After facing challenges with traditional Redis-based rate limiting during a traffic spike, the author transitioned to using Cloudflare Durable Objects for a more efficient solution. This new approach significantly reduced latency, improved reliability, and lowered costs while effectively managing thousands of concurrent requests in a serverless environment.

A Firebase project was hit with over 100 million requests due to a security oversight, resulting in significant potential costs. The author emphasizes the importance of proper configuration, rate limiting, and security measures to prevent such incidents. The experience serves as a cautionary tale for developers to remain vigilant with their cloud services.