GoKawiilCloudflare cuts server hash memory usage 90%, freeing another 100TB of RAM
Cloudflare re-tuned the hash-mapping algorithm its Pingora framework uses to route URL requests to cache servers, drastically reducing the number of hash entries needed per server. The optimization freed up roughly 100 terabytes of RAM across its infrastructure, marking a second major memory-saving effort by the company.
At Cloudflare's massive scale, even small inefficiencies in memory-hungry systems like backend routing tables translate into huge resource costs, so shaving 90% off hash overhead has outsized financial and operational impact. It also shows how infrastructure-level algorithm tuning, rather than just adding hardware, can solve problems like uneven load distribution when servers go offline unexpectedly.
- Cloudflare reduced per-server hash counts by 90% in its Pingora caching framework.
- The change freed about 100 TB of RAM, echoing a previous similar optimization.
- Better hash distribution also helps prevent server overload when one node fails.
Source: tomshardware.com — Bruno Ferreira, 2026-09-21
Published there as: “Cloudflare saves 100 TB of RAM again, this time by slashing server hashes by 90%”
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