Because it is cheaper?

More like because of Spark's (non-)peering policies.

It's always been such an arrogant policy. 

freitasm:

 

More like because of Spark's (non-)peering policies.

 

If there is not a cost reason for this, what is the business reason behind such a policy? 

It's was at one point cheaper for ISP's to buy more transit to Sydney than it was to buy peering with Spark

Beccara:

 

It's was at one point cheaper for ISP's to buy more transit to Sydney than it was to buy peering with Spark

I believe it still is which is why many ISP's now go via Australia to reach Spark.

There was a valid cost reason for why they pulled out in the first place.

cisconz:

 

There was a valid cost reason for why they pulled out in the first place.

 

This was many, many years ago. They still peer but only if the CDN or peering company has some heavy traffic - apparently even Cloudflare doesn't qualify for "heavy traffic"...

freitasm:

 

cisconz:

 

There was a valid cost reason for why they pulled out in the first place.

 

 

This was many, many years ago. They still peer but only if the CDN or peering company has some heavy traffic - apparently even Cloudflare doesn't qualify for "heavy traffic"...

 

I'm always up for looking at new CDN partners but you're correct, last time we checked with Cloudflare the level of traffic would have needed to be an order of magnitude larger than it was to justify the investment of a directly connected CDN. That level will have gone up now as well - but obviously I can't disclose what those levels are publicly. More than happy to discuss it with someone from Cloudflare however if you have a contact and they are happy to sign an NDA.

Cheers - Neil G

I think this is what I read https://blog.cloudflare.com/bandwidth-costs-around-the-world/

Basically because peering is expensive in Australia with Telstra and Optus, Cloudflare serves free customers out of cheaper locations. Not sure if GZ is a free or paid customer of Cloudflare but might explain why it's being served out of Tokyo.

That was two years ago though, but I doubt much has changed over there.

I did notice when I was on Spark that my Unifi Controller, fronted by Cloudflare, was hitting Tokyo but I am a free customer. Same thing with @michaelmurfy's wordpress site at the time.