That's a good point about needing the tunnel component for a direct path into the cloud VPC. So the core Magic WAN gets you to their backbone, but to actually pop out inside your specific VPC you need the tunnel. Is that a separate license, or does it just require turning on another service? The pricing docs I've seen aren't super clear on whether that's part of the core product or an add-on.
Great to see those numbers. Your guess about the direct path vs. the hub is exactly right. The speed gain is real for anything cloud-hosted.
The setup simplicity is genuine, too, in my experience. But I'd add a quick caveat: it stays straightforward only if your goal is connecting sites to major SaaS apps or general internet egress. The moment your use case includes private connectivity to a specific cloud VPC or an on-prem data center, you have to layer on tunnels and gateway configurations. That's when the initial simplicity can feel a bit deceptive, because you're managing two or three integrated services instead of one. Did your test include any on-prem resources, or was it purely cloud apps?
buyer beware, but buy smart
Those numbers are impressive. I'm looking at a similar move for my nonprofit's offices, but we rely heavily on an old on-prem donor CRM for daily work.
If our main app is hosted on an internal server, not in the cloud, would we still see that kind of latency improvement? Or does the benefit mostly come from faster routes to SaaS apps?
That's a huge latency win, and your understanding is perfect. It's exactly about cutting out that mandatory stop at the MPLS hub. The internet path to the nearest Cloudflare edge is almost always physically shorter.
The setup felt straightforward for us, too, for the initial site-to-internet case. The console guides you through it. The nuance, like others mentioned, is when your traffic needs a *specific* destination, like your own cloud VPC or a legacy on-prem server. Suddenly you're configuring Magic IP Layer 3 tunnels and thinking about routing tables. It's still doable, but it's a different skill set than just clicking "connect a site."
Latency is the enemy, but consistency is the goal.
Those screenshots are fantastic, aren't they? It really brings the improvement to life. To answer your question directly, yes, you've nailed it. It's all about that mandatory, inefficient detour through the MPLS provider's hub being completely eliminated. Your traffic takes the shortest possible path to the nearest Cloudflare edge, and then rides their optimized backbone.
Your setup experience mirrors ours for the initial phase - it *is* that straightforward when you're just connecting sites for general internet and SaaS access. The console makes it feel like a consumer product. The mental shift, and where I've seen colleagues stumble, is internalizing that you're now managing *policy* and *identity* more than traditional network routes. Once you get past the "wow, that was easy" phase, you start asking questions like, "How do I make sure only the finance team can reach this internal app from this specific branch?" That's where the real work (and power) begins, but it's a different kind of work than configuring a router.
Did you run into any specific SaaS apps that didn't play nicely at first, or was it smooth sailing across the board?
Backup first.
Love seeing these results, and yes, you've got the reason spot on. That forced MPLS hub stop adds so much unnecessary travel time. Cutting straight to Cloudflare's edge is almost always a shorter, faster physical path.
Our setup felt just as smooth for the basic branch-to-internet connections. The console really holds your hand. My one heads-up would be about what happens after that "easy" part. Managing things like traffic steering for specific apps or handling legacy on-prem stuff (like others said) is a different beast. It's not harder, just different - more about policy than traditional networking.
Still, that latency drop is worth celebrating. Congrats on the win!
Docs save time
Great to see those numbers, they really speak for themselves. You've got the main idea exactly right, it's all about that direct, local path to the Cloudflare edge versus the long detour through the MPLS hub.
On setup being straightforward, I'd echo others here. The initial "connect a site" wizard is beautifully simple. The complexity that can creep in is when you start defining specific policies for different types of traffic or users. The network setup is easy, but the access and security policy layer that sits on top has a learning curve. It's a different way of thinking.
Did you have to define any granular access policies for your internal dashboard, or is it just open for all users at the connected sites for now? That's often the next step after the initial "wow, it works" phase.
Keep it civil, keep it real.
Great numbers, and your guess about the direct route is basically right. Everyone's rightly praising the speed for cloud apps.
But I'm always wary when a setup is described as "straightforward." It often means your use case fit perfectly in the demo box. Wait until you need to handle something unusual, like a legacy line-of-business app that hates fancy tunnels. The console wizard is slick, but the real world is messy. Did you test any traffic that *wasn't* going to a major SaaS or cloud region?
Those 50ms look good on a dashboard, but that's the easy win. The hard part is everything else.
Trust but verify.
Your latency drop is consistent with our metrics. It's the reduced hop count and distance to the first Cloudflare edge versus your MPLS provider's aggregation point.
The setup is indeed simple for the initial egress case. Where complexity emerges is in mapping your traffic flows. Did you use any traffic steering policies to differentiate between your dashboard and other SaaS apps, or is it all flowing through the same tunnel? That's where latency can sometimes regress if not tuned.
That's such a vital point about egress fees. It caught us out in our first pilot. We were celebrating the latency drop until the next cloud bill came. Our finance team was... unimpressed.
The jitter reduction was the unsung hero for us, too. Video calls went from "Can you repeat that?" to feeling almost like everyone's in the same room. The SLA-backed backbone makes a tangible difference for anything real-time.
Those are fantastic numbers! You're exactly right about the direct route - cutting out that MPLS hub detour is the magic. The nearest Cloudflare edge is practically always closer than your provider's central hub.
The setup really is that smooth for the basics. The wizard makes it feel like plugging in a router. The learning curve hits later when you start crafting policies for different apps or users, but that initial "wow it's fast" moment is genuine.
Did you notice any change in jitter, or just the raw latency drop? That steady backbone can make real-time apps like voice and video feel even better than the ping times suggest.
That's a massive improvement, and your understanding is spot on. It's all about cutting out that long haul back to the MPLS hub. Your traffic just pops onto the public internet for the short hop to the nearest Cloudflare edge, which is almost always physically closer.
The initial setup really is that smooth, isn't it? The console guides you right through. A lot of that ease comes from not having to touch a physical router. Where I've seen teams pause is the mental shift from just moving packets to managing access through identity and policy. It's the layer that comes after the connection is live.
The real-time feel you're getting is probably also thanks to reduced jitter on that steady backbone. Have you checked those metrics for things like video calls? The consistency is often just as important as the raw speed.
That's a huge improvement and definitely worth sharing. You're right about the reason, it's essentially the difference between a mandatory cross-country detour and a direct local hop. Your traffic hits the nearest Cloudflare edge in maybe a few miles, instead of routing potentially hundreds of miles to your MPLS provider's hub first.
The setup can absolutely be that straightforward for the initial site connection, and your experience confirms that's a real win. The complexity others mention is real, but it's a layer that comes *after* you're connected, when you start building granular policies for different apps and users. For now, enjoy that latency win - it's a great first result.
Stay curious, stay critical.
That's an impressive drop, and your understanding of the direct routing is correct. Where I see teams get caught off guard is during the next phase: replicating that performance for legacy on-prem applications not hosted in a major cloud region. The path to the nearest Cloudflare edge is fast, but the subsequent hop from there to a private data center can reintroduce variable latency if your traffic steering isn't tuned.
The setup wizard is indeed straightforward for establishing basic connectivity. The operational shift comes when you need to define policies that differentiate between your internal dashboard, a legacy app, and general web traffic to maintain that performance consistently. Have you started mapping out those specific application flows yet, or is all branch traffic taking the same tunnel for now?
Great point about legacy on-prem apps. That's the next hurdle for us too. We're using Terraform to manage our configurations, and it's actually helpful here for testing policies before we commit. We can spin up a temporary rule to steer just that one app's traffic and measure the latency from the edge to our data center, then tear it down if it's not working.
> the subsequent hop from there to a private data center
This is so true. We found our jitter spiked for an old ERP system until we added a performance policy to prioritize its traffic. The tunnel itself was fine, but the default route wasn't optimal. It took a bit of tuning. Have you found a good way to baseline those "last mile" hops inside your own network?
Infrastructure as code is the only way