Energy
Grid operations security, VPN/MPLS replacement for field sites, smart grid API protection, AI inference for field ops, and exploration data protection.
The problem
Centralized GPU inference adds 200–400 ms round-trip latency from remote field locations, making real-time anomaly detection and predictive alerts impractical. Every AI model deployment requires capacity planning, region selection, and DevOps overhead. Field sites in the Permian Basin, North Sea, or Gulf of America have limited, high-cost connectivity that makes large-volume cloud round-trips prohibitively expensive.
How Cloudflare solves it
Workers AI delivers serverless GPU inference across 330+ PoPs globally, processing field operations AI workloads (anomaly detection, classification, natural language for field reports) within 50 ms of the asset. AI Gateway provides unified observability across all LLM providers, with prompt caching (20–40% token cost reduction) and automatic model fallback. No GPU fleet management or region selection required.
Products
Workers AI, AI Gateway, Workers, KV, Vectorize
Customer KPIs
Cost per inference (↓ 40–60% vs. centralized GPU); P95 inference latency (<50 ms at edge); predictive maintenance alert accuracy; time-to-deploy new AI model (days vs. weeks); unplanned downtime reduction (↓ 20–40%)
The problem
Multi-model AI stacks across exploration, trading, manufacturing, and customer operations generate opaque spend with no cost attribution per business unit. Silent model degradations cause trading algorithms to underperform or safety alerts to fail without notification. Deloitte projects AI will exceed 50% of O&G IT spend by 2029, making cost governance essential. CFO pressure to demonstrate AI ROI is intense when ExxonMobil, Chevron, and Shell each invest billions annually in digital transformation.
How Cloudflare solves it
AI Gateway acts as a unified proxy for all LLM providers: real-time spend analytics with cost attribution per application, business unit, and model. Prompt caching reduces repeated query costs by 20–40%. Rate limiting prevents cost overruns from runaway experiments or misconfigured pipelines. Automatic model fallback maintains SLA when a provider degrades. Guardrails block unsafe content in customer-facing AI features.
Products
AI Gateway, Workers, DLP
Customer KPIs
LLM spend per business unit (↓ 20–40% via caching); model availability SLA (99.9% via fallback); mean time to detect model degradation (<1 min); cost per inference request (full attribution by application); AI budget variance vs. plan (<5%)
The problem
Undeclared AI crawlers extract proprietary exploration data, LNG optimization research, and energy trading algorithms from corporate research portals. Traditional bot controls cannot distinguish legitimate researchers and partners from sophisticated AI scrapers. The volume of AI crawling has increased 300%+ year-over-year, inflating bandwidth costs and creating IP exposure. ExxonMobil, Chevron, and Shell each invest $2–5B annually in R&D, making IP protection a board-level priority.
How Cloudflare solves it
Bot Management identifies and blocks unauthorized AI scraping with ML-based detection achieving 99%+ accuracy. AI Crawl Control provides granular per-bot and per-path controls for known AI crawlers (GPTBot, ClaudeBot, etc.). AI Labyrinth deploys honeypot content that wastes scraper compute without impacting legitimate users. Together, these create a layered protection strategy: block unauthorized scrapers, trap evasive ones, and optionally monetize sanctioned access.
Products
Bot Management, AI Crawl Control, WAF, Managed robots.txt, AI Labyrinth, Turnstile
Customer KPIs
Unauthorized AI crawl requests blocked (%); bandwidth cost reduction from eliminated scraper traffic; content IP exposure score (reduction); research portal availability and performance (maintained); R&D IP exfiltration events (zero)
The problem
A DDoS attack on a utility's grid operations web portal, energy trading platform, or market-facing API can cascade into operational disruption even when OT systems are air-gapped. Energy trading platforms process billions in commodity transactions daily; a 30-minute outage costs millions in missed trades and regulatory penalties. NERC CIP requires electronic security perimeters, but IT-facing systems often have inadequate DDoS protection. Nation-state actors use DDoS as a distraction while launching deeper intrusions.
How Cloudflare solves it
Magic Transit provides network-layer DDoS protection for energy company IP ranges, absorbing volumetric attacks at Cloudflare's edge before they reach grid operations infrastructure. Unmetered DDoS protection automatically mitigates application-layer attacks in under 3 seconds. Spectrum extends protection to non-HTTP protocols used in energy trading (FIX protocol, proprietary trading APIs). WAF Managed Rules protect web-based grid management and market participant portals.
Products
Magic Transit, DDoS Protection (Unmetered), Spectrum, WAF (Managed + Custom Rules), Rate Limiting
Customer KPIs
DDoS mitigation time (<3 s automatic); grid operations portal availability during attack (100%); energy trading platform uptime (99.99%); volumetric attack bandwidth absorbed (Tbps-scale); NERC CIP electronic security perimeter compliance; time to mitigate novel attack vectors
The problem
MPLS circuits cost $500–$5,000/month per remote site across thousands of locations. VPN credentials are the #1 initial access vector for energy ransomware (3,300 industrial organizations impacted in 2025, per Dragos). Separate security consoles for SWG, CASB, DLP, and email create policy inconsistency across IT environments. Suppliers and contractors with NERC CIP or TISAX certification still connect via implicit-trust VPN, enabling lateral movement. Dragos reports only 30% of OT networks have adequate visibility.
How Cloudflare solves it
Cloudflare One replaces VPN + MPLS + SWG + CASB + DLP + Email Security with a unified SASE platform. Access (ZTNA) enforces per-request identity and device posture verification for every employee, contractor, and supplier. Cloudflare WAN replaces MPLS for site-to-cloud connectivity with anycast IPsec/GRE tunnels to substations, field offices, and pipeline control rooms. Gateway (SWG) inspects all Internet-bound traffic. CASB and DLP protect SCADA documentation, grid diagrams, and NERC CIP-protected information in SaaS applications.
Products
Cloudflare One: Access (ZTNA), Gateway (SWG), CASB, DLP, Browser Isolation, Email Security, DEX, Cloudflare WAN, Network Interconnect
Customer KPIs
Security vendor count (target: <10 from 50+); VPN-related security incidents (zero); MPLS cost elimination per site ($500–$5K/month); NERC CIP electronic security perimeter compliance; TSA SD network segmentation compliance; annual security spend reduction (30–50%); MTTD (<5 min); MTTR (<30 min)
The problem
Shadow AI creates uncontrolled data exfiltration pathways for the most sensitive data in energy: SCADA configurations that could enable physical attacks, grid topology maps that are classified under NERC CIP, reservoir models worth billions in competitive advantage, and energy trading algorithms. NIS2 mandates that top management is personally accountable for cybersecurity risk management. NERC CIP Information Protection (CIP-011) requires protection of BES Cyber System Information. Blanket AI bans damage productivity and talent retention.
How Cloudflare solves it
Cloudflare One's Gateway discovers all AI tools in use across the organization with AI category filtering. DLP inline scans prompts and blocks sensitive data (SCADA configs, grid diagrams, source code, financial models) from being entered into AI tools. Browser Isolation renders AI sessions remotely, preventing copy/paste exfiltration and screenshot capture. This creates an "use AI safely" posture: enabling productivity while maintaining NERC CIP, TSA, and NIS2 compliance.
Products
Gateway (SWG with AI category filtering), DLP (inline + API), Browser Isolation, CASB, AI Security Report
Customer KPIs
Shadow AI tools discovered; sensitive data incidents prevented from AI tools (100%); NERC CIP-011 compliance (BES Cyber System Information protection); NIS2 management liability exposure (zero); TSA SD compliance for information protection; engineering AI adoption rate (enablement metric)
The problem
Smart grid API sprawl (thousands of endpoints across ADMS, DERMS, AMI, OCPP, and market participant systems) means the attack surface grows exponentially with every connected DER and smart meter. Shadow APIs from legacy grid systems remain undocumented and unprotected. Compromised grid APIs could enable unauthorized load shedding, market manipulation, or safety incidents. NERC CIP-005 requires electronic security perimeters but does not yet address API-specific threats at the grid edge.
How Cloudflare solves it
API Shield automatically discovers undocumented (shadow) APIs across smart grid infrastructure, validates incoming requests against OpenAPI schemas for OCPP, OpenADR, and proprietary grid APIs, and detects business logic abuse through Sequence Analytics. mTLS enforces mutual authentication between DER devices and grid management platforms. Rate Limiting prevents volumetric abuse of metering and demand response APIs.
Products
API Shield (Discovery, Schema Validation, Sequence Analytics, Abuse Detection), WAF, Bot Management, Rate Limiting, mTLS
Customer KPIs
Shadow APIs discovered and protected; API abuse incidents blocked (>95%); false positive rate (<0.1%); time to protect new grid API (<1 hr); DER communication reliability (99.99%); NERC CIP-005 electronic access point compliance
The problem
A utility customer portal outage during a hurricane or polar vortex creates public safety risk, regulatory scrutiny, and massive support call volume ($5–15 per call vs. $0.10 per digital interaction). EV charging apps must maintain 99.99% uptime as drivers depend on them for route planning and payment. Demand response platforms must communicate load curtailment signals reliably during grid emergencies. Legacy infrastructure cannot absorb traffic spikes from severe weather events or rate case announcements.
How Cloudflare solves it
CDN with Tiered Cache delivers customer portal content from 330+ PoPs globally, reducing origin load by 60–80%. Load Balancing with health checks and automatic failover ensures continuous availability across origin servers. Argo Smart Routing reduces latency 30–50% via optimized backbone paths. Waiting Room manages surge traffic during storm outage map views and demand response enrollment deadlines, preventing origin overload while maintaining customer experience.
Products
CDN (Tiered Cache, Cache Rules), Load Balancing, Argo Smart Routing, Waiting Room, Web Analytics
Customer KPIs
Customer portal uptime during severe weather (99.99%); P50/P95 page load (<1 s); outage map availability during storms (100%); origin load reduction via caching (60–80%); support call deflection rate (↑ to >80% digital self-service); EV charging app P95 latency (<200 ms globally)
The problem
Cloud egress fees ($0.05–0.12/GB) are invisible in annual planning and grow exponentially as IoT telemetry, AI training data, and cross-cloud analytics workloads scale. A single offshore platform generates 1–2 TB/day of sensor data; a utility with 5M smart meters generates 10+ TB/day. Multi-cloud networking between SCADA historians, analytics platforms, and trading systems is complex and expensive via MPLS or native cloud interconnects. OSDU data platform adoption accelerates cross-cloud data movement.
How Cloudflare solves it
Cloudflare R2 (S3-compatible object storage, zero egress fees) provides a cloud-agnostic data layer for SCADA historian archives, IoT telemetry, seismic datasets, and AI training data. Cloudflare WAN provides unified site-to-cloud and cloud-to-cloud connectivity, replacing MPLS between operational sites and cloud environments. Argo Smart Routing reduces cross-cloud transfer latency. Network Interconnect (CNI) provides dedicated connectivity for high-bandwidth data pipelines.
Products
R2 (zero-egress storage), Cloudflare WAN, Argo Smart Routing, Network Interconnect (CNI), Load Balancing
Customer KPIs
Cloud egress spend reduction (50–80%); cross-cloud latency improvement (20–40%); network vendor count reduction; ops hours saved on multi-cloud networking; R2 storage cost vs. S3 (↓ 90%); SCADA historian archive cost reduction