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Leveraging AWS CloudFront for Enhanced Global Content Delivery

Industry

Human Resource

Solution

AWS

Objective

LearningZone aimed to improve the speed and reliability of its online platform to provide a better user experience for its global customer base. The company faced issues with slow page load times and inconsistent performance in regions distant from their primary data center located in the United States.

Challenges

Latency Issues

Customers in regions such as the US, Canada, Europe, and Asia experienced significant latency, leading to slower load times and higher bounce rates.

Scalability

During high-traffic events like Black Friday sales, the website faced performance degradation.

Security Concerns

The company needed a robust solution to protect against DDoS attacks and other security threats.

Cost Efficiency

The solution needed to be cost-effective without compromising on performance and security.

Solution

LearningZone chose to implement Amazon Web Services (AWS) CloudFront, a global Content Delivery Network (CDN) service, to address these challenges. AWS CloudFront was selected for its comprehensive features, global reach, and seamless integration with other AWS services.

Content Distribution

- Edge Locations: AWS CloudFront utilizes a global network of edge locations to cache content closer to end-users. This reduces latency by serving requests from the nearest edge location rather than the origin server.
- Geo-Targeting: The company used CloudFront’s geo-targeting capabilities to tailor content delivery based on the user’s geographic location, improving personalization and relevance.

Scalability and Reliability

- Elastic Load Balancing: Integrated CloudFront with AWS Elastic Load Balancing (ELB) to distribute incoming application traffic across multiple targets, ensuring high availability and reliability.
- Auto Scaling: Leveraged AWS Auto Scaling to automatically adjust capacity based on traffic demand, ensuring consistent performance during traffic spikes.

Security Enhancements

- AWS Shield: Utilized AWS Shield for DDoS protection, providing advanced security features to safeguard the website against malicious attacks.
- AWS Web Application Firewall (WAF): Implemented AWS WAF to protect against common web exploits and vulnerabilities, adding an additional layer of security.

Cost Management

- Savings Plans: Adopted AWS Savings Plans to optimize costs for consistent and predictable workloads.
- Monitoring and Optimization: Used AWS Cost Explorer to monitor and optimize spending, ensuring efficient use of resources.

Solution Components

AWS RDS

AWS S3

Amazon CloudFront

AWS Elastic Load Balancing (ELB)

AWS Auto Scaling

Amazon Cognito

AWS Shield

AWS WAF

AWS Savings Plans

AWS Cost Explorer

Result

Improved Performance

Elastic Infrastructure: Average latency decreased by 40% globally, with significant improvements in Europe, Asia, and Australia.

Faster Load Times: Page load times improved by 35%, enhancing the user experience and reducing bounce rates.

Enhanced Scalability

Traffic Handling: The website successfully handled a 300% increase in traffic during peak events without performance degradation.

High Availability: Achieved 99.99% uptime, ensuring the website remained accessible even during high traffic periods.

Strengthened Security

DDoS Protection: Effectively mitigated multiple DDoS attacks, preventing downtime and ensuring continuous availability.

Vulnerability Protection: Reduced exposure to common web vulnerabilities through proactive threat management with AWS WAF.