PATTERN Cited by 1 source

Virtual-host-style relay provisioning

Problem

Traditional relay deployments require provisioning dedicated servers or processes per tenant, with explicit region selection, capacity estimation, and load-balancer configuration. Scaling means running more instances.

Solution

Provision a relay by creating an isolated configuration scope (namespaces + credentials) across an existing global network of servers. No new compute starts — the infrastructure is already running and available everywhere. Analogous to adding a virtual host to a web server rather than starting a new web server.

Consequences

• Instantaneous — relay available globally in seconds after a single API call.
• No capacity planning — the existing CDN network absorbs load.
• No region selection — anycast routes clients to the nearest point of presence automatically.
• Isolation is logical — relies on credential + namespace enforcement rather than process/VM boundaries.

Seen in

• sources/2026-07-31-cloudflare-an-api-for-moq-provision-your-own-isolated-relays — "Provisioning a relay doesn't start a virtual machine, container, or dedicated process. Instead, it creates an isolated scope across the existing global network."