I’m excited to announce that on March 1, I joined Cloudflare as Vice President and GM, Asia Pacific (including Japan and Greater China) to help build and expand Cloudflare’s growing customer and partner base and presence in the region. We currently have over 200 passionate and customer-focused employees in APAC, with offices in Beijing, Singapore, Sydney and Tokyo.

Singapore is where I’m based. Melbourne is home with my early years spent in Country Victoria. I love the outdoors, sports, travelling and spending time with family and friends. I am naturally intrigued by interesting people and different perspectives. I have a thirst for learning and understanding why people act and behave the way they do, and believe that understanding more about different cultures makes me a better person/leader. And what better way to do so than by being in the most diverse region in the world — Asia Pacific is home to 60% of the world’s population, with thousands of languages spoken, spanning multiple time zones. With the rise of innovation and technology adoption in the region, growth and expansion opportunities are endless.

Throughout my 20-year career, I have been extremely fortunate to work for companies that were instrumental in technological transformations, which have made a huge impact on the way we do business and everyday life. From IBM to Cisco to Amazon Web Services, these companies have pioneered innovations that transformed legacy systems, processes, and ways of working into intuitive platforms that enable scale, cost efficiencies, collaboration, and connectivity everywhere.

This brings me to Cloudflare. Cloudflare’s mission is to help build a better Internet. The Internet is the lifeblood of business and the primary vehicle of commerce and communication for people around the world. While it was brilliantly architected, it was not designed to deliver the security, performance, and reliability required for businesses today. For decades, a number of vendors built a range of standalone hardware boxes to address the emerging requirements for security, performance, and reliability. These boxes could be deployed in on-prem data centers to deliver functions and to alleviate some of the Internet’s fundamental security, performance, and reliability problems. And then, the cloud happened.

Organizations now exist in a complex infrastructure environment that highlights the Internet’s fundamental problems more than ever. The on-prem boxes that they once relied upon to solve these problems were never designed to work in such an environment. As a result, a major architectural shift at the network layer is now underway, and Cloudflare is leading this transition. Cloudflare is well-positioned to transform the way we do business by providing security, enhancing the performance of business-critical applications, and eliminating the cost and complexity of managing individual network hardware, all within a global cloud platform.

Asia Pacific currently has the largest number of Internet users globally, with more than 53 percent of its population now online. What’s more, the coronavirus pandemic has only reinforced what was already an upward trend — e-commerce — with about 75 percent of global retail growth coming from the region. The rise in Internet traffic also means an increase in online threats that are becoming highly sophisticated, automated, and distributed. Unfortunately, cyber threats do not just impact retailers. All other industries, from manufacturing, healthcare, financial services, government, are not excluded. With business moving more and more to the cloud, organizations now require network and security capabilities that will allow them to be agile, nimble, and secure at any given time. This is where Cloudflare can help.

I’m really excited to work with our customers in APAC and talk about all of Cloudflare’s capabilities, because I truly believe that our products and solutions will make a huge impact in the region. As I begin this role, my priorities are around building a diverse and entrepreneurial team, generating brand visibility, and creating strategic customer relationships enabled by a vibrant partner ecosystem with a strong customer focus. I hope to build a team that is passionate about our customers and their success. We have a tremendous opportunity to create pockets of innovation with our customers, leveraging learnings, not only from our global counterparts but also from within the region. The best part? We’re just getting started!

Hey there! I am Els (short form for Elspeth) and I am the Field Marketing and Events Manager for APAC. I am responsible for building brand awareness and supporting our lovely sales team in acquiring new logos across APAC.

I was inspired to write about my first year in Cloudflare, because John, our CTO, encouraged more women to write for our Cloudflare blog after reviewing our blogging statistics and found out that more men than women blog for Cloudflare. I jumped at the chance because I thought this is a great way to share many side stories as people might not know about how it feels to work in Cloudflare.

Before I continue, I must mention that I really wanted to join Cloudflare after reading our co-founder Michelle’s reply on Quora regarding "What is it like to work in Cloudflare?." Michelle’s answer as follows:

“my answer is 'adult-like.' While we haven’t adopted this as our official company-wide mantra, I like the simplicity of that answer. People work hard, but go home at the end of the day. People care about their work and want to do a great job. When someone does a good job, their teammate tells them. When someone falls short, their colleague will let them know. I like that we communicate directly, no matter what seniority level you are.”

The main themes were centered around High Curiosity, Ability to get things done, and Empathy.

The answer took me by surprise. I have read so many replies by top leaders of leading companies in the world, and I have never seen such a down to earth reply!

I was eager to join the company and test it out.

Every new hire in Cloudflare will have to attend a two week orientation in San Francisco (well, they used to until COVID-19 hit and orientation has gone virtual), where they have a comprehensive program that exposes them to all the different functions of the company. My most memorable session was the one conducted by Matthew Prince, where he delivered a very engaging and theatrical crash course on the origins of Cloudflare and competitive landscape surrounding cloud computing. Even though the session took 1.5 hours, I enjoyed every second of it and I was very impressed with Matthew’s passion and conviction behind Cloudflare’s mission to build a better Internet.

There was also a very impressive session conducted by Joe Sullivan, our Chief Security Officer. Joe introduced us to the importance of cybersecurity through several real life examples and guided us through some key steps to protect ourselves. Joe left a very deep impression on me as he spoke in a very simple manner. This is important for someone like myself who didn’t come from a security background as I felt that it is important for me to understand why I am joining this company and why my contribution matters.

I also had the chance to meet the broader members of my marketing team. I had about twenty meetings arranged in the span of one week and I am thankful to everyone who took time out of their busy schedule to help me understand how the global team worked together. Needless to say everyone was really smart, nice, and down to earth. I left the San Francisco office feeling really good about my start in Cloudflare, but little did I know that was just the tip of the iceberg.

After I returned to Singapore, Krishna, my manager, quickly put me to work to focus on building a pipeline for the APAC region. In a short span of six months, I had to quickly bring myself up to speed to understand the systems and processes in place, in addition to executing events across the region to ensure that we have a continuous pipeline for our ever-growing sales team. I am going to be completely transparent here, it was overwhelming, stressful and I was expected to deliver results in a short period of time. However, it has also been the most exciting period of personal and professional growth for me, and I am so grateful for the opportunity to join an amazing team in one of the most exciting companies of the century.

As a new team member, I had to quickly understand the needs of the sales leaders from the ASEAN countries, ANZ, the Greater China Region, India, Japan, and Korea. There were so many things to learn and everyone was very supportive and helpful. More importantly, there were many challenges and mistakes made along the way I felt supported by the entire team throughout.

In my first six months, I had to immediately plan and execute an average of 28 events per quarter, ranging from flagship events like Gartner Security Risk Management conferences in Sydney and Mumbai, the largest gaming conference ChinaJoy in Shanghai, AWS series across the ASEAN countries and leading security conferences in Korea and Japan. When Cloudflare IPO-ed on September 13, 2019, I was tasked to organize an IPO party for over 150 people in our Singapore over a short span of 3 weeks. What an adventure!

At our largest event in Singapore, where over 30 Cloudflarians from the Singapore team took time to help out.

Just when I thought 28 events per quarter is an achievement (for myself), my team and I were given once in a lifetime opportunity to lead a series of projects related to our Japan office opening.  

"As the third largest economy, and one of the most Internet-connected countries in the world, Japan was a clear choice when considering expansion locations for our next APAC office,” said Matthew Prince, co-founder and CEO of Cloudflare. “Our new facility and team in Tokyo present a unique opportunity to be closer to our customers, and help even more businesses and users experience a better Internet across Japan and throughout the world.”

Japan is a new market for me and I had to start everything from scratch. I started off with launching our very first Japan brand campaign where the team worked closely with leading Japanese media companies to launch digital advertisements, advertorials, video campaigns to spread our awareness across Japan in just under 3 months. While it is a complete unknown path for us, the team was really good at experimenting with new ideas, analysis results, iterating and improving on our campaigns week by week.

Check out our amazing Japan city cloud designed by our very talented team 

I also had the opportunity to be part of our very first hybrid (physical and virtual) press conference that was held across Singapore and Tokyo, where we had 35 journalists participate (with 6 top-tier media in attendance and 29 journalists online). News of the office opening/event was covered in Japan's most influential business newspaper, Nikkei, in an article titled, "US IT giant Cloudflare establishes Japanese corporation.". I cannot wait to tell you more about what’s coming down the line!

With so many things going on, it is easy to lose sight of the long term goal. Jake, our CMO is very focused on ensuring the team remains engaged and motivated throughout their time in Cloudflare. He launched a mandatory career conversations program where the team had to have at least one discussion with their respective managers on how they would envision their future to be within the company. This is a very useful exercise for me as I was able to have an open discussion with my manager on the various options that I could consider as Cloudflare is a company which supports cross departmental/borders transitions. It is beneficial to know that I am able to explore different opportunities going forward and lock down some next steps on how I will get there. Exciting times!

As a young woman, I am very fortunate to be part of the APAC team led by Aliza Knox. Aliza is extremely passionate about encouraging women to pursue opportunities in business and tech. As a woman, I have never felt more comfortable under her leadership as gender discrimination is real and most companies are predominantly led by men. With Aliza, all opinions and ideas are strongly welcomed and I never felt bound by my age, seniority, experience to reach for the skies. It is ok to be ambitious, to do more, to ask questions, or something as simple as getting 15 mins of her time to ask if I should pursue an online course at MIT (and I did!).

Did I also mention Cloudflare's Employee Resource Group (ERG)? I am the APAC lead for Womenflare where our mission is to cultivate an inclusive, inspiring, and safe environment that supports, elevates, and ensures equal opportunities for success to all who identify as women at Cloudflare. As part of our global Womenflare initiative, I organised an International Women’s Day luncheon in March this year where we had members of our APAC leadership team share about their experiences on how they have managed their career and family commitments. Other ERG in Cloudflare includes Proudflare, where we support and provide resources for the LGBTQIA+ community, Afroflare, where we aim to build a better global Afro-community at Cloudflare and beyond, and many more!

I am writing this blogpost as we all embrace the challenges and opportunities present during COVID-19. When COVID-19 first hit APAC,  I was very impressed with how the global team exhibited flexibility to adapt to everyday challenges, with great empathy that it might be challenging to work from home, to how it is ok to try new things and make mistakes as long as we can learn from it.

Our Business Continuity Team provided regular employee communication on local guidelines and Work From Home next steps. Our office support team immediately supplied computer equipment/office chairs that employees can bring home for their remote working needs. Our Site Leads came up with different initiatives to ensure the team remains connected through a series of virtual yoga sessions, Friday wine down, and lunch and games. The latest activity we ran was Activeflare, where a group of us from the Singapore and Australia offices exercised together on a Saturday and drew a map of our activities using tracking technology. That was fun!

The global team has also launched a series of fireside chats where we get to hear from leaders of leading companies, which is a really nice touch where we get to gain exposure to the mind of great leaders which we otherwise would not have the opportunity to. My favourite so far is from Doug, our Chief Legal Officer and Katrin Suder, one of our Board Members.

My very first experience as a TV host on Cloudflare TV

Matthew, Cloudflare co-founder and CEO, recently launched Cloudflare TV for the team to experiment and connect with the Cloudflare community, even while we're locked down. And that community shares common interests in topics like web performance, Internet security, edge computing, and network reliability. Aliza and myself are hosting a series of Zoomelier in APAC soon to connect with winemakers and sommeliers across the region and share some interesting wine recommendations that one can drink with technology. So hope you'll tune in, geek out, feel part of our community, and learn more about Cloudflare and the people who are building it. Check out the Cloudflare TV Guide: cloudflare.tv/schedule

I am at the point where I feel like I have a good amount of experience to do a good job, but not good enough to be where I want to be. In Cloudflare, I strongly feel that “The more I learn, the less I realise I know” (Socrates). I aim to continuously learn and build up my capabilities to strategize and deliver results for the present and the future, and I must end this blogpost with my learnings from John, “overnight success takes at least 10 years, I read a lot to stay up to date on what’s happening internally and externally. The gym (exercise) is really important to me. It's challenging and takes my mind off everything. Many people seem to view the gym as dead time to fill with TED videos, podcasts or other “useless” activities. I love the fact that it’s the one time I stop thinking.” I have applied this learning to both my personal and professional life, and it made a huge difference. Thank you, John.

If you’re willing to join an impressive team and work for a very dynamic company to help create a better Internet, we’re looking for many different profiles in our different offices all over the planet! Let's have a look!

I am in my third year at Northeastern University, pursuing an undergraduate degree in Marketing and Psychology. Five months ago I joined Cloudflare as an intern on the APAC Marketing team in the beautiful Singapore office. When searching for internships Cloudflare stood out as a place I could gain skills in marketing, learn from amazing mentors, and have space to take ownership in projects. As a young, but well-established company, Cloudflare provides the resources for their interns to work cross functionally and creatively and truly be a part of the exponential growth of the company.

Earlier this week, I hopped on a virtual meeting with a few coworkers, thinking everything was set to record a webinar. As I shared my screen to explain how to navigate the platform I realised the set up was incorrect and we couldn’t start on time. Due to the virtual nature of the meeting, my coworkers didn’t see the panic on my face and had no idea what was going on. I corrected the issue and set up an additional trial run session, issuing apologies to both coworkers. They both took it in stride and expressed that it happens to the best of us. At Cloudflare, everyone is understanding of hiccups and encourages me to find a solution. This understanding attitude has allowed me to reach out of my comfort zone and work on new skills. Still, there is no doubt that working remotely can lead to additional stressors for employees. For interns, who are prone to making mistakes since it is often our first exposure to the workplace, having limited access to coworkers increases our challenges.

Though there have been some challenges, virtual interning still provides many opportunities. Over my time here, I have worked with my team to develop the trust and autonomy to lead projects and learn new systems and softwares. I had the opportunity to create and run campaigns, including setup, execution, and promotion. I took charge of our recent APAC-wide webinars. I promoted the webinars on social platforms and worked with vendors. Through this process, I learned to analyse the quality of leads from different sources which gave me the ability to develop post-quarter analyses looking at webinar performance and discerning lessons we can take into future quarters

I also conducted various data analysis projects, beginning with data extraction and leading to the analysis of the holistic business impact. For instance, I led a detailed data analysis project looking into the performance of events and how they may be improved. I learned new software, such as Salesforce and how to tell a story with data. Through analysis of the sales cycle and conversion rates, we were able to pinpoint key improvement areas to the execution of events.

Among these many exciting projects, I have also learned from my experienced teammates about how to work smart and I have been lucky to be part of a great company. As I come up on my final month as an intern at Cloudflare, I am excited to take the lessons I have learned over the past five months into my final years in school and to whatever I end up doing after.

Cloudflare has provided a seamless transition to remote work for full-time employees, interns, and new hires. They have provided resources, such as virtual fitness classes and fireside chats, for us to stay healthy mentally, physically, and professionally. Even so, during these tumultuous times, it can be stressful to start an internship (possibly your first) in a remote setting.

With one month left and seeing many of my fellow college students begin their own summer internship, I’m reflecting on the multitude of lessons I have learned at Cloudflare. While I was lucky to have three months working with the team in the office, I know many interns are worried about starting internships that are now fully remote. As I have been working from home for the past two months, I hope to provide incoming interns with some guidance how to excel during a remote internship.

Recently, I was curious to learn more about what the different teams were doing without being able to make in-person sales calls. I asked my manager if I could listen in to a few more meetings and he quickly agreed. I have since created a better picture of the different teams’ activities and initiated conversations with my manager that led to a deeper understanding of the sales cycle. Being engaged, interested, and forward with my request to attend more meetings provided me with additional learning experiences.

Don’t wait around for people to set up meetings with you or give you tasks. Your co-workers still have a full time job to do so finding time to train you might slip their mind, especially since they can’t see you. When I first started my internship, my manager encouraged me to reach out to my team (and other teams) and come prepared with lots of questions. I started filling my calendar with short 15-30 minute meetings to get to know the different teams in the office.

This is even more crucial for those working remotely. You may not have the opportunity to speak with co-workers in the elevator or the All Hands room. Make up for this by setting up introductory meetings in your first few weeks and don’t be afraid to ask to be part of meetings. You will be able to learn more about your organisation and what interests you.

As an intern, I am usually the most inexperienced individual in the meeting, which can make it nerve-wracking to unmute myself and speak up. With all meetings now in a video conference format, it can be easy to say “hi,” mute yourself, and spend the rest of the time listening to everyone else speak. I have learned that I won’t get the most out of my experience unless I offer my opinion and ask questions. Often, I am wrong, but my teammates explain why. For example, I came prepared with a draft of an email to a meeting with my manager. He was able to help me edit it and make it even more effective. He then provided me with extra reading materials and templates to help me improve in the future. Because of the questions or opinions I share during these meetings, I now have a greater understanding of branding and how to position a company in the market.

As an intern starting out in a virtual environment, be fully engaged in meetings so your team can learn from your opinions and vice versa. Work to overcome the intimidation you may be feeling and take initiative to show your team what you have to offer. Making sure your video is on during every meeting can help you stay present and focused.

In many companies, almost all employees are working from home providing a unique commonality. It is an easy talking point to start with in any meeting and helps you get to know your coworkers. Use this as an opportunity to get to know them on a deeper level and share something about yourself. You can discuss interesting books you have read or TV shows you love. It is also a great opportunity to set up fun virtual activities. My manager recently set up a “Fancy Dress Happy Hour” where we all dressed up as our favourite fictional characters and chatted about life stuck at home. Don’t be afraid to set activities like this up. Chances are, the rest of your team is just as tired of being stuck at home as you are.

The events of 2020 have led to drastic changes in the business world. Everyone is learning a new way to work and adapting to change. It may be too soon to know what a fully remote internship will look like, but it is a great opportunity to find new and innovative ways to intern. Being an intern is a unique experience where you are not only allowed, but encouraged to try new things, even those not included in your job description. Virtual interning offers many unique challenges, but also provides the opportunity to learn how to quickly adapt and find new opportunities.

Cloudflare is a company that has urged me to gain a better grasp of my goals and provided me with opportunities to act towards fulfilling them. It is a great place to understand what a post-university job will look like and exemplifies how much fun it can be. This summer, they have doubled their intern class and work to amplify interns' voices so they are a meaningful part of the company. If you are interested in being part of an innovative, collaborative environment, consider applying for an internship experience at Cloudflare here.

Photo by alexander milo / Unsplash

Before starting as a freshman in university, I created an online portfolio for my photography. It has been a passion of mine for about 9 years. I tried a multitude of platforms but none afforded me the aesthetic control that I wanted. The only solution was to build and host my own site. I started learning HTML/CSS, a bit of JavaScript and jQuery and so on.

This led to me using the Koken CMS, and hosting it on DigitalOcean in a Docker container. What was left was SSL/TLS encryption and a CDN (my friends in Europe find the loading times unbearable). I tried ISRG’s Let’s Encrypt (SSL makes for a better Google rank, and ensures the connection is secure) but did not quite manage to get it to work (entirely my fault). I scrolled through Reddit, talked to my Microsoft Student Partners buddies, and found out about Cloudflare.

I was seeing orange.

Cloudflare has the security and performance features that I needed for SSL/TLS encryption and the CDN features for my website, and that is just scratching the surface. From then on, I learned about how Cloudflare came to be, their mission and emphasis on privacy and security. All of which became reasons why I applied for Cloudflare as a marketing intern. Being a part of a tech company whose mission and products I believe in is a pretty big deal for me.

Why is it a big deal?

I strongly believe in advocating for the right to speak freely - being able to hear all opinions of a topic whether I agree with them or not. Privacy ensures that people still have the power to speak about personal issues or speaking out against oppressive regimes without having their voices suppressed. Security relates to trust and credibility for end users and ensures that businesses do not resort to nefarious methods to compete such as acquiring DDoS services to shut down their competitors.

Cloudflare enables. And that is just a small part of the bigger picture that is to help create a better Internet for everyone.

A big part of working at Cloudflare is working with diverse cross-functional teams. I am a part of the APAC team based in Singapore, being the bridge to the marketing team in San Francisco alongside a fellow intern. Suffice to say, I have learned a lot about the business having worked with the amazing people who have been responsible for the region’s accelerating growth.

Two weeks into the internship, I was supporting an event in Malaysia meeting potential prospects and managing the event. This proved to be very valuable in understanding how we connect to our audience and the characteristics of the market that the event represents. It was definitely a learning experience to familiarise myself with the process in order to enable the sales team and being part of Cloudflare’s growth (more than 12 million protected domains). Through the trust and ownership that was given to me, I set about understanding the target audience and learning new tools as fast as possible.

Image source: Vollhov @ https://www.deviantart.com/vollhov

Being at Cloudflare feels like you are in a state-of-the-art starship. Simplicity with underlying innovation, sophistication and complexity. Cloudflare makes it super intuitive for users with their one-click features through its dashboard, but underneath those features lies a complex system of code that is also lightweight and efficient.

I suppose what really puts Cloudflare on the map for me is the 1.1.1.1 release. I was especially excited because finally I had an alternative DNS to use, all the more because I have always been an advocate of privacy and security. Believing in the mission and products that the company provides played an important role for me in applying to Cloudflare.

Being part of this ever evolving starship has certainly been an exhilarating ride. In my opinion, it will only keep accelerating towards the fringes of the galaxy, and beyond.

With about two months left at Cloudflare, and the events and campaigns coming up in rapid-fire fashion, I will certainly be ending my internship with a bang. Having to dig deep into learning one concept made me realise that it takes a long time to master, be it the intricacies of marketing or technicalities of a product. It is definitely a stimulating assault on the brain but in a good way.

I have learned a lot about working in a very diverse team; multicultural and cross-functional. Cloudflarians wear many hats – the myriad of backgrounds across teams means that there is never a shortage of differing opinions and ideas to share with others. This all the more helps create a refined approach towards building this mission of ours: to help build a better internet for everyone.

Here's a snippet of the diversity that lives and breathes in Cloudflare

Interested in @Cloudflare? Here it is in 7 different languages ? pic.twitter.com/byAvzZgUmY

— Mustafa Khalifa (@Mustafa_Khalifa) 10 October 2018

Advice for future interns

I have always had this philosophy in mind, from my favourite series of books: Dune.

Thinking you knew something was a sure way to blind yourself. It was not growing up that slowly applied brakes to learning (Mentats were taught) but an accumulation of “things I know.” ― Frank Herbert, Chapterhouse: Dune

Always be curious, and absorb like Scrub Daddy sponge can.

Image source: Scrubdaddy.com

Null is a community for hackers and security enthusiasts. Monthly meetups are organized in a number of Asian cities. Read more at http://null.co.in/.

The lineup for the February meetup:

• All you ever wanted to know about DDoS attacks Marek Majkowski

• Security News Bytes Drupan Chandarana

• DNS Hijacking Michael Smith

If you’d like to sign up for the event, you can do so here:

• http://www.meetup.com/Null-Singapore-The-Open-Security-Community/events/228606152/

What: Null Singapore - The Open Security Community meetup

When: February 24th: 6:45pm-8:45pm

Where: The Working Capitol, "The Commons" Room,1 Keong Saik Road, Singapore 089109

Registration isrequired

CloudFlare is actively hiring in Singapore!

The Internet never sleeps, which means it is crucial for us to have a presence in Asia to operate our globally distributed network. Singapore was a natural choice for us given the thriving tech community, the business friendliness of the country, the delicious hawker stalls, and our harbor view rooftop hangout:

Since we are new in town, if there are meetups or groups in Singapore that you think we should be part of (or any good restaurants we should try) – let us know. We will be at RSA Asia Pacific & Japan on Friday July 24 here in Singapore. Come meet us in person and learn more about CloudFlare during Nick Sullivan’s session on The New Key Management - Unlocking the Safeguards of Keeping Keys Private.

As one global company, we took team members from both our San Francisco and London offices to be the foundation for the local team. We are actively looking to expand our Singapore team. We are hiring for several positions including systems reliability engineers, technical support engineers, solutions engineers, network engineers, systems engineers, and customer development sales functions. If you are interested in joining a growing company that is making the Internet better for more than a billion web surfers each month - check out our open positions here.

Special thank you to everyone in the Singapore Government and The Working Capitol for helping make the CloudFlare Singapore office a reality.