Cloudflare takes on Azure, Google, AWS with D1 distributed database

Building above its recently launched R2 object storage service and serverless application program Workers, Cloudflare is releasing a new serverless database, dubbed D1, to take on Microsoft Azure, GCP, AWS, and Oracle databases.

The firm claims that the D1 distributed database, which will reside in its over 250 global locations—Cloudflare’s edge—will decrease latency and data transfer fees for developers compared to other databases.

According to Cloudflare, latency can be reduced by storing data in locations close to the user of the database or where a specific application is running.

The principal analyst at Constellation Research, Holger Mueller, said this approach to building a serverless database was different from that employed by AWS Lambda where data travels back to the function. Mueller added there were no services in the current market that could be compared to D1, and they expected other services to react to this launch in their own ways.

Analysts say the D1 announcement is the latest in what can only be termed as a slow but sure strategy to expand Cloudflare’s brand identity beyond a DDoS mitigation and content delivery network (CDN) firm.

The firm also said it would not charge any data transfer fees. This means developers will be able to move data between services.