Are you tired of worrying about the safety of your site? It’s time to take control of your online presence and fortify your website with Performance Shield powered by Cloudflare — the industry leader in web security.

What was once only reserved for enterprise-class websites — in terms of containing the exploits of bad actors on the web — is now available to online businesses of all sizes — if they are Nexcess customers.

Safe ecommerce, layered defenses, and vigilance against all forms of cyberthreats are at the forefront in the minds of website owners around the globe. Let us strengthen your web applications in the fight against these risks!

Your website deserves the best protection, which is precisely what Performance Shield offers. With our Performance Shield add-on enabled for your most vital domains hosted with Nexcess, you can focus on creating great content and growing your online presence while leaving the security worries to the experts.

Partnering with Cloudflare, Nexcess is excited to offer the Performance Shield add-on for Cloudflare integration to enhance website security, speed, efficiency, and SEO — among a long list of advantages the technology will facilitate.

Here are the top reasons why you should choose Performance Shield to protect your website:

1. Bot-based threat protection

Bot protection is essential for safeguarding your website from a wide range of bot-based threats. This feature accurately identifies and mitigates malicious bot activity while allowing legitimate users to access your site seamlessly.

2. Data transfer cost savings

The cost savings on monthly data transfers due to the new efficiency yielded allow for the Performance Shield add-on to essentially “pay for itself” via the financial benefits.

3. Robust Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attack protection

Say goodbye to downtime caused by malicious traffic. Cloudflare’s global network absorbs DDoS attacks of all sizes, ensuring your site stays online and responsive. Procuring a Cloudflare DDoS protection price as competitive as ours is a significant benefit of our Performance Shield add-on.

4. Web Application Firewall (WAF) protection

Shield your site from common security threats and vulnerabilities with Cloudflare’s WAF. It automatically filters out malicious traffic and protects against SQL injection, cross-site scripting (XSS), and other web application attacks.

Performance Shield is available for purchase in 3 different tiers and is priced per site per month

The features and value-added benefits are provided by tier as follows:

All Tiers

Content Delivery Network (CDN) with Presence in 285+ Cities Worldwide
DDoS Protection (Nexcess has built the Cloudflare DDoS protection price into the overall price structure for the add-on.)
Image Optimization
Web Application Firewall (WAF)

Medium Tier and Large Tier

Large Tier

Do I have to point my domain at Nexcess name servers?

Yes, in order to use our Performance Shield add-on product, the site domain will need to be using the Nexcess name servers.

If you have already pointed your domain to use Nexcess name servers, then you will not have to change anything to be able to use the Performance Shield add-on for your site domain.

How do I order the Performance Shield add-on from Nexcess?

You can add the add-on directly from my.nexcess.net via the Site Dashboard of your site using the Content Delivery tab, and it will cover the number of domains you signed up for with the add-on. If you have already pointed your domain at the Nexcess name servers, you can order and use the Performance Shield add-on for your site.

Remember, the Cloudflare DDoS protection price has been incorporated into the price of our Performance Shield add-on.

What are the security benefits of the Performance Shield add-on?

Cloudflare Web Application Firewall (WAF) and Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) protection are some of the industry-leading security benefits gained. Cloudflare’s DDoS and WAF can help to protect your site from most prevalent forms of attacks by filtering out malicious traffic, blocking known attack vectors, and alerting you to potential threats:

If your site is under attack from a DDoS attack, you can enable that category of protection directly in my.nexcess.net for your site when you turn on the Under Attack mode by clicking the Activate Under Attack Mode button in the user interface.

When the site is no longer under attack, the mode can be deactivated in the portal area for the specific domain.

What are the site optimization benefits of the Performance Shield add-on?

With the Performance Shield add-on, you can optimize images to be converted on the fly at the edge of the CDN for site visitors. As well, you can minify at the edge of the CDN Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) and JavaScript (JS) assets being loaded on your site.

By optimizing your images, you can significantly improve the speed of your website, which will lead to optimized conversion rates. Optimized images are smaller, meaning they use less bandwidth when delivered to visitors. This efficiency improvement can save you money on hosting costs and increase your website’s performance.

Image optimization and code minification features are both enabled by default when Performance Shield is added to your site.

Can I still use the Nexcess Edge CDN?

Yes, if you already use the Nexcess Edge CDN for site assets, that will continue to work with the Enterprise Performance Shield and Protect (Performance Shield) add-on that we offer.

Does the Performance Shield add-on work with WordPress plugins?

The Nexcess integration of Cloudflare’s feature set (via Performance Shield) will work with WordPress plugins and will not be an issue. Rest assured that the health of your plugins and themes is not a concern as you maximize the benefits of the Enterprise Performance and Protection add-on from Nexcess. This product has been well tested in this regard.

Where is the Performance Shield functionality located in the Nexcess Client Portal?

Performance Shield settings are found in the Content Delivery tab of the site management features in the portal. In the site list, customers will see a cloud icon for each eligible site that servers as a shortcut to the corresponding setting page.

Customers will also notice additional CNAME and ALIAS records have been added to their DNS zones to support this feature. (Please don’t delete them!)

Can Performance Shield be activated for all sites on a plan?

Performance Shield can be activated for all sites on Managed WordPress and Managed WooCommerce plans. Performance Shield can only be activated for the primary site on Managed Magento, Flexible Cloud, and other managed applications (t-shirt) plans.

Can I use my own individual Cloudflare account?

If you want to reduce costs and gain access to the portfolio of Performance Shield features we offer, it would be worth going with the Nexcess Performance Shield add-on compared to using your Cloudflare account. Depending on the hosting plan that you are using with us, you may need access to the full range of features provided by the add-on.

Why you should leverage the bundled site optimization features that come with the Performance Shield add-on

Our Performance Shield add-on will allow your site to use the leading-edge features provided for your site with easy optimization. Your changes can be managed directly in the Nexcess Client Portal using the your Site Dashboard’s functionality.

Cloudflare’s feature management is straightforward and easy to use. In addition, the value proposition is quite evident given that the Cloudflare DDoS protection price is treated as part of add-on’s total cost.

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