Using Amazon CloudFront for Improved Response Time
- 1. Eric Wintereric@webicus.comwebicus internet servicesUsing Amazon CloudFront for Improved Site Response Time
- 2. MotivationIntroduction to Amazon CloudFrontBasic architecture How it works/how its usedOperations – interacting with CloudFrontToolsDemoProgram using CloudFrontResultsOverview
- 3. The Jonas Brothers made me do it….Content management web siteHigh number of (static) assets/pageGeographically diverse users (but domestic only)Download time generally slow, with high varianceConclusion: Give it a tryMotivation
- 4. WhyImproves site response timeEasy to useReduces response time variation Cheap as dirtReliableEspecially worthwhile if you haveheavy contenta weak servera geographically diverse audienceWhy notYet another level of cachingSome implementation/maintenance costsOverview
- 5. MotivationIntroduction to Amazon CloudFrontBasic architecture How it works/how its usedOperations – interacting with CloudFrontToolsDemoProgram using CloudFrontResultsOverview
- 6. “Amazon CloudFront is a web service for content delivery. It integrates with other Amazon Web Services to give developers and businesses an easy way to distribute content to end users with low latency, high data transfer speeds, and no commitments.”Introduction to Amazon CloudFront
- 7. CloudFront is a CDN (content distribution network)Tightly integrated with S3CloudFront is not S3S3 is designed to easily store data e.g. offsite backupS3 is the backend/system of record for CloudFrontCloudFront is designed specifically to improve static content delivery e.g. serving your home page images, css files, etc.Serving large filesInitial thoughts on CloudFront
- 8. CloudFront moves your S3 content to the ‘edge’ geographically closer to your end user thereby reducing latencySFO, VA, NYC, Ireland, Hong KongPull modelContent pulled to edge upon first requestContent expires in 24hrs (default)Edge server not aware of origin server content changes.Content is Closer to User
- 9. Heavy static content served by CloudFront edge serverMissing or expired content pulled from S3 Content served to disparate users
- 10. Original files go into an Amazon S3 bucketI recommend naming the bucket something obvious like site.com and have it’s structure track your site’s directory structure. Create a “distribution” to register that bucket with Amazon CloudFrontFor simplicity structure the bucket w/ the same ACL Your static files are now available on CloudFront via the distribution’s domain name. Create a CloudFront Distribution
- 11. MotivationIntroduction to Amazon CloudFrontBasic architecture How it works/how its usedOperations – interacting with CloudFrontToolsDemoProgram using CloudFrontResultsOverview
- 12. Firefox (plugins)S3FoxFirebugPagespeedYslowAsset referencesMigration toolsTools for CloudFront
- 13. Move content to S3Create a distributionReference via CloudFront URLDemo
- 14. Ideally simple API to interact with CDNSeamlessly switch between local content and CDNEnvironment sensitiveWould like to develop with local assetsWould like to test with local and CDN (CloudFront) assetsMay want multiple CNAMEsstatic1.example.comstatic2.example.comEtc.Using CloudFront in an App
- 15. CdnHelper – Helper Class Private membersprivate $useLocal = FALSE; private $numHostsMin = 0; private $numHostsMax = 3; private $sslHost = 'static%d.site.com'; private $imgDir = 'images'; private $jsDir = 'jscript'; private $resourceDir = 'resources'; private $cssDir = 'style'; private $assetDir = NULL; private $forceTimestamp = TRUE;public methodsConstructor (singleton)ENV and CDN_FORCEEach returns an URLsetUseLocal($bool);image($assets, $options = array()) ;js($assets, $inline = true) ;css($assets) ;resource($assets) ;Usage:$cdn= new CdnHelper;$cdn->css(“style.css”);
- 16. To S3S3Fox – very useful for quickly moving content to S3/CloudfrontAPI/rails gems/capistrano – more stable way of migrating content.To CloudFrontCloudFront != S3 (sometimes)CloudFront expires in 24hrs by defaultCloudFront does not check S3 if asset is present on CF.Create new files and deprecate old onesMigrating New Content
- 17. Relatively high traffic site (8k unique visitors, 18k pageviews/week)Dynamic PHP financial sector, mainly financial charts Page weight: 440k, 48 requests (lots of small images)Verio managed serverBefore 6-8 seconds for typical pageAfter1.5-2.5 seconds (as measured by pingdom.com)Example Site – 3.5 x faster