Ref: https://learn.cantrill.io/courses/1820301/lectures/41301521

• Summary:
• Contents:

Latency in Global Apps

Diagram: https://github.com/acantril/aws-sa-associate-saac03/blob/main/1700-GLOBAL_CONTENT_DELIVERY_AND_OPTIMIZATION/00_LEARNINGAIDS/CloudFrontArchitecture-1.png

• Apps that are accessed globally have high latencies and slow transfer speeds when distances are long
  • High latency deteriorates UX

Amazon CloudFront (CF) - Basic Concepts

• 🔧 CloudFront (CF) is a Content Delivery NW (CDN)
  • Improves delivery of content from original location to viewers
  • Caches data throughout AWS’ efficient global NW

CF Terms

• Distribution → unit of configuration in CF
  • Contains configurable behaviors
• Origin = source location of content
  • S3 Origin or Custom Origin
  • A behavior can have many origins
• Edge location → contains local cache of content
  • 💡 AWS edge locations are pieces of global infrastructure where content is cached for better performance.
    • Unlike AWS regions, they don't contain the whole AWS infrastructure.
    • Edge locations are more numerous and widely distributed than regions (closer to customers)
• Regional Edge Cache = larger version of an edge location cache
  • Serves a group of edge locations in a region
    • Holds more data than edge locations
  • Extra layer of caching (reduces calls to origin even more)

CF Important Features

• Integration with AWS Certificate Manager (ACM) for SSL certificates
• ‼️ ONLY supports download-style operations (reads only)!
  • Write caching NOT supported in CF!!
  • Any uploads go directly to the origin!

CF Architecture Example