Manchester-born Christian Reilly, the new EMEA Chief Technology Officer at Cloudflare, the leading connectivity cloud company, talks at DTX Manchester on how good it is to be back on Northern UK soil after 20+ years working across the globe. He weighs in on the booming tech sector in Manchester and what a safer internet really means for the customers and communities he serves.
The evolution of Manchester as the capital of tech
As a Manchester native I have a huge affection for the city. What a history we have of reinventing ourselves - from splitting the atom to early computer breakthroughs.
When I left years ago, the city was not as it is now. It’s transformed. MediaCityUK is on our doorstep – hosted proudly by neighbouring Salford – which has attracted household names from broadcast media and driven a huge spin-off economy plus a significant residential and leisure boom.
And it’s great to see Circle Square emerging and a new innovation district, ID Manchester, Enterprise City (St Johns) and developments in NOMA and the Northern Quarter, as well as the investment in the east of the city.
Manchester’s Digital Strategy tells a story of dynamic growth and ambition. The digital economy here is worth over £5 billion now, employs over 88,000 people, and is home to over 10,000 businesses. Strengths in research and innovation have long made the city a place of choice for investment and talent and we are blessed with some of the UK’s best universities – five highly respected seats of learning with thousands of students studying here and then jumping on careers in the north and keeping the young talent here.
Manchester is home to an emerging new wave of ethical tech businesses and digital not-for-profits that build on existing strengths of other pioneering initiatives like Future Everything, Open Data Manchester and the Manchester Digital Laboratory (MADLAB).
Turing Innovation Catalyst centre for AI is a pioneer in its field and significant Angel and VC funds are aiming to invest in digital projects across the region. Digital Skills Network already brings together 200 creative and digital, education and skills professionals collaborating on activity that tackles skills challenges.
There is great leadership from the City Council and Mayor Andy Burnham and his Digital Strategy puts tech at the heart of problem-solving and opportunities across Manchester - the digitisation of key government services - and the city region to ensure everyone benefits from the tech revolution unfolding.
How Cloudflare is reducing risk for Manchester online
After two decades in Europe, the Middle East, and the US, I am a strong advocate for safer connectivity. That’s why I joined Cloudflare. It’s global problem-solving in an age of faster-than-ever internet.
Every organisation is trying to build bigger, better, and quicker, putting in place a cloud-first strategy that needs protection, driving innovation, and relying on internet-based connectivity.
Hybrid cloud has moved the dial in recent years post-Covid. Organisations are moving at different rates, but they are all shifting from traditional physical hardware and software into cloud services. To do that, they need a unified platform of cloud-native services that simplifies secure ‘any-to-any’ connectivity across IT environments and allows them to regain control and visibility over their sprawling digital domains.
Clever developers are matching new ideas with the latest in security - so bigger, better, faster worlds don’t fall victim to cyber-criminals. This is important because life is online and at risk. As we digitise every aspect of our lives, technology has to be functional, efficient, and not likely to put us in danger.
What sets Cloudflare apart is the fact that we own and operate our own network with a global reach. Currently operating in 320 cities in 120 countries, this allows us to protect, connect, and build safer, more robust cloud communities.
Our mission is to help build a better internet
As the world’s first connectivity cloud we are pretty unusual, providing unmatched security, performance, visibility, and reliability - giving people control over their IT and security environments.
This is good news for customers that need to protect digital assets for example. We serve a lot of industries, our solutions can be applied to almost every business and we work across multiple co-location facilities linked to 13,000 different networks.
And there is no time to lose on a protectionist ticket.
Getting to the right place and being tolerant of any wait time is getting less and less. Expectation of digital natives is that everything is always available and transactions will be completed in the fastest possible time. Look at the growth of e-commerce.
Manchester has recently seen a boom in this sector and the city should be rightly proud of its five unicorns in this space - Boohoo, The Hut Group, AO.com, AutoTrader, and On the Beach. They have mastered the fundamental key to success which is fabulous end user experience – maximum security, availability, and performance. Boohoo partners with us to help deliver this with confidence.
So that’s why we are at a show like DTX Manchester where enterprise IT solutions can be explored and we can get ahead of the problems - just like Manchester has always done with its rich history of tech solutions and today’s booming industry.
A fair and safe place for all communities
We want the internet to be a fair and safe place for under-represented groups in civil society - those communities that are often more vulnerable to cybercriminals.
Cloudflare has committed to helping these not-for-profit organisations via a scheme called Project Galileo - free at point of use. In the UK we have worked with the British Beekeepers Association which represents 25,000 hobbyist beekeepers and aims to raise the standards in beekeeping. In 2022 we stepped in to help defend the business against bot attacks. A DDoS attack had taken them offline in 2016 and there had been some attempts at business email compromises – as yet unsuccessful – but the organisation felt vulnerable.
Cloudflare blocked the bot traffic by quickly setting up some effective defences. Technical IT and Web Security Consultant Mark Oakley said it “was the reassurance we needed” and that “having Cloudflare tools in place means we are taking steps to protect ourselves from the hazards of being connected to the Internet.”
The BBA has since added several other tools under the Cloudflare One Zero Trust suite to do other things. This includes: blocking access to malware sites for in-office staff; securing trustee and volunteers’ mobile phone connections, defending against phishing attacks targeting employees, trustees, and volunteers with cloud email protection. Remote browser isolation tech reduces the risks of people clicking on malicious LinkedIn emails.
The Internet is a powerful tool for spreading and expanding ideas. When journalists, social activists, and minority groups are flooded with malicious traffic in an attempt to knock them offline, the Internet stops fulfilling its promise. Project Galileo is designed to make it safe and fair for all.
As recently as June 2023, we also observed an attack targeting LGBT Foundation, a UK-based LGBTQ+ organisation, during the beginning of Pride Month. Cloudflare mitigated 144.7 million requests to this organisation, with another attack on August 26, 2023 coinciding with Manchester Pride. This second attack peaked at 1.46 million requests per second before finally subsiding on August 29.
Everyone is vulnerable. But we’re giving all communities the support they need to defend themselves.
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About Christian Reilly
Christian Reilly has worked for engineering & construction business Bechtel where he spent 20 years before moving to Citrix Systems, leading transformation from on-site premises to cloud services. In 2023, he joined HashiCorp as CTO before becoming EMEA CTO at Cloudflare, where he is now responsible for the growth of its unique services across the region.