What is Amazon CloudFront?
Amazon CloudFront is a Content Delivery Network (CDN) from AWS with over 450 edge locations worldwide. The CDN caches content at geographically distributed locations and delivers it from the nearest location to users. The result: faster load times, reduced backend load, and lower bandwidth costs.
Key Features
- Global network with 450+ edge locations
- CloudFront Functions and Lambda@Edge for edge computing
- Free SSL certificates via AWS Certificate Manager
- HTTP/2 and HTTP/3 (QUIC) support
- Integrated DDoS protection with AWS Shield Standard
Common Use Cases
Website Acceleration: Static assets from S3 are delivered 50-80% faster through CloudFront with edge caching and HTTP/2. Visitors worldwide receive content from the nearest edge location.
Video Streaming: CloudFront supports HLS, DASH, and CMAF for live and on-demand streaming. Edge locations cache video segments and offload origin servers even with millions of concurrent viewers.
API Acceleration: Dynamic APIs also benefit from CloudFront through Origin Shield, TCP optimizations, and Lambda@Edge for edge-side processing.
Benefits
- Global reach with low latency
- Pay-per-use without minimum fees
- Native integration with AWS services
- Free DDoS mitigation with Shield Standard
Integration with innFactory
As an AWS Reseller, innFactory supports you with Amazon CloudFront: CDN architecture, cache strategy optimization, Lambda@Edge development, and security hardening with WAF.
Typical Use Cases
Technical Specifications
Frequently Asked Questions
What does Amazon CloudFront cost?
CloudFront uses pay-as-you-go pricing: data transfer from $0.085 per GB in Europe, requests approx. $0.01 per 10,000. The first 1,000 invalidations per month are free. Free Tier includes 50 GB data transfer and 2 million requests monthly for 12 months.
CloudFront Functions vs. Lambda@Edge: What is the difference?
CloudFront Functions are ultra-lightweight (max 10 KB, sub-millisecond) for header manipulation or URL rewrites. Lambda@Edge offers full runtime power (Node.js/Python, up to 50 MB) for complex logic like authentication.
How does cache invalidation work?
Cache invalidation removes objects before TTL expiration. You can invalidate individual paths or wildcards. Better approach: use versioning in filenames instead of invalidations.
Can CloudFront work with non-AWS origins?
Yes, CloudFront supports any custom origins via HTTP/HTTPS. On-premises servers, other cloud providers, or SaaS applications can serve as origins.