---
description: Expose internal APIs and microservices securely without opening inbound firewall ports.
title: Connect your internal network services
image: https://developers.cloudflare.com/og-docs.png
---

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# Connect your internal network services

Last updated Aug 24, 2026|Copy as Markdown|[View as Markdown](https://e8aee267.previews.developers.cloudflare.com/use-cases/apis/internal-services/index.md)|[Agent setup](https://e8aee267.previews.developers.cloudflare.com/agent-setup/)

Internal services and microservices often need to communicate without exposing endpoints to the public Internet. Cloudflare Tunnel creates outbound-only connections with no inbound firewall rules, while Access enforces Zero Trust policies for every request between services.

## Solutions

### Cloudflare Tunnel

Connect infrastructure to Cloudflare without opening inbound firewall ports. [Learn more about Cloudflare Tunnel](https://e8aee267.previews.developers.cloudflare.com/cloudflare-one/networks/connectors/cloudflare-tunnel/).

* **No public exposure** \- Internal Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) remain private; Tunnel establishes an outbound-only connection with no inbound firewall rules needed

### Access

Zero Trust access control for applications and infrastructure. [Learn more about Access](https://e8aee267.previews.developers.cloudflare.com/cloudflare-one/access-controls/policies/).

* **Zero Trust policies** \- Verify identity and enforce per-service policies for every request between services
* **Centralized policy management** \- Manage access rules for all internal services from a single control plane

### Service Tokens

Non-interactive credentials for machine-to-machine authentication. [Learn more about Service Tokens](https://e8aee267.previews.developers.cloudflare.com/cloudflare-one/access-controls/service-credentials/service-tokens/).

* **Service-to-service auth** \- Authenticate internal services with non-interactive credentials managed in Cloudflare One

## Get started

1. [Create a Cloudflare Tunnel](https://e8aee267.previews.developers.cloudflare.com/cloudflare-one/networks/connectors/cloudflare-tunnel/get-started/)
2. [Cloudflare Access get started](https://e8aee267.previews.developers.cloudflare.com/cloudflare-one/access-controls/policies/)
3. [Create service tokens](https://e8aee267.previews.developers.cloudflare.com/cloudflare-one/access-controls/service-credentials/service-tokens/)

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