Cloud Provider Connectivity Tests BETA

Cloud Provider Service Tests (BETA)

The cloud provider tests measure your IPv4 and IPv6 connectivity to different types of cloud services from major infrastructure providers. These tests help you understand how well your network can reach the various services used by applications worldwide.

What Gets Tested

Unlike testing the same CDN endpoint repeatedly, this tests distinct service types across multiple cloud providers:

• AWS (Amazon Web Services): CloudFront CDN, S3 Storage, API Gateway, Documentation, Console
• Azure (Microsoft Azure): Azure CDN, Blob Storage, Portal, Documentation, DevOps
• GCP (Google Cloud Platform): Cloud CDN, Cloud Storage, Console, Documentation, Firebase
• DigitalOcean: CDN, Spaces Storage
• Cloudflare: CDN, R2 Storage, Workers (Edge Computing)

How It Works

The tests connect to publicly accessible endpoints for each service type:

• CDN Services: Test the content delivery networks that accelerate website and application delivery globally
• Storage Services: Test object storage endpoints (S3, Azure Blob, GCS, etc.) used for files, backups, and static assets
• Console/Portal Services: Test the management interfaces used by developers and administrators
• Documentation: Test the technical documentation sites that developers rely on
• Edge/API Services: Test serverless and API gateway endpoints

What the Tests Measure

• Service Connectivity: Can you reach different cloud service types over IPv4 and IPv6?
• Latency Comparison: How fast are connections to each service?
• Protocol Performance: Which protocol (IPv4 vs IPv6) performs better for cloud services?
• Provider Comparison: Compare reachability and performance across AWS, Azure, GCP, and other providers

Why BETA?

This feature is marked BETA because:

• Dual-Stack Endpoints: Most modern cloud services use dual-stack endpoints where your browser's Happy Eyeballs algorithm determines which protocol is used, not the test itself
• Limited Protocol Isolation: True IPv4-only and IPv6-only endpoints are increasingly rare as cloud providers modernize their infrastructure
• Public Endpoints Only: We test publicly accessible service endpoints (websites, documentation, portals) rather than actual infrastructure APIs which require authentication
• Methodology Evolution: We're refining the approach to better represent real-world cloud service usage patterns

Interpreting Results

• All Services Pass: Excellent! You can reach all tested cloud services over both protocols
• Some Services Fail: May indicate network filtering, firewall rules blocking specific service domains, or temporary outages
• Performance Differences: Latency variations between services reveal how well your network routes to different cloud infrastructure types
• Provider Comparison: See which cloud providers have the best connectivity and performance from your location
• IPv6 vs IPv4: Performance comparison shows which protocol your network routes more efficiently to cloud services

Service Types Explained

• CDN (Content Delivery Network): Edge caching infrastructure that serves static content globally with low latency
• Storage: Object storage services for files, backups, static websites, and application data
• Console/Portal: Web-based management interfaces for configuring and monitoring cloud resources
• Docs: Technical documentation and API references used by developers
• API Gateway: Managed API endpoints for serverless and microservices architectures
• Edge Computing: Serverless platforms that run code at edge locations globally (e.g., Cloudflare Workers)
• DevOps: CI/CD and development collaboration platforms

Value of Service-Based Testing: Unlike testing the same CDN endpoint repeatedly with fake "region" labels, service-based testing reveals connectivity patterns across different infrastructure types. This helps developers and network administrators understand which cloud services are reachable and performant from their location, enabling better architecture decisions.

Future Improvements

We're planning several enhancements to improve protocol isolation and testing accuracy:

• Server-Side Testing: Deploy backend testing infrastructure to force IPv4-only and IPv6-only connections, bypassing browser Happy Eyeballs
• Multi-Region Vantage Points: Test from multiple geographic locations to provide true regional connectivity data
• Protocol-Specific Mirrors: Use services that provide ipv4.example.com and ipv6.example.com hostnames for true protocol isolation where available
• Historical Tracking: Monitor performance trends over time
• Outage Detection: Alert on connectivity failures