Amazon CloudFront

Amazon CloudFront is a content delivery network (CDN) operated by Amazon Web Services. The content delivery network was created to provide a globally-distributed network of proxy servers to cache content, such as web videos or other bulky media, more locally to consumers, to improve access speed for downloading the content.

Amazon CloudFront
Type of site
Content Delivery Network (CDN)
OwnerAmazon
URLaws.amazon.com/cloudfront/
IPv6 supportYes
RegistrationRequired
LaunchedNovember 18, 2008 (2008-11-18)

CloudFront has servers located in the United Kingdom, Ireland, The Netherlands, Germany, Spain, Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan, Taiwan, Vietnam, Indonesia, India, Australia, South America, Africa, and several major cities in the United States. In November 2022, the service operated from 400 edge locations on six continents.[1]

CloudFront operates on a pay-as-you-go basis.

CloudFront competes with larger CDNs, such as Akamai, Cloudflare, and Edgio (previously known as Limelight Networks). Upon launch, Larry Dignan of ZDNet News stated that CloudFront could cause price and margin reductions for competing CDNs.[2]

Timeline
  • November 18, 2008 – Beta launch of CloudFront
  • May 7, 2009 – Adds access logging capability
  • November 11, 2009 – Adds support for private content
  • December 15, 2009 – Announced Amazon CloudFront Streaming
  • March 28, 2010 – Amazon launches edge locations in Singapore and adds private content for streaming
  • May, 2014, Amazon CloudFront is included in the Free Tier usage[3]

Amazon CloudFront edge locations

In October 2018, Amazon CloudFront consisted of 138 access points (127 edge locations and 11 regional edge caches) in 63 cities across 29 countries.[4]

  • North America
    • Edge locations: Ashburn, VA (3); Atlanta, GA (3); Boston, MA; Chicago, IL (2); Dallas/Fort Worth, TX (5); Denver, CO (2); Hayward, CA; Jacksonville, FL; Los Angeles, CA (4); Miami, FL (3); Minneapolis, MN; Montreal, QC; New York, NY (3); Newark, NJ (3); Palo Alto, CA; Philadelphia, PA; Phoenix, AZ; San Jose, CA (2); Seattle, WA (3); South Bend, IN; St. Louis, MO; Toronto, ON
    • Regional Edge caches: Virginia; Ohio; Oregon
  • Europe
    • Edge locations: Amsterdam, the Netherlands (2); Berlin, Germany; Copenhagen, Denmark; Dublin, Ireland; Frankfurt, Germany (8); Helsinki, Finland; London, England (7); Madrid, Spain (2); Manchester, England; Marseille, France; Milan, Italy; Munich, Germany; Oslo, Norway; Palermo, Italy; Paris, France (4); Prague, Czech Republic; Stockholm, Sweden (3); Vienna, Austria; Warsaw, Poland; Zurich, Switzerland
    • Regional Edge caches: Frankfurt, Germany; London, England
  • Asia
    • Edge locations: Bangalore, India; Chennai, India (3); Bangkok, Thailand (2); Hong Kong, China (3); Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; Mumbai, India (2); Manila, Philippines; New Delhi, India (2); Osaka, Japan; Seoul, South Korea (4); Singapore (3); Taipei, Taiwan(3); Tokyo, Japan (9)
    • Regional Edge caches: Mumbai, India; Singapore; Seoul, South Korea; Tokyo, Japan
  • Australia
    • Edge locations: Melbourne; Perth; Sydney
    • Regional Edge caches: Sydney
  • South America
    • Edge locations: São Paulo, Brazil (2); Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (2)
    • Regional Edge caches: São Paulo, Brazil
  • Middle East
    • Edge location: Dubai, United Arab Emirates; Fujairah, United Arab Emirates; Tel Aviv, Israel
  • Africa
    • Edge locations: Nairobi, Kenya; Johannesburg, South Africa; Cape Town, South Africa

Logs

CloudFront allows users to enable or disable logging. If enabled, the logs are stored on Amazon S3 buckets which can then be analyzed. These logs contain useful information like:

  • Date / time
  • Edge location
  • Protocol used etc.

These logs can be analyzed by using third-party tools such as S3Stat, Cloudlytics, Qloudstat, or AWStats.

References
  1. "Amazon CloudFront Product Details". Amazon.com. Archived from the original on 2022-11-18. Retrieved November 20, 2022. To deliver content to end users with lower latency, Amazon CloudFront uses a global network of 410+ Points of Presence (400+ Edge locations and 13 regional mid-tier caches) in 90+ cities across 48 countries.
  2. Larry Dignan (November 18, 2008). "Amazon launches CloudFront; Content delivery network margins go kaboom". Between the Lines. ZDNet. Archived from the original on 2014-10-22. Retrieved January 4, 2018.
  3. "AWS Free Usage Tier Now Includes Amazon CloudFront". Archived from the original on 2016-06-17. Retrieved 2018-12-10.
  4. "Key Features of a Content Delivery Network| Performance, Security | Amazon CloudFront". October 18, 2018. Archived from the original on 2018-10-18.
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