As customers look to improve their internet experience Cloudflare presents the 1.1.1.1 Domain Name System (DNS) resolver, a freely available service promising to both secure and accelerate online traffic.
For the unfamiliar, a DNS resolver "resolves" (or connects) IP addresses to domain names. Most consumers get DNS resolutions as part of the standard ISP package. The process is surprisngly lengthy, with an average DNS lookup taking around 32 milliseconds. As such some companies offer an own fast DNS service, such as Cisco OpenDNS and Google DNS.
Developed in partnership with APNIC (Asia Pacific Network Information Centre) Labs, the 1.1.1.1 service is superior because it runs on the Cloudflare global anycast network powered by 149 datacentres across the world. Thus, the company claims, the DNS is faster than any alternative, including 8.8.8.8 from Google.