Strengthening Content Delivery Networks With AWS CloudFront

AWS CloudFront is a fast, secure, and programmable content delivery network (CDN) service that enables enterprises to deliver their content to millions of users over the secure content distribution channels. The content, both static and dynamic, is transferred over the secure CDN channels to reach the end-users with minimal latency. CloudFront has a worldwide network of data centers, also known as edge locations. In addition, it is integrated with Amazon Web Servers at physical locations, thereby directly connecting to the expanding AWS global infrastructure. 

To ensure a seamless content delivery to end-users with reduced latency, CloudFront uses a worldwide network of 216 Points of Presence (PoP). These PoPs include 205 edge locations and 11 regional edge caches in over 84 major cities of 42 countries. 

At Oodles Technologies, we have recently expanded our technical expertise and services spectrum for AWS development services. It is to justify and address the increasing demand for AWS-based enterprise solutions. 

Let’s discuss the key features of AWS CloudFront and learn why it is becoming an important part of the serverless ecosystem. At the same time, we’ll walk you through the pros and cons of using CloudFront in your serverless applications.

Also read Enabling Serverless Computing With AWS Lambda

How It Works?

At its core, CloudFront acts as a distributed cache for app content with multiple cache locations across the globe. The app content may include files that must be shared with the end-users. To securely deliver the app content, CloudFront takes these files from their source location (origin) and places their copies in different edge locations worldwide. In this way, users residing in different countries across Europe, America, Asia, and Africa can easily gain access to these files.  

For example, let’s say you have your data origin in Italy and your app users in Australia would like to access this data. In the absence of CloudFront, the users will need to raise a request to receive the required files from a distant location. Besides, the file transfer will take place through a cumbersome communication medium. As a result, the response time will increase, ultimately leading to slow file downloads. 

AWS CloudFront eliminates these complexities by paving a straightforward path for file sharing and transfers. Now imagine the same scenario with AWS CloudFront. The CloudFront APIs will periodically fetch the required files from Italy and save their copies on its worldwide servers, including the one in Australia. Now when the Australian users request these files, it will be served by a nearby server in Australia. In this way, it shortens the file transfer path which significantly reduces the overall latency, resulting in improved user experiences.   

Key Enterprise Benefits of AWS CloudFront

AWS CloudFront is a cloud-based CDN service that enables enterprises to deliver app content to end-users over the secure distribution channels. Below are the main enterprise benefits of AWS CloudFront.

Increased Security

CloudFront provides high-level security to the files in-transit, ensuring fast and safe delivery of content to end-users. Enterprises can encrypt their communications with a free custom TLS certificate from Amazon Certificate Manager. Alternatively, they can import their own certificate to AWS CloudFront. In addition, AWS CloudFront offers a built-in AWS Shield to render DDoS protection. It also provides end-to-end protection against all types of layer 3 and layer 4 network attacks. Also, it seamlessly integrates with AWS Web Application Firewall (WAF) for application-layer protection.

Better Availability

The CloudFront infrastructure and its processes are compliant with a wide range of standards to achieve the secure delivery of sensitive data. CloudFront integration with AWS Lambda enables enterprises to run and execute custom logic across the global AWS network without managing servers.

CloudFront automatically scales and replicates the application logic worldwide without manually scaling its origin infrastructure. The Lambda integration with CloudFront also aids in establishing a serverless cloud computing infrastructure to reduce complexities. 

Cost-Effective Solution

Using AWS CloudFront provides several financial benefits to cross-industry enterprises, bringing significant cost savings while also accelerating content delivery. Data transfers from other AWS origins to CloudFront is free of cost. It incorporates the pay-as-you-go pricing model which means you only have to pay for the services you avail. Besides, it accelerates and protects many types of traffic, under the same pricing standards.  

You may also be interested in reading Enterprise Applications and Benefits of Kubernetes

The Bottom Line

AWS CloudFront enables enterprises to strengthen and accelerate their content delivery efforts, thereby delivering great user experiences across devices. In addition, it provides a number of enterprise benefits for improved interoperability, as discussed above. Individual developers can also join the AWS Service Delivery Program that aims at verifying APN partners worldwide with a validated content delivery path.  

Avail Our AWS Cloud Consulting Services To Strengthen Your Enterprise Processes

We are a cloud development company that provides full-scale AWS cloud consulting and development services to strengthen enterprise processes with increased security, transparency, and interoperability. Our cloud computing professionals are skilled at using AWS-based tools like Amazon EC2, Amazon Elastic Beanstalk, EKS, AWS lambda, Amazon Elastic Container Service, and AWS CloudFront.