AWS CloudFront vs AWS Global Accelerator

AWS CloudFront and Global Accelerator both improve global application performance, but they serve different purposes and use different architectures.

1. Example: Global Website with Static and Dynamic Content

• A news website serves articles, images, and videos to users worldwide.
• Solution with CloudFront:
  • Static content (images, CSS, videos) is cached in CloudFront Edge Locations.
  • Dynamic content (API responses) is also delivered with low latency by integrating with origin shielding.
• Benefit: Improves performance by reducing direct origin requests.

Architecture

User Requests --> CloudFront Edge Location (Cache) --> Origin (S3 or EC2)

2. Example: Multi-Region API for a Banking Application

• A banking app needs users in Europe and Asia to access an API hosted in us-east-1 and ap-southeast-1.
• Solution with Global Accelerator:
  • Users are routed to the nearest healthy region (e.g., Europe → eu-west-1, Asia → ap-southeast-1).
  • If us-east-1 fails, traffic is automatically rerouted to ap-southeast-1.
• Benefit: Ensures low-latency and high availability.

Architecture

User Request --> Global Accelerator Anycast IP --> Closest AWS Region API Endpoint

3. Example: Gaming Application with Real-Time Multiplayer

• A global multiplayer game requires real-time responsiveness.
• Solution with Global Accelerator:
  • Players connect using Global Accelerator Anycast IPs, which route them to the closest Game Server.
  • Low-latency network paths ensure minimal lag.
• Benefit: Global users get a seamless gaming experience.

Architecture

User Request --> Global Accelerator Anycast IP --> Nearest Game Server Region

When to Use?

✅ Use CloudFront when serving static or dynamic web content (CDN use case).
✅ Use Global Accelerator for multi-region applications needing low latency (e.g., APIs, real-time systems).

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