A global media company is modernizing its on-premises content delivery network (CDN) to AWS. The existing CDN relies on a custom-built caching layer that serves petabytes of video content globally. The company wants to ensure low-latency access for viewers worldwide, minimize data transfer costs out of AWS, and maintain fine-grained control over caching behavior, including invalidation strategies. Which combination of AWS services should the company use to achieve these goals?
- AAmazon EBS for storage, AWS Transit Gateway for network connectivity, and Amazon CloudFront for content delivery.
- BAmazon EC2 instances with Nginx for caching, Amazon S3 for storage, and Amazon Route 53 for DNS.
- CAmazon S3 Glacier Deep Archive for storage, Amazon CloudFront for content delivery, and AWS WAF for security.
- DAmazon S3 for storage, Amazon CloudFront for content delivery, and AWS Global Accelerator for routing.
Show answer & explanationAnswer & explanation
Correct answer: D. Amazon S3 for storage, Amazon CloudFront for content delivery, and AWS Global Accelerator for routing.
Amazon S3 provides highly durable and scalable object storage for petabytes of content. Amazon CloudFront is a global CDN that ensures low-latency access and minimizes data transfer costs by caching content at edge locations worldwide, offering fine-grained control over caching and invalidation. AWS Global Accelerator improves performance and availability by directing traffic to optimal endpoints over the AWS global network, further enhancing the CDN solution.
Why the other options are wrong
- A. Amazon EBS is block storage attached to EC2 instances, not suitable for petabyte-scale global content delivery. AWS Transit Gateway is for inter-VPC/on-premises connectivity, not for public CDN optimization.
- B. Running Nginx on EC2 for caching would incur significant operational overhead and would not provide the global reach, scalability, and cost-effectiveness of a managed CDN like CloudFront.
- C. S3 Glacier Deep Archive is for archival storage with retrieval times of hours, making it unsuitable for a low-latency CDN. AWS WAF is for security, not core CDN functionality.
AWS Content Delivery Network (CDN)
A system of distributed servers (network of PoPs) that delivers web content and static assets to users based on their geographic location, providing high availability and performance.
- Reduces latency by caching content closer to users.
- Offloads origin servers, reducing load and costs.
- Enhances security with DDoS protection and WAF integration.
Memory trick: CloudFront accelerates global content from S3 with Global Accelerator's aid.