Understanding Cloudflare Regional Tiered Cache

Regional Tiered Cache is a Cloudflare feature that functions as an extra layer when the system is looking for cache. So, Cloudflare will check this layer first before having to fetch data directly from your origin server.

To make it easier to imagine, think of it like a logistics distribution network for package delivery.

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How It Works (Request Flow)

• Without Regional Tiered Cache: When data is not available at the nearest data center to the visitor (Lower Tier), Cloudflare usually searches directly at the main large data center (Upper Tier) or even directly pings your origin server which might be located on another continent.
• With Regional Tiered Cache: Cloudflare adds an intermediate "checkpoint" in the middle:

1. Lower Tier (Nearest Data Center): The visitor requests data. Cloudflare checks the data center closest to the visitor's location. If it's not found (cache miss)...
2. Regional Tier (Regional Data Center): Cloudflare does not immediately go to your origin server. It checks the larger regional data center that is still within the same region (for example, if the visitor is in Jakarta, the regional center might be in Singapore).
3. Upper Tier / Origin Server: Then, if it's still not found at the regional level, the request is forwarded to the Upper Tier or directly fetched from your origin server.

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Why This Feature Is So Useful?

• Lighten Your Server Load (Origin Shielding): If many visitors from the same region request the same data, the regional data center only needs to fetch the data from your server once. After that, it distributes it to smaller local data centers. Result? Your server won't be overwhelmed or crash.
• Make Your Website Feel Faster! (Lower Latency): Fetching data from a regional data center in Singapore is much faster for visitors in Southeast Asia, compared to Cloudflare having to pull data directly from your server, for instance in America or Europe.