INRODUCTION TO AWS CLOUDFRONT (CDN)
Tags: aws, cloud, cloudskills, beginners
Published: 2022-01-18 21:33:17

Hello, 👋 cloud enthusiast  

Let’s talk about content delivery network (CDN) on AWS.

What is CDN? A content delivery network, Is a distributed network of proxies and data centers that provides High availability by speeding up the delivery of web content.

**How does CDN work?**
The content delivery network speeds the delivery of web content by bringing the content closer to the location of its users.
This is done through caching, a process that temporarily holds copies of data. This makes it easier and faster for users to load content from the internet because contents are cached on a physical server near the user.

Okay, now let’s talk about **AWS CloudFront**.

**AWS CloudFront** is a content delivery network with high performance, security, high availability (high transfer speed), and low latency network, Amazon CloudFront uses what is known as **Edge location**.

An **edge location** is a site that Amazon CloudFront uses to store cached copies of content closer to users for faster delivery.
AWS edge locations run more just CloudFront they also run a Domain Name Services (DNS) also known as the Amazon **Route 53** it helps to direct users to the correct web location with reliably low latency.

**How to get started with CloudFront**

To get started with CloudFront here are the steps you have to take.

If you don’t have an amazon account start from Step 1 else move to the next step.

**Step 1**

- [Sign up](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonCloudFront/latest/DeveloperGuide/setting-up-cloudfront.html#setting-up-sign-up-for-aws) to create an amazon account
After signing up for an account your account will automatically be signed up for AWS services including CloudFront and you only pay for what you use, you don’t need any extra steps.

- Access your account to [create an IMA user](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonCloudFront/latest/DeveloperGuide/setting-up-cloudfront.html#setting-up-create-iam-user)

You can access your account through the Amazon command-line Interface (CLI), the management console, AWS SDK, or API for each service, each service in AWS is an API call.

- [Creating an IMA user](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonCloudFront/latest/DeveloperGuide/setting-up-cloudfront.html#setting-up-access-account)

- [Set up the AWS CLI or windows tool for windows power shell](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonCloudFront/latest/DeveloperGuide/setting-up-cloudfront.html#setting-up-aws-cli)

- [Download an AWS SDK](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonCloudFront/latest/DeveloperGuide/setting-up-cloudfront.html#setting-up-sdk).


**Step 2**.

- [Upload your content to Amazon S3 and grant object permission](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonCloudFront/latest/DeveloperGuide/GettingStarted.SimpleDistribution.html#GettingStartedUploadContent)

- [Create CloudFront distribution](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonCloudFront/latest/DeveloperGuide/GettingStarted.SimpleDistribution.html#GettingStartedCreateDistribution)

- [Access your content through CloudFront](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonCloudFront/latest/DeveloperGuide/GettingStarted.SimpleDistribution.html#GettingStartedAccessingDistributions)

This is just a biref overview of CloudFront check out the links for more detail explanation.

**REFERENCES**
 
 [Amazon CloudFront](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonCloudFront/latest/DeveloperGuide/Introduction.html)

[Amazon CloudFront documentation](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/cloudfront/index.html) 


Hope this blog helps you on how to get started with AWS CloudFront. If you enjoy this blog please don't forget to like or comment on the article. It will encourage me to write more. You can reach out to me on [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/abubakar-ibrahim-gajimi?lipi=urn%3Ali%3Apage%3Ad_flagship3_profile_view_base_contact_details%3BKIqt1FurQbaZJawiQQ3hmw%3D%3D)