This caused 85% of our network to return 503 errors. Sites affected included Reddit, the New York Times, BBC, Twitch, PayPal, Spotify, the UK government portal, and the White House website. Service was restored by approximately 10:50 UTC.
Exhibit B — Fastly June 8, 2021 Incident Timeline
09:47 UTC: Bug triggered by routine customer config change · 09:50 UTC: 85% of network returning 503 errors · 10:16 UTC: Amazon removed Fastly from DNS, rerouted to Akamai and CloudFront · 10:36 UTC: Fastly identified root cause and began deploying fix · 10:50 UTC: Service restored for most customers · Root cause: Latent software bug from May 12 update
Beyond the outage, describe your strengths in 2021.
Our 150-millisecond global cache purge remains the fastest in the industry. In 2021, we completed the full integration of Signal Sciences — acquired in 2020 for $775 million — into our Next-Gen WAF, which achieved 90% full-blocking accuracy. VCL gives teams granular edge control. Compute@Edge was expanding support for Rust, JavaScript, and Go via WebAssembly.
Pricing and network?
Usage-based with a $50/month minimum. No free tier. Approximately 60 PoPs in 2021 — smaller than Cloudflare or Akamai, but each PoP was high-capacity, focused on major internet exchange points for maximum throughput.
Court notes: June 8 outage is the defining event of 2021. Recovery was swift. Technical capabilities remain impressive for engineering teams.
Witness No. 3 — Akamai Technologies — Cross-Examination
THE CLERK: The People call Akamai Technologies.
THE WITNESS (AKAMAI): Present. Founded 1998, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
ATTORNEY LATENCY (EXAMINATION):
Akamai, you also experienced a significant outage in 2021. On July 22nd, your Edge DNS service failed globally. Describe the incident.
On July 22, 2021, a software configuration update triggered a bug in our DNS system, causing our Edge DNS service to fail globally. Banks, airlines, and major websites went offline — Southwest Airlines, United Airlines, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, and others. The outage lasted approximately one hour.
Exhibit C — Akamai July 22, 2021 Incident Summary
Trigger: Software configuration update in Edge DNS routing tables · Impact: Global DNS resolution failures for Akamai-hosted domains · Affected: Southwest Airlines, United Airlines, Commonwealth Bank, ANZ, Westpac, HKEX · Duration: ~1 hour · Context: Occurred just 44 days after the Fastly outage — sparking industry-wide multi-CDN conversations
Two major CDN outages in 44 days. What was the industry response?
It forced serious conversations about multi-CDN strategies and vendor diversification. Amazon was already load-balancing across Fastly, Akamai, and CloudFront — which helped them weather both incidents with minimal disruption to end users.
Describe your platform strengths in 2021.
We operated approximately 4,000 edge servers across 130+ countries, embedded directly inside ISP networks. Kona Site Defender remained the enterprise WAF standard. Prolexic provided 20+ Tbps of DDoS scrubbing. Adaptive Media Delivery powered streaming for many of the world's largest broadcasters. We were also planning the Linode acquisition — announced in early 2022 for $900 million — to expand into cloud computing.
Pricing?
Custom enterprise contracts only. No public pricing. No free tier. Our services are designed for organizations where infrastructure failure has consequences measured in millions of dollars.
Court notes: 23 years of service at time of testimony. July outage damaged reputation. Platform remains unmatched at enterprise scale.
Witness No. 4 — Bunny.net (BunnyCDN) — Direct Examination
THE CLERK: The People call Bunny.net.
THE WITNESS (BUNNY.NET): Present. Founded 2012, Ljubljana, Slovenia.
ATTORNEY LATENCY (EXAMINATION):
You are the smallest provider testifying today. State your case.
We had approximately 94 PoPs in 2021, achieving sub-29ms average global latency. Pricing starts at $0.01 per gigabyte in Europe and North America, with a $1/month minimum. I would argue that makes us the best value-per-millisecond in this courtroom.
Exhibit D — Bunny.net 2021 Service Overview
CDN: 94 PoPs, instant purge, Perma-Cache, Edge Rules, real-time logs · Optimizer: Auto WebP image conversion, lazy loading · Stream: Video hosting and delivery platform (expanding in 2021) · Storage: Edge Storage with global replication · Pricing: $0.01/GB (EU/NA), $0.03/GB (Asia), $0.06/GB (MEA), $1/mo minimum · Support: Human responses, praised universally for speed and quality
Limitations in 2021?
No enterprise WAF. No edge compute platform — that was still years away for us. Basic DDoS protection only. Limited analytics. Smaller PoP network meant coverage gaps in parts of Africa, South America, and remote Asia. We are a focused CDN, not a security platform.
Were you affected by the Fastly and Akamai outages?
Our service was unaffected by both incidents. We run fully independent infrastructure. Some customers migrated to us specifically because of those outages, seeking diversification and simpler, more predictable pricing.
Court notes: Refreshingly direct witness. Best price-to-performance ratio in testimony. Security limits openly acknowledged.
Witness No. 5 — Amazon CloudFront (AWS) — Direct Examination
THE CLERK: The People call Amazon CloudFront.
THE WITNESS (CLOUDFRONT): Present. Launched 2008, part of Amazon Web Services.
ATTORNEY LATENCY (EXAMINATION):
Amazon.com weathered both the Fastly and Akamai outages remarkably well. How?
Amazon.com uses a multi-CDN architecture — load balancing across Fastly, Akamai, and our own CloudFront via DNS. When Fastly went down June 8th, DNS automatically steered users to CloudFront and Akamai servers. By 10:16 UTC, Fastly was fully removed from the delivery path. Most Amazon users experienced minimal disruption.
Describe CloudFront's capabilities in 2021.
Approximately 310 edge locations and 13 regional edge caches. Native integration with S3, EC2, Lambda, Shield, and WAF. Lambda@Edge handled edge compute in Node.js and Python. CloudFront Functions launched in May 2021 — lightweight JavaScript execution at a fraction of Lambda@Edge cost. Zero data transfer fees between AWS services and CloudFront.
Exhibit E — AWS CloudFront 2021 Capabilities
Network: 310+ edge locations, 13 regional caches · Compute: Lambda@Edge (Node.js/Python) + CloudFront Functions (JS, launched May 2021) · Security: Shield Standard (free DDoS), AWS WAF, Origin Access Identity · Pricing: Pay-per-GB (regional), 1 TB free transfer/mo · Integration: S3, EC2, ELB, Route 53, ACM — $0 internal egress
Weaknesses?
Outside AWS, integration advantages disappear. Pay-per-GB pricing escalates unpredictably at scale. Configuration is complex. Support quality depends on your AWS support tier. We primarily function as a caching layer — deeper edge logic requires Lambda stacking.
OBJECTION — COUNSEL FOR CLOUDFLARE
Notes that CloudFront's "1 TB free" pales beside Cloudflare's unlimited free CDN bandwidth.
THE COURT: Noted for the record. The jury may weigh each provider's free tier. Proceed to verdict.
Court notes: Amazon's multi-CDN strategy during 2021 outages is a textbook case for vendor diversification.
Jury Deliberation · Findings of Fact · Verdict
THE COURT: Members of the jury, you have heard testimony from five CDN providers during a historic year — a year in which two major outages, Fastly on June 8th and Akamai on July 22nd, shook the infrastructure community. You have reviewed Exhibits A through E. The Court now asks for your findings.
Verdict of the Jury
COUNT I: Broadest Free OfferingCloudflare — FOUND SUPERIOR
COUNT II: Largest Global NetworkAkamai — FOUND SUPERIOR (4,000+ nodes)
COUNT III: Fastest Cache PurgeFastly — FOUND SUPERIOR (150ms)
COUNT IV: Best Value Per DollarBunny.net — FOUND SUPERIOR ($0.01/GB)
COUNT V: Best Ecosystem IntegrationCloudFront — FOUND SUPERIOR (AWS)
COUNT VI: Most Versatile PlatformCloudflare — FOUND SUPERIOR
COUNT VII: Strongest Enterprise SecurityAkamai — FOUND SUPERIOR
COUNT VIII: Most Resilient in 2021Cloudflare & Bunny.net — NO MAJOR OUTAGE
COUNT IX: Best Multi-CDN StrategyAmazon.com — EXEMPLARY (3 CDNs)
So ordered this 31st day of December, 2021
The Honorable Judge Uptime, Presiding
Infrastructure Division · Superior Court of Technology Decisions
THE COURT: The Court observes that 2021 will be remembered as the year that proved no single CDN is immune to failure. The lesson of this proceeding is not which provider is "best" — it is that prudent organizations must plan for the failure of any provider, regardless of its reputation. Amazon's multi-CDN approach stands as the exemplar. This Court is adjourned.
THE CLERK: All rise.

All product names are trademarks of their respective owners · Data reflects publicly available information from calendar year 2021
This transcript is a creative editorial format for informational purposes only · Not professional procurement or legal advice
CASE NO. 2021-EDGE-0608 · THE SUPERIOR COURT OF INFRASTRUCTURE DECISIONS · COURTROOM 443
NO ACTUAL LEGAL PROCEEDINGS OCCURRED · ALL "TESTIMONY" IS BASED ON FACTUAL PUBLIC RECORD