Purpose of This Solution
It provides the infrastructure needed to efficiently serve various types of static content by deploying a robust Content Delivery Network (CDN) architecture. It is designed to support:
- Hosting static websites, including HTML, CSS, and JavaScript files.
- Deploying Single Page Applications (SPAs) built with frameworks like React, Angular, or Vue.js.
- Supporting Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) that require reliable and fast global delivery.
- Delivering media assets such as images, videos, and other static files to global audiences with low latency.
By automating the deployment of this underlying infrastructure, the solution empowers developers to focus on building their applications, while ensuring fast, secure, and scalable content delivery.
What Problem Does It Solve?
Manually configuring a CDN can be time-consuming, error-prone, and difficult to maintain. IaC CDN for AWS automates this process, providing:
- A standardized, repeatable deployment for consistent results.
- Optimized delivery of static assets with reduced latency and enhanced performance.
- Built-in security to protect your data and ensure compliance with best practices.
- Cost management through configurable pricing classes and automated lifecycle policies.
Key Features
- Environment-Specific Deployments: Choose between DEV and PROD environments, with tailored resource configurations and retention policies.
- HTTPS Enforcement: Secure your content delivery with automatic SSL certificate provisioning via AWS Certificate Manager (ACM).
- Geo-Restriction Support: Whitelist or blacklist countries to control access to your content.
- Custom Domain Integration: Use your own domain with seamless DNS management through Route 53.
- Comprehensive Logging: Enable CloudFront logging to track access data and monitor traffic patterns.
- Flexible Pricing Classes: Select CloudFront edge locations to balance performance and cost based on your audience.
Services Used
It leverages the following AWS services:
- Amazon CloudFront: For fast, secure, and reliable content delivery across a global edge network.
- Amazon S3: To store static content, such as images, videos, and other media files.
- Amazon Route 53 (Optional): For managing DNS records, enabling custom domains for your distribution.
- AWS Certificate Manager (ACM) (Optional): To provision and manage SSL certificates for secure HTTPS connections.
Technical Details
The CloudFormation template provides a modular architecture with customizable parameters, making it flexible and adaptable to your specific needs:
- S3 Bucket: Origin Access Control (OAC) restricts direct access, allowing only CloudFront to retrieve content.
- CloudFront Distribution: Supports HTTP/2 and HTTP/3, with configurable geo-restrictions and viewer protocol policies.
- Route 53: Optional DNS management for custom domains, with support for A and AAAA alias records.
- SSL Certificates: Automated DNS-based validation for seamless integration with custom domains.
- Logging: CloudFront logs are stored in S3 with lifecycle rules for automated deletion after a specified retention period.
Benefits
IaC CDN for AWS offers many benefits, including:
- Scalability: Effortlessly scale to meet the demands of global audiences.
- Automation: Deploy your CDN architecture with a single CloudFormation template, eliminating manual errors.
- Security: Enforce HTTPS, restrict S3 access, and control content delivery using geo-restrictions.
- Cost Efficiency: Manage costs by selecting specific CloudFront edge locations and automating log lifecycle policies.
- Consistency: Ensure reproducible deployments across development, testing, and production environments.
- Time-Saving: Focus on your application instead of managing complex infrastructure configurations.
Bucket Policy and Origin Access Control (OAC)
This solution ensures robust security by implementing a tightly controlled bucket policy and Origin Access Control (OAC). This configuration achieves the following:
- Bucket Protection: The S3 bucket is completely protected from public access. Only the CloudFront distribution can retrieve content, ensuring no unauthorized access to your static assets.
- Encrypted Traffic: All traffic is encrypted end-to-end:
- Between the viewer and the CloudFront distribution: HTTPS is enforced using SSL certificates provisioned by AWS Certificate Manager.
- Between the CloudFront distribution and the S3 bucket: OAC ensures that all communication remains encrypted and secure.
- Preventing Common Errors: By tightly coupling CloudFront with the S3 bucket through OAC, the solution eliminates the risk of "403 Access Denied" errors, a common issue caused by misconfigured S3 bucket permissions in CloudFront setups.
License
This product is provided under a commercial license.
Pricing
The IaC CDN for AWS is available for just $90.
Included in your purchase:
- CloudFormation Template: The complete Infrastructure-as-Code template to deploy the CDN architecture on AWS.
- Future Updates: Free updates within the current major version.
- Documentation: Guidance on deploying, configuring, and managing the solution.
- Email Support: 30 minutes of email support to assist with setup or troubleshooting.