CloudFront Overview

• Content Delivery Network (CDN)
• Improves read performance, content is cached at the edge
• Improves users experience
• 216 Point of Presence globally (edge locations)
• DDoS protection (because worldwide) integration with Shield, AWS Web Application Firewall

Origins

• S3 Bucket
  • For distributing files and caching them at the edge
  • Enhanced security with CloudFront Origin Access Control (OAC)
  • OAC is replacing Origin Access Identity (OAI)
  • CloudFront can be used as an ingress (to upload files to S3)
• Custom Origin (HTTP)
  • Applicaiton Load Balancer
  • EC2 instance
  • S3 website
  • Any HTTP backend you want

High Level

CloudFront vs S3 Cross Region Replicaiton

• CloudFront:
  • Global Edge network
  • Files are cached for a TTL (maybe a day)
  • Great for static content that must be available everywhere
• S3 Cross Region Replication:
  • Must be setup for each region you want replication to happen
  • Files are updated in near real-time
  • Read only
  • Great for dynamic content that needs to be available at low latency in few regions

ALB or EC2 as an Origin

EC2 instance must be public

Must have a security group that allows the sources of cloud front

If using an ALB, must be public also, backend EC2 instances can be private (so long as ALB is allowed access)