Amazon CloudFront: Delivering Content Faster and More Securely with AWS
Learn how Amazon CloudFront, a powerful content delivery network (CDN), accelerates content delivery, enhances security, and improves user experiences worldwide. Explore its features, global reach, integration with other AWS services, and cost-effective pricing model.
Amazon CloudFront: A Fast and Secure Content Delivery Network (CDN)
What is Amazon CloudFront?
Amazon CloudFront is a CDN service that quickly and securely delivers data, videos, applications, and APIs worldwide with low latency and high transfer speeds. CloudFront in China has edge locations in Beijing, Shanghai, Zhongwei, and Shenzhen, connected to Amazon Web Services China regions for efficient content delivery.
CloudFront seamlessly integrates with other AWS services, including Amazon Shield (for DDoS mitigation), Amazon S3, Elastic Load Balancing, and Amazon EC2, simplifying setup and management.
Getting started is easy, using familiar AWS tools like APIs, the AWS Management Console, CLI, and SDKs. CloudFront uses a simple pay-as-you-go pricing model with no upfront fees or long-term contracts.
Benefits of Using Amazon CloudFront
- Global Reach and Speed: CloudFront's massive, globally distributed network (191 POPs in 73 cities across 33 countries) ensures fast content delivery to users worldwide.
- Enhanced Security: Provides network and application-level security, including Amazon Shield Standard at no extra cost.
- Seamless AWS Integration: Integrates with other AWS services, simplifying management and reducing costs (no data transfer charges between CloudFront and certain AWS origins).
Amazon CloudFront Edge Locations (as of October 2018)
The following is a list of edge locations as of October 2018. The current list may be different. For the most up-to-date information, please refer to the official Amazon Web Services documentation.
The list included locations in North America, Europe, Asia, Australia, South America, the Middle East, and Africa, providing extensive global coverage. (Specific locations are listed in the original text, but are omitted here for brevity.)
Setting Up and Configuring CloudFront
To deliver content with CloudFront:
- Specify the Origin Server: Tell CloudFront where your content is stored (e.g., an Amazon S3 bucket or your own HTTP server).
- Upload Content: Upload your files (web pages, images, videos, etc.) to the origin server.
- Create a Distribution: Configure a CloudFront distribution, specifying your origin server, logging preferences, and immediate activation settings. CloudFront provides a domain name for your distribution.
- Content Delivery: CloudFront replicates your content across its edge locations. Use CloudFront's domain name (or a custom domain) in your website or application URLs.
CloudFront Use Cases
CloudFront accelerates content delivery for various applications, including:
- Static Website Content: Quickly delivering images, stylesheets, JavaScript, etc., to users globally.
Using Amazon S3 with CloudFront offers advantages like using Origin Access Identity (OAI) for enhanced security.