Cloudflare’s New CMO Jeff Samuels: Why Brand Wins, Marketers as Context Engineers

In this episode of This Week in NET, JQ Lau and Victor Hwang from our Network & Infrastructure Strategy team walk us through Cloudflare's 13th generation of servers — the machines that power a significant part of the internet across 330+ cities worldwide.The Gen 13 program doubled compute density by jumping from 96 to 192 cores, but that came with an 83% drop in L3 cache. The team explains how a bold hardware bet, combined with Cloudflare's FL2 Rust-based software rewrite, turned that trade-off into a win across throughput, latency, and power efficiency.From counterintuitive fan physics to credit card pen tests on chassis intrusion switches, this conversation covers the full stack: CPUs, memory, storage, networking, security, and what's next — including post-quantum readiness at the hardware layer.Mentioned blog posts:Launching Cloudflare's Gen 13 servers: trading cache for cores for 2x edge compute performance Inside Gen 13: how we built our most powerful server yetTimestamps00:53 — Blog recap: what Cloudflare announced (including agents can now actually create Cloudflare accounts, buy domains, and deploy)03:52 — From Gen 11 to Gen 13: the evolution of Cloudflare's servers05:04 — Doubling compute power while cutting cache by 83%06:54 — The journey to choosing the right CPU10:04 — Scratchpad vs bookshelf: cache and memory explained12:08 — Why 192 cores won over 128 cores15:35 — FL2: Cloudflare's Rust-based software rewrite18:12 — Hardware and software co-design: why neither works alone18:37 — Memory, storage, and networking upgrades22:18 — Dual GPU support and future accelerators23:25 — Inside the Gen 13 chassis: what changed visually24:51 — Why adding a 5th fan saves power (counterintuitive physics)25:59 — Server security: memory encryption, PCIe encryption, intrusion detection30:12 — 50% better performance per watt and what that means at scale33:54 — The Austin lab: where hardware gets tested before production35:10 — How AI helped design Gen 1337:13 — 500 terabits per second: Cloudflare's network milestone38:30 — What's next: Gen 14, rack-scale design, and post-quantum hardware41:16 — Supply chain planning: lessons from COVID and the AI buildout

In this episode of This Week in NET, Vinti Batiste, VP of Sales for US Enterprise at Cloudflare, shares her 30-year journey across IBM, Cisco, and now Cloudflare — and what it really means to be in enterprise sales.Vinti talks about growing Cloudflare's enterprise business 80% year over year, the moment Michelle Zatlyn walked into her first all-hands, how she uses AI to prepare for customer meetings, and why sales is really a math problem.This conversation is part of the Women of Cloudflare series.

In this special Agents Week edition of This Week in NET, host João Tomé is joined by Ming Lu (Principal Product Manager) and Anni Wang (Product Manager) to recap Cloudflare’s first-ever Agents Week.The conversation explores why the Internet and the cloud were not designed for an AI-agent world, and what infrastructure needs to change as software agents begin generating code, running workflows, and interacting directly with online services.Ming and Anni walk through several announcements from Cloudflare’s Agents Week, including new tools for agent infrastructure, memory, developer workflows, AI Gateway, email, artifacts, browser automation, security, and agent-ready websites.At the end of the episode, there is also a fun recap video made by Zeke Sikelianos (Principal Systems Engineer, Developer Relations), using a deepfake version of himself to summarize the week’s announcements through Thursday.Check all the blogs and CFTV videos on our Agents Week Hub0:27 — Intro: special Agents Week edition0:41 — Ming Lu and Anni Wang join the show3:13 — Main takeaway from Agents Week6:40 — Monday: Agent Cloud, sandboxes, containers, and CLI11:34 — Tuesday: security, Cloudflare Mesh, and enterprise MCP17:02 — Wednesday: Project Think, browser automation, and Agent Lee24:23 — Thursday: Email Service, Artifacts, and the AI platform31:53 — Friday: feature flags, agent readiness, shared compression, and memory40:15 — What’s still coming after Friday42:04 — Feedback and reaction from the week45:23 — Zeke Sikelianos deepfake recap video

In this World Quantum Day special edition of This Week in NET, host João Tomé is joined by Bas Westerbaan (Principal Research Engineer) and Sharon Goldberg (Senior Director, Product) to explain why the timeline for post-quantum cryptography may be arriving sooner than expected.Recent research suggests the number of qubits required to break today’s encryption could fall dramatically, accelerating the urgency for companies and the Internet ecosystem to migrate to post-quantum security. Google has set a 2029 migration target, and Cloudflare is working toward a similar timeline.Bas, who has spent years deploying post-quantum cryptography at Cloudflare, explains why the shift from theoretical risk to practical planning is happening now, what “Q-Day” would actually mean, and why upgrading the Internet’s cryptography is one of the largest coordinated security transitions ever attempted.The episode also covers the difference between post-quantum encryption and authentication, how quantum computers work, and what organisations should start doing today to prepare.Check the Cloudflare Blog:blog.cloudflare.com/post-quantum-roadmapTimestamps0:00 — Cold open: “It’s quite a shock”0:40 — World Quantum Day and why this matters now2:30 — Sharon Goldberg: the big picture of post-quantum cryptography4:20 — Why Cloudflare is targeting 20297:00 — Encryption vs authentication and the “harvest now, decrypt later” risk10:50 — Bas Westerbaan: background and path into cryptography18:30 — How quantum computers actually work23:40 — Why RSA and elliptic-curve cryptography are vulnerable28:10 — Why the quantum timeline may be accelerating33:00 — Cloudflare’s post-quantum deployment progress40:20 — How AI could help the industry migrate faster48:10 — What companies should start doing today58:00 — Quick-fire round and the Internet in a post-quantum world

In this short edition of This Week in NET, host João Tomé joins from the island of Madeira for a quick preview of Cloudflare’s first Agents Week.João is joined by Ming Lu (Principal Product Manager at Replicate) and Anni Wang (Product Manager) to discuss why AI agents are becoming one of the biggest shifts happening on the Internet right now.They explore how agents are starting to generate more code than developers, why the Internet is moving toward agents interacting with other agents, and what infrastructure is needed to build and run them securely at scale.The conversation also previews some of the themes of Agents Week: building and running agents on Cloudflare’s platform, securing agent access to tools and data, managing the large volumes of data agents generate, and how the web itself may change as machines increasingly consume content.Check our Agents Week site:cloudflare.com/agents-week ⸻Timestamps01:11 — Meet Ming Lu and Anni Wang01:55 — What Agents Week is and why Cloudflare launched it02:44 — Why agents are becoming a major shift for the Internet04:33 — Why agents need new infrastructure for compute, storage, and security05:02 — The rise of personal and enterprise agents06:43 — Running agents on Cloudflare’s platform07:34 — Security challenges when agents access tools and data09:13 — How agents may change how the web is consumed10:23 — Managing the massive data agents generate11:21 — Working with multiple AI models and switching between them12:43 — What it’s like launching a Cloudflare Innovation Week14:07 — The energy and chaos of building announcements14:52 — Final thoughts and what to expect next week

In this episode of This Week in NET, host João Tomé is joined by Matt “TK” Taylor (Senior Product Manager) and Matt Kane (Senior Principal Systems Engineer) to discuss EmDash, a new CMS launched by Cloudflare as a modern, serverless alternative inspired by WordPress.Built on Astro and designed for today’s developer workflows, EmDash combines the familiarity of traditional CMS platforms with a modern architecture: serverless deployment, TypeScript throughout, and a plugin system designed to solve one of WordPress’s biggest challenges — security.The conversation explores why plugin vulnerabilities account for the vast majority of WordPress security issues, and how EmDash addresses that by running plugins in sandboxed Worker isolates with tightly scoped permissions. Matt and Matt also discuss how AI agents were used during development, why the project is MIT licensed, and how the CMS is designed from the ground up to work with AI agents through MCP and structured content.Later in the episode we see the EmDash playground, how WordPress sites can be imported in minutes, and how developers can start building plugins and extensions today.More info:Introducing EmDash — the spiritual successor to WordPress that solves plugin securityTry out the EmDash admin interface here: https://emdashcms.com/playground ⏱️ Timestamps00:45 — Intro: EmDash launch and April 1 announcement02:09 — What EmDash is and why Cloudflare built it04:07 — Why WordPress architecture struggles on modern infrastructure06:30 — Scaling storage, media, and modern hosting models07:00 — The plugin ecosystem: WordPress’s strength and weakness08:19 — Matt Taylor’s background in CMS and media platforms09:03 — Matt Kane’s work with Astro and Gatsby11:21 — How the idea for EmDash started inside the Astro community13:36 — Building the CMS with AI agents17:21 — Sandbox plugins with Cloudflare Dynamic Workers19:17 — Solving the plugin security problem22:16 — Why EmDash is MIT licensed25:52 — Early feedback from Yoast and the WordPress ecosystem27:05 — Designing a CMS for AI agents and MCP workflows30:43 — Demo: the EmDash playground and dashboard33:22 — Flexible content types and built-in SEO35:05 — Editing directly on the live page37:18 — Early community feedback and plugins already appearing39:03 — x402 and the future of agent-era monetization40:17 — SEO architecture and plugin extensibility41:43 — What’s next for EmDash

In this episode of This Week in NET, host João Tomé is joined by Michelle Chen from Cloudflare’s AI product team to discuss the rise of open models, the launch of Kimi 2.5 on Workers AI, and why enterprises are rethinking the cost of proprietary AI.Michelle explains how Cloudflare’s security team used Kimi to scan internal codebases and found more than 40 confirmed security issues — at a fraction of the cost of proprietary models. The conversation explores why open models are rapidly becoming competitive with closed alternatives, how Cloudflare builds efficiency with custom inference engines and prefix caching, and what the Replicate acquisition means for bring-your-own-model workflows on Workers AI.Later in the episode, we also hear from Dina Kozlov about Dynamic Workers and Code Mode (now in open beta), followed by another Women of Cloudflare segment with Alexandra Messe Rodriguez.⏱️ Timestamps00:00 — Cold open: Kimi finds 40+ security issues00:30 — Intro and Cloudflare blog highlights03:06 — Michelle Chen joins the show05:44 — The rise of open models and Kimi 2.507:14 — Finding 40+ security issues with AI10:40 — The real cost of running AI agents16:26 — Making inference efficient: caching, kernels, and architecture19:42 — Replicate and bring-your-own-model on Workers AI25:08 — Favorite AI use case: fashion e-commerce images29:05 — Dina Kozlov: Dynamic Workers and Code Mode33:13 — Women of Cloudflare: Alexandra Messe Rodriguez

In this episode of This Week in NET, host João Tomé is joined by Chema Alonso, Vice President and Head of International Development at Cloudflare.Chema shares how a 1998 paper on SQL injection launched his career in hacking, his path from running a startup in Madrid to becoming a Microsoft MVP for 14 years, and how he ended up leading cybersecurity at Telefónica for more than a decade — after telling them “you don’t have enough money to make me work for you.” He also explains why he left Telefónica in 2025 to join Cloudflare, and what surprised him about the company’s technical depth.The conversation explores how AI is changing cybersecurity, from AI agents competing in Capture-the-Flag contests to automated attack chains running around the clock. Chema also discusses the black market for zero-day vulnerabilities, Cloudflare’s role in Europe, and how AI may reshape the economics of the Internet.We also hear the story behind his famous beanie hat, a Bluetooth exploit that Apple initially called “a feature” until Steve Wozniak got involved and a quick-fire round covering his first computer, favorite hacks, admired researchers, and why Gemini once hallucinated that he went to jail.⏱️ Timestamps 01:00 — How SQL injection in 1998 started his career02:36 — From startup to Microsoft MVP to training Spain's cyber forces04:36 — Black Hat, Def Con, and the global hacking scene05:53 — How Telefonica recruited Chema08:49 — 20 years of daily blogging as "brain gym"10:27 — The beanie hat origin story14:34 — Why he left Telefonica to join Cloudflare17:41 — What customers are most worried about: AI security22:55 — Cloudflare's role in Europe: sovereignty, resilience, and growth26:58 — How AI is disrupting the Internet's business model28:44 — The evolution of hacking: from phreaking to AI agents37:42 — The Dirty Tooth iPhone Bluetooth exploit and Steve Wozniak41:39 — Quick-fire round: first computer, favorite hack, Kevin Mitnick43:58 — Google Gemini hallucinated that Chema went to jail46:49 — The future of the Internet and Cloudflare

In this episode of This Week in NET, Heather Orsi, Director of Strategic Finance & Investor Relations at Cloudflare, shares her unusual career path across finance, startups, and tech, and what it means to communicate Cloudflare’s story to investors and analysts.Heather talks about her first days at Cloudflare just after the IPO, what it takes to explain a highly technical company to Wall Street, and how finance, strategy, and storytelling come together in investor relations.This conversation is part of the Women of Cloudflare series for Women’s Empowerment Month.Check the Cloudflare Blog:https://blog.cloudflare.com🎧 Subscribe for weekly conversations about the Internet and Cloudflare:https://ThisWeekinNET.com⸻⏱️ Timestamps00:38 — From banking and startups to Cloudflare02:21 — Joining Cloudflare right after the IPO04:16 — Explaining a deeply technical company to investors06:31 — Communicating Cloudflare’s story to analysts08:51 — The role of investor relations inside a tech company11:16 — Being a woman in finance and tech13:11 — Advice for people starting a career in finance

In this episode of This Week in NET, host João Tomé is joined by Cloudflare’s new Chief Marketing Officer, Jeff Samuels, to explore how marketing is evolving in the age of AI.We discuss why brand still wins, how marketers are becoming “context engineers,” and how Cloudflare connects deep technical products to clear narratives that resonate with customers.We also touch on the role of real-world events like RSA Conference, where Cloudflare will be present, and why in-person moments still matter in an increasingly AI-driven, digital-first world.⏱️ Timestamps01:44 — News roundup (AI, policy, product updates)03:25 — Meet Jeff Samuels (Cloudflare CMO)04:07 — Background: startups, policy, global experience06:46 — From product to marketing mindset08:25 — Lessons from OpenDNS and Cisco11:47 — Marketing in tech: empathy and understanding systems13:27 — Lifecycle marketing and customer connection15:05 — Why Cloudflare (people, mission, opportunity)16:49 — Marketing as the “architect” of go-to-market18:38 — Brand vs demand20:48 — Events like RSA and why they still matter27:02 — AI and the shift to orchestration31:39 — What’s next for Cloudflare marketing34:02 — Quick fire: skills, mistakes, brand vs performance36:49 — Advice for marketers entering tech37:27 — One word for Cloudflare: opportunity