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Can someone explain to me the New Amazon Cloudfront? in plain English :)

by Peter Helps
6 replies
Hey guys,

Some of you may be aware of the new amazon cloudfront service.

Amazon CloudFront

Maybe it's because I'm Polish, but can someone explain to me, what exactly does this new service do and how I can use it in a BIG LAUNCH! I read it on amazon and it seems like they'll relocate my content (audio, video, files) to my visitor's closest location.

Is that right? How will that benefit my website?

I would greatly appreciate it and will thank you.

Peter
#amazon #cloudfront #english #explain #plain
  • Profile picture of the author JPaston
    As I understand it Cloudfront is a way of distributing content using servers based around the globe.

    It's a pay-for service but you have the advantage of local servers providing your files to anyone you want to distribute them to.

    The benefit to you is one upload to your local server and Cloudfront does the rest automatically.

    To use it you have to store your content in Amazon S3 and register with Cloudfront. Cloudfront provides a URL for your content to include in your web pages or other documents or applications.

    When anyone clicks on that URL they are automatically redirected to the nearest server for fastest delivery.

    You can sign up for Cloudfront with a credit card, and pricing is pay-as-you-go.

    Hope that helps.
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    • Profile picture of the author Jeff Henshaw
      When anyone clicks on that URL they are automatically redirected to the nearest server for fastest delivery.
      That sums up the service. You are paying in order for you and/or your clients to get quicker downloads from a 'nearby' server. This is particularly useful if you run a service such as a traffic exchange, or a video download business.

      Regards,
      Jeff Henshaw.
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  • Profile picture of the author looseleafpress
    Cloudfront is a CDN or Content Distribution Network. Basically, it lets you make your site faster by pushing copies of your images, etc nearer to the end user. Using some DNS techniques, the user will be served a copy of the file from a server very near them.
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  • Profile picture of the author Peter Helps
    Thanks guys. That makes it clearer to me.

    I've heard someone say that this could be a very good solution for the big launches to help avoid crashing the servers. How would that work?

    For instance, when you put up the sales copy on your product launch day, would you put everything on the Cloufront, including your sales copy, any media, etc?

    Peter
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    • Profile picture of the author Jeff Henshaw
      I've heard someone say that this could be a very good solution for the big launches to help avoid crashing the servers. How would that work?

      For instance, when you put up the sales copy on your product launch day, would you put everything on the Cloufront, including your sales copy, any media, etc?
      As I understand it, you can either keep your sales copy on your own servers and transfer your products to Cloud, or host everything with Amazon.

      I have not done any of this myself, but I recently read an article by someone who has, and it was stated that transferring the files to Amazon is quite challenging, but well worth the effort.

      I'm sorry, but I can't recall the source of the article at the moment, but if I locate it, I'll either post it here, or pm you.

      Regards,
      Jeff Henshaw.
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  • Profile picture of the author spudzz
    I went all through Amazon's info on this and I really was left unsure as to the practical benefits.

    Going to a potentially smaller local server base would definitely NOT help on any overloaded launch. The potentially fewer interconnections between would offer negligable speed advantages.

    So, like I say, I don't really get WIIFM. Personally I'd prefer them to come out with a guaranteed "Never Overloaded Even If The Entire Internet Takes Up Your Offer Simultaneously" service - that I'd pay for!
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