Amazon CloudFront
AWS's CDN: copies of your content kept close to users all over the world.
CloudFront is AWS's CDN (content delivery network). You point it at an origin (an Amazon S3 bucket, a load balancer, any web server) and it serves your files from hundreds of edge locations: small data centers in cities on every continent. A visitor in Buenos Aires gets your images from an edge nearby instead of from a server in Virginia, so the page loads noticeably faster.
The first visitor near an edge triggers a fetch from the origin; the edge keeps a copy (a cache) for as long as you configure and serves everyone else from it. That also protects the origin: a million visitors turn into a handful of requests to your server. CloudFront handles HTTPS with a free certificate, blocks common attacks in front of your site, and charges per gigabyte served.
A common setup is a static website: HTML, CSS and images in an S3 bucket, CloudFront in front, a domain from Amazon Route 53. No server at all, and it holds up fine when a post goes viral.
Keep in mind
- The origin is where the content lives; the edges keep temporary copies.
- Faster for users and cheaper for the origin: most requests never reach it.
- Includes HTTPS with a free certificate and basic protection against attacks.
- You decide how long each file stays cached (its TTL).
