As we know cloud computing is a network of remote data centers that provide computing resources through the internet on pay as you go basis.
In general, when the user requests any website content on the internet, the request is taken by the DNS and routed the request to its destination web server regardless of where the destination web server is located in the world. On receiving the request, the web server fulfills the request and sends the contents back to the requester accordingly. The issue that arises here is the delay in receiving the content from the web server to the end-user or the requester. This issue of delay in receiving the requested content to the user is commonly identified as latency. The physical distance between the user and the website’s hosting server influences the duration of the delay.
To overcome this latency, issue a Content Delivery Network (CDN) has been introduced. The prime objective of the CDN is to provide the requested content to the user with minimum delay. The CDN placed a cached version of the content in multiple geographical locations to provide the content to the user in his proximity.
Without CloudFront
Amazon Web Service (AWS) has its CDN, called CloudFront. CloudFront is a global web service of AWS that fastens the delivery of the web content between the user and the webservers. It distributes the web content with low latency and high-speed data transformation. The content may be in the form of .html, .css, .js, images or videos, or other objects that can be served on HTTP.
Using CloudFront
How CloudFront Works
AWS has a network of Edge Locations in the major cities of different countries across the world, which are sites, that AWS uses to cache contents that have been requested by the users When the user requests the content for the first time it goes to the source location or the Origin where the content is placed originally. The origin is an owner-created S3 bucket, a Media Package channel, or an HTTP server. The requested content is then forwarded to the edge locations which have very high bandwidth connectivity with the origin that exists in the Availability Zone in a Region, from where it is transferred to the requested user at the same time.
Next time when the same user or other requests the same content, the content is delivered to the user from the edge location (cache) instead of the origin server. This reduces the delay (latency) or several networks a user request must passes to deliver the content. The AWS CloudFront is a global web service that keeps the persistent network connection with the origin so the content may be fetched from the origin to the edge locations. It is aforementioned the edge location is a cache where the data is placed for 24 hours, the time can be managed by the owner of the origin.
CloudFront can help with the following Use cases
1. Accelerate static website content delivery
CloudFront can speed up the delivery of static content (such as images, style sheets, JavaScript, and so on) to viewers worldwide. You can use CloudFront to provide your website visitors with a fast, safe, and dependable experience by leveraging the AWS backbone network and CloudFront edge servers.
2. Serve video on demand or live streaming video
CloudFront offers a variety of streaming media options to global audiences, including pre-recorded files and live events.
CloudFront can deliver VOD to any device in standard formats such as MPEG DASH, Apple HLS, Microsoft Smooth Streaming, and CMAF.
You can cache media fragments at the edge when broadcasting a live stream so that multiple requests for the manifest file, which delivers the fragments in the correct order, can be combined.
Features of AWS CloudFront
Faster Performance
- Network optimizations for optimal performance
- Dynamic or Static Content
- Large Libraries and Media Assets
Security
- Protection against Network and Application Layer Attacks
- Access Control
- SSL/TLS Encryptions and HTTPS
Programmable and DevOps Friendly
- Full-featured APIs and DevOps Tools Full-featured APIs and DevOps Tools
- Edge Behavior
Cost Effective
- Pay-as-you-go publicly available pricing and discounted pricing
How to Access CloudFront
you can access Amazon CloudFront in the following ways
- AWS Management Console
- AWS SDKs
- CloudFront API
- AWS Command Line interface
AWS Global Infrastructure
AWS has 26 Regions
84 Availability Zones
410 Point of presence
400+ edge locations and 13 Regional Edge Caches
in 90+ cities across 47 countries
