The technology that surrounds content delivery networks (CDNs) is an integral component of today’s Internet backbone.
A CDN consists of a network of distributed servers worldwide whose sole purpose is to speed up the delivery of web content. CDNs achieve this by caching web content close to the geographical location of end-users when accessing a website or mobile web application.
This article will explore CDN technology and the offerings of two major providers, Cloudflare and Amazon CloudFront.
What is a CDN Service and Why Do You Need It?
CDN technology has been in use since the early days of browser-based Internet access. In its early days, this technology could only serve — or cache — static content, such as images, video, CSS, and JavaScript.
In contrast, modern CDN technology serves dynamic content, which is non-cacheable and requires server-side or computational logic. Examples of dynamic web content include shopping carts, user comments on an article or blog, and dynamic numbers on websites like stock trading platforms, where prices need to be continually updated.
CDN technology is vital because:
- Improves the end-user web browsing experience by loading content faster.
- Assists large e-commerce websites and social media sites handle high volumes of traffic more efficiently during peak times.
- Helps avoid traffic congestion that sometimes occurs on Internet routes, helping businesses keep their online presence alive during emergencies by selecting different paths to deliver content to end-users.
- Aids fights against the most devastating cyberattack that can target websites: the distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack.
- Allows small and medium websites to scale on demand. When there’s high-volume traffic, CDN providers can increase the bandwidth to prevent a website from response failure issues.
- Offers modern SaaS CDN solutions that enable small companies to take advantage of CDN technology at a low cost.
- There are several CDN providers on the market. Gartner produced a list of top global CDN providers, including Amazon CloudFront and Cloudflare. Many organizations rely on these CDN providers to operate modern web applications at scale.
- While they both help achieve this goal, they differ widely in terms of features and functionality. Let’s explore and compare the features, capabilities, and benefits of both Cloudflare and Amazon CloudFront.
Cloudflare
Cloudflare, launched in 2007, plays the role of a reverse proxy. It provides security and performance services for websites to help reduce the loads of local servers by caching content on servers that are located in different geographic regions. Cloudflare’s primary offering is an all-in-one approach to app scaling.
Key Features of Cloudflare
Cloudflare comes with rich services that include its global distribution, a DNS service, and additional security and encryption offerings.
A Global CDN
Cloudflare comes with rich services that include its global distribution, a DNS service, and additional security and encryption offerings.
DNS Service
Cloudflare servers are scattered across the globe. They support caching both static and dynamic content close to users’ locations. The Cloudflare network can reach 95 percent of the world’s population within 50 milliseconds. It’s available in 250 cities across 100 countries.
DDoS and Attack Protection
Cloudflare boasts robust DDoS protection. It blocks an average of 86 billion threats per day.
SSL/TLS Encryption
Cloudflare offers SSL encryption free of charge. So, all traffic passing through Cloudflare servers is encrypted to prevent data theft and tampering.
Rate Limiting
Cloudflare uses a rate-limiting feature, which offers advanced protection against common web attacks like DDoS, brute-force login attempts, API traffic surges, and any cyberattack targeting web APIs and applications.
Load Balancing
Cloudflare dynamically chooses the fastest servers and Internet routes to deliver content to end-users. This geographically based system enables them to avoid slow servers and congested Internet routes that degrade user browsing experience.
API Protection
Cloudflare has an API Shield that keeps APIs secure with API discovery and layered protections.
Cloudflare’s all-in-one approach is excellent if you value ease of setup and want to use a wide range of services. However, it’s important to note that it may place you at a disadvantage if you need more control or flexibility over which tools and services you use for your applications.
Amazon CloudFront
In contrast with Cloudflare, Amazon CloudFront focuses only on providing a global CDN to ensure that your web app or website’s static assets (such as images, JS/CSS files, HTML files, and PDF documents) are served as quickly as possible.
If your aim is to use a CDN service only, then Amazon CloudFront is an ideal option — especially if you’re already running apps and services on AWS.
Key Features of Amazon CloudFront
Amazon CloudFront offers an impressive number of features that include cooperation with major global telecom operations, individually tailored security compliance, and secure edge-computing functionality.
Global Edge Network
Amazon CloudFront has partnership agreements with Tier 1, 2, and 3 telecom carriers globally. It has a global network of 310+ points of presence in 90+ cities located in 47 countries.
Security
Amazon CloudFront provides numerous security features. For example, it offers protection against network- and application-layer attacks by using AWS Shield, AWS Web Application Firewall (WAF), and Amazon Route 53. It also provides SSL/TLS encryptions and HTTPS. All contents and API traffic can be delivered over a secure HTTP connection.
Moreover, Amazon CloudFront provides different access controls for its clients, such as preventing users located in specific countries from accessing their websites/applications. Amazon provides these features in addition to its compliance with several regulatory bodies, including PCI DSS Level 1, HIPAA, and SOC 1, 2, and 3.
Availability
Amazon CloudFront achieves availability via Amazon CloudFront Origin Shield and its redundancy protocol. CloudFront Origin Shield stores cached contents in different locations and content are fetched from the origin only when needed.
Additionally, by enabling redundancy for origins, Amazon CloudFront fetches the requested contents from the backup origin if the primary origin isn’t available.
Edge Computing
Amazon CloudFront provides programmable and secure edge CDN computing functionality through CloudFront Functions and AWS Lambda@Edge.
Cost-Effectiveness
Amazon CloudFront is a cost-effective CDN service for a few reasons. First, it provides numerous payment options suitable for most clients. These include pay-as-you-go (which doesn’t require an upfront fee), the Amazon CloudFront security savings bundle, and custom pricing. Additionally, Amazon Cloudflare doesn’t charge for data transfer between AWS cloud services and Amazon CloudFront for origin fetches.
Cloudflare Versus Amazon CloudFront
Both Cloudflare and Amazon CloudFront provide great benefits to speed up content delivery. However, their CDNs function differently and each offers a unique array of services.
Although both services help load your website content quickly, a significant difference between the two services is that Cloudflare is more focused on security. It provides DDoS protection and a web application firewall (WAF). In contrast, Amazon CloudFront focuses primarily on speeding up website load time.
These services also differ in their technical components and processes:
- Cloudflare is a reverse proxy that allows traffic to pass through it, while Amazon CloudFront is an actual server that delivers content from edge servers close to users’ locations.
- Cloudflare caches its server content close to end-users, while Amazon CloudFront stores the cached content on Amazon S3 buckets.
- Both services fetch content from origins worldwide. However, they differ in the delivery method. For instance, Cloudflare uses multiplexing, while Amazon CloudFront uses level 3 cache headers.
- Cloudflare’s CDN infrastructure is significantly larger than the Amazon CloudFront CDN network.
Conclusion
Amazon CloudFront and Cloudflare are extremely helpful options. Ultimately, the best choice depends on your specific business needs. As you’ve seen, there are important differences between the two services. So, to select the CDN service that best suits your business model, you’ll want to accurately and thoroughly understand the benefits and capabilities of both options.
Keep in mind the following big-picture distinctions as you seek out a CDN provider:
- Cloudflare was initially developed to protect against DDoS attacks, while Amazon CloudFront was created to act as a CDN provider and nothing else.
- Amazon CloudFront is a perfect candidate for streaming content with easier content management.
- Cloudflare is better for small and medium businesses that need to scale up and down over time, while Amazon CloudFront is better suited for big enterprises.
- CloudFront may be a better choice if you only need a CDN, or if you have a large DevOps team who can take advantage of the configurability and deep AWS integration that Amazon CloudFront and other AWS services provide. Amazon CloudFront and related services are also easy to configure using CloudFormation and Terraform, so you can provision and configure them using the same tools you use for the rest of your AWS infrastructure.
- Cloudflare is preferred for more cache controlling mechanisms and integration with SSL.
- Other advantages of using Amazon CloudFront are its competitive price and the easiness of configuring its service, especially if your data is already hosted on AWS servers. There’s a saving bundle option that helps you save up to 30 percent on spending, and customer savings plans are available, too.
If you’re still feeling uncertain, both services offer free tiers. This means that you don’t have to spend a cent to determine which option better handles your website’s traffic spikes, improves its speed and performance, or gives you peace of mind knowing your site has more robust security.
If you opt for Amazon CloudFront, you can also turn to Mission for a special private pricing agreement. Mission provides a team of dedicated Cloud Analysts who provide valuable cost recommendations and ongoing cost optimization. This case study demonstrates how Mission can help you maximize your CDN service with Amazon CloudFront. Explore the Mission website to learn how you can benefit from our expertise in various AWS cost savings methodologies, such as leveraging AWS spot instances, RIs, and autoscaling.
