Amazon CloudFront: Overview and Setup

Learn about Amazon CloudFront, a Content Delivery Network (CDN) service that speeds up content delivery by caching data at edge locations. Follow our guide to set up CloudFront and optimize content delivery.

Overview of Amazon CloudFront

Amazon CloudFront is a Content Delivery Network (CDN) designed to deliver your content, such as images or videos, quickly and efficiently. It achieves this by distributing your data across a network of locations known as edge locations. When a user requests data, CloudFront routes the request to the nearest edge location, minimizing latency and enhancing access speed.

How AWS CloudFront Delivers Content

User Request

When a user tries to access a website or download an object (e.g., an image), CloudFront comes into play.

Routing to Edge Location

The Domain Name System (DNS) directs the user’s request to the closest CloudFront edge location. This edge location is the nearest data center that can serve the content.

Checking the Cache

  • If Cached: CloudFront first checks if the requested file is already stored (cached) at the edge location. If so, CloudFront quickly delivers the cached file to the user.
  • If Not Cached: CloudFront sends the request to the origin server (the original source of the data) for the file. The origin server sends the file back to the CloudFront edge location. CloudFront starts delivering the file to the user as soon as it starts receiving data and caches the file at the edge location for future requests.

Caching and Updating

The file remains cached at the edge location for a specified time (e.g., 24 hours) or as defined in the file’s headers. When a new request is made, CloudFront checks if the cached version is still up-to-date. If not, it fetches the latest version from the origin server and updates the cache.

Features of CloudFront

  • Fast: With numerous edge locations worldwide, CloudFront speeds up content delivery by caching it close to users, reducing latency and network traffic.
  • Simple: CloudFront is easy to set up and use.
  • Integrated with Other AWS Services: CloudFront works seamlessly with other AWS services like Amazon S3 and Amazon EC2.
  • Cost-effective: You only pay for the data you deliver through CloudFront, with no hidden charges or upfront fees.
  • Elastic: It automatically adjusts to handle changes in demand, so you don’t have to worry about maintaining it.
  • Reliable: Built on Amazon’s robust infrastructure, CloudFront can reroute users to the nearest location if needed.
  • Global: CloudFront has a global network of edge locations, ensuring broad coverage.

How to Set Up AWS CloudFront

1. Sign In

Log in to the AWS Management Console here.

2. Upload Content to Amazon S3

Ensure your content is uploaded to an Amazon S3 bucket and set the permissions to public.

3. Create a CloudFront Distribution

  1. Go to the CloudFront console here.
  2. Click “Get Started” under the Web section to start creating a distribution.
  3. On the “Create Distribution” page, choose your Amazon S3 bucket as the origin domain name and leave other settings as default.
  4. Click “Create Distribution.”
  5. Wait for the status to change from “In Progress” to “Deployed.” This may take about 15 minutes.

4. Test the Links

After setting up, you’ll have a domain name assigned to your distribution. To test if CloudFront is working, create an HTML file with the following code:

Example

<head>CloudFront Testing Link</head>
<body>
<p>My CloudFront.</p>
<p><img src="http://domain-name/object-name" alt="test image"/></p>
</body>
</html>

Replace domain-name with the domain assigned by CloudFront and object-name with the name of your S3 bucket file. Save the file with a .html extension and open it in a browser to test if the content loads correctly. If it doesn’t work, check your settings.

By following these steps, you’ll ensure that your content is delivered efficiently to users around the world using AWS CloudFront.