Amazon CloudFront is a

content delivery network A content delivery network, or content distribution network (CDN), is a geographically distributed network of proxy servers and their data centers. The goal is to provide high availability and performance by distributing the service spatially rel ...

(CDN) operated by

Amazon Web Services Amazon Web Services, Inc. (AWS) is a subsidiary of Amazon that provides on-demand cloud computing platforms and APIs to individuals, companies, and governments, on a metered pay-as-you-go basis. These cloud computing web services provide d ...

. Content delivery networks provide a globally-distributed network of

proxy server In computer networking, a proxy server is a server application that acts as an intermediary between a client requesting a resource and the server providing that resource. Instead of connecting directly to a server that can fulfill a reques ...

s that

cache Cache, caching, or caché may refer to: Places United States * Cache, Idaho, an unincorporated community * Cache, Illinois, an unincorporated community * Cache, Oklahoma, a city in Comanche County * Cache, Utah, Cache County, Utah * Cache County ...

content, such as web videos or other bulky media, more locally to consumers, thus improving access speed for downloading the content. CloudFront has servers located in Europe (United Kingdom, Ireland, The Netherlands, Germany, Spain), Asia (Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan, Taiwan and India), Australia, South America, Africa, and several major cities in the United States. In November 2022, the service operated from 400

edge Edge or EDGE may refer to: Technology Computing * Edge computing, a network load-balancing system * Edge device, an entry point to a computer network * Adobe Edge, a graphical development application * Microsoft Edge, a web browser developed ...

locations on six continents. CloudFront operates on a pay-as-you-go basis. CloudFront competes with larger CDNs, such as Akamai and

Limelight Networks Edgio, Inc., formerly Limelight Networks, Inc., is an American company that provides a content delivery network (CDN) service, used for delivery of digital media content and software. As of January 2023, the company's network has more than 300 ...

. Upon launch, Larry Dignan of

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stated that CloudFront could cause price and margin reductions for competing CDNs.

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

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. * 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

Use cases

* Website acceleration *

Video streaming Video on demand (VOD) is a media distribution system that allows users to access videos without a traditional video playback device and the constraints of a typical static broadcasting schedule. In the 20th century, broadcasting in the form of o ...

* Content download * Static or dynamic content

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 AWStats (Advanced Web Statistics) is an Open-source software, open source Web analytics reporting tool, suitable for analyzing Server log, data from Internet services such as web server, web, streaming media, mail server, mail, and File Transfer P ...

References

External links

* {{Amazon CloudFront Content delivery networks Computer-related introductions in 2008