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AWS Global Accelerator vs CloudFront — Optimizing Global Applications
AWS Global Accelerator and CloudFront enhance application performance and availability for global users.
What it is
- AWS Global Accelerator: A networking service that improves the availability and performance of your applications with global users by routing traffic through the AWS global network.
- Amazon CloudFront: A content delivery network (CDN) that securely delivers data, videos, applications, and APIs to customers globally with low latency.
When I reach for it
- Global Accelerator: When you need to optimize TCP/UDP traffic for applications requiring low latency and higher availability.
- CloudFront: When you need to cache static and dynamic content, distribute media files, or accelerate API calls with edge locations.
Key architectural decisions
- Global Accelerator:
- Choose between two static IP addresses or leverage your own.
- Select routing policies (performance or geographic).
- CloudFront:
- Decide on cache behaviors, TTL settings, and origin configurations.
- Utilize edge functions (Lambda@Edge) for custom logic.
Gotchas & exam traps
- Global Accelerator does not cache content; it optimizes traffic routing.
- CloudFront may incur additional costs based on data transfer out and requests, so be aware of pricing models.
The architect view
- Use Global Accelerator for applications needing quick response times across global regions and failover capabilities.
- Use CloudFront for serving content efficiently while minimizing latency. Often, they complement each other in a well-architected global solution.