Route 53 is AWS's DNS service — it translates domain names (www.example.com) into IP addresses. But it does much more: it intelligently routes traffic globally, performs health checks, and enables automatic failover.
| Policy | What it Does | Use Case |
|---|---|---|
| Simple | One record — one IP address | Basic websites, single server |
| Weighted | Send 10% to server A, 90% to server B | A/B testing, gradual deployments |
| Latency-based | Route to the FASTEST region for each user | Global apps needing low latency |
| Failover | Active/Passive — switch to backup if primary fails | Disaster recovery |
| Geolocation | Route based on user's COUNTRY or CONTINENT | Data sovereignty, localisation |
| Geoproximity | Route based on distance — adjustable bias | Fine-grained global traffic control |
| Multi-Value Answer | Return multiple healthy IPs | Simple load balancing with health checks |
CloudFront caches your content at 400+ edge locations worldwide. Users download content from the nearest edge location, not your origin server — dramatically reducing latency.
Without CloudFront:
User in Mumbai --> Server in US (200ms latency)
With CloudFront:
User in Mumbai --> Edge Location in Mumbai (5ms latency)| Feature | What it Does |
|---|---|
| Origin | Where CloudFront fetches content: S3 bucket, ALB, EC2, custom HTTP server |
| Cache Behaviour | Rules for how long to cache different URL paths |
| Origin Access Control (OAC) | Makes S3 bucket PRIVATE — only CloudFront can access it |
| Lambda@Edge | Run code at the edge for authentication, URL rewriting, personalisation |
| WAF Integration | Block malicious requests before they reach your origin |