Content delivery network company Cloudflare Inc. is riding high today, its stock up more than 8% after reporting fiscal first-quarter revenue that topped expectations and posting strong guidance for the next quarter and full year.

The company reported a loss before certain costs such as stock compensation of three cents per share on revenue of $138.1 million, up 51% from a year ago. Wall Street had been modeling a three-cent loss on lower revenue of $131 million.

Cloudflare operates an intelligent global network that helps websites deal with security, video streaming and traffic management issues, serving both corporate and consumer markets. The company has stepped up its efforts to grab a bigger slice of the lucrative enterprise security market, launching an expansive suite of zero-trust-based cybersecurity and networking tools last year to help companies to protect their remote workers more effectively.

Those tools appear to have gone down well, with Cloudflare co-founder and Chief Executive Matthew Prince (pictured) saying that the company has increased its total customer base to more than 4 million. Its large-customer count grew by 70% from a year ago to account for more than half of the company’s revenue, he said.

“We delivered terrific financial results while also investing in innovation, the fuel our engine runs on,” Prince continued. “There’s no slowing down as we continue to deliver business-critical offerings and displace point solutions with Cloudflare’s robust global network.”

Analyst Holger Mueller of Constellation Research Inc. told SiliconANGLE that it was no surprise to see Cloudflare doing so well at a time when the whole world seems to be living online.

“Vendors like Cloudflare help enterprises to secure their internet activity, and in the aftermath of the SolarWinds leak, its services are in even more in demand,” Mueller said. “CloudFlare managed to grow by a very strong 50% and also managed its costs well, only increasing its net loss by two cents per share. For the rest of the year, more investment in R&D will help Cloudflare to stay on top of this fast-evolving and critical space.”

The company is forecasting more good times to come. For the current quarter, it sees revenue of $145.5 million to $146.5 million and a loss per share of three to four cents. Wall Street had forecast second-quarter revenue of just $139 million and a three-cent-per-share loss.

For the full year, Cloudflare raised its revenue guidance to a range of $612 million to $616 million. That’s well ahead of Wall Street’s consensus of $593 million in revenue for the year.

Photo: New America/Flickr