AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate (SAA-C03)Design Cost-Optimized ArchitecturesMedium
A company is hosting a public-facing web application on AWS that serves users globally. They want to ensure low latency for all users and protect against DDoS attacks. The application's static content (images, CSS, JavaScript) accounts for 80% of the data transfer. They also want to minimize data transfer costs. Which combination of AWS services should they use?
- AAmazon EC2 instances in multiple regions with Route 53 latency-based routing
- BAWS Global Accelerator with AWS WAF
- CAmazon CloudFront with AWS Shield Standard
- DApplication Load Balancer (ALB) and AWS WAF
Show answer & explanationAnswer & explanation
Correct answer: C. Amazon CloudFront with AWS Shield Standard
Amazon CloudFront is a Content Delivery Network (CDN) that caches static content at edge locations globally, reducing latency and data transfer costs by serving content closer to users. It also provides built-in DDoS protection (AWS Shield Standard) and can significantly reduce origin server load.
Why the other options are wrong
- A. EC2 in multiple regions with Route 53 helps with global latency for dynamic content but doesn't specifically optimize static content delivery or data transfer costs as efficiently as a CDN.
- B. AWS Global Accelerator improves performance for global users by routing traffic over the AWS global network but doesn't cache static content or directly reduce data transfer costs for static assets like a CDN does.
- D. ALB distributes traffic within a region, and WAF provides application-layer protection, but neither directly addresses global low latency for static content or optimizes data transfer costs as effectively as a CDN.
Amazon CloudFront
Amazon CloudFront is a fast content delivery network (CDN) service that securely delivers data, videos, applications, and APIs to customers globally with low latency and high transfer speeds.
- Uses edge locations to cache content closer to users.
- Reduces latency and improves user experience.
- Lowers data transfer costs by serving cached content.
- Integrates with AWS Shield for DDoS protection.
Memory trick: Think of CloudFront as sending your content on a fast, direct flight to your users' nearest airport.