Traditionally, content delivery networks (CDNs) were known to accelerate static content. Amazon CloudFront has come a long way and now supports delivery of entire websites that include dynamic and static content. In this session, we introduce you to CloudFront dynamic delivery features that help improve the performance, scalability and availability of your website, while helping you lower your costs. In this session we will talk about architectural patterns such as SSL termination, close proximity connection termination, origin offload with keep-alive connections and last-mile latency improvement. You will also learn how to take advantage of Amazon Route 53 health check, automatic failover and latency-based routing to build highly available web apps on AWS.

1. AWS Summit 2014
Dynamic Content Acceleration
Danilo Poccia
Technical Evangelist
@danilop #AWSsummit

2. Why Performance Matters?

3. Dynamic Content
Elastic Load
Balancing
Amazon EC2
OR
Custom Origin
Static Content
OR
Amazon S3 Custom Origin
Typical Architecture
www.example.com/*.php
cdn.example.com/*.jpg

4. Dynamic Content
Elastic Load
Balancing
Amazon EC2
OR
Custom Origin
Static Content
OR
Amazon S3 Custom Origin
*.php
*.jpg
Amazon CloudFront
www.example.com
Why Not?

5. Why Don’t Customers Use CDNs for Dynamic Content?
I don’t see the value - each request is unique and must go
back to the origin web server.
I see the value, but my current CDN charges premium rates
for dynamic content acceleration, with many additional fees.
Configuring a CDN for dynamic content acceleration requires
expensive professional services and is not self-service.

6. Re-Usable or Unique Content?
• Static or Re-Usable
– A given content where the state of the content does NOT change for
a given period of time.
t
0
t
1

7. Re-Usable or Unique Content?
• Dynamic or Unique
– A given content where the state of the content changes as soon as it
gets created.
t
0
t
1

8. Example

9. Example
Index.jsp (Dynamic)
Images (Static)

10. Example
. Sec

11. Page Load Time?
. Sec

12. Brief Introduction to Waterfall Graphics
• What happens?
Typing the address What happens in between Browser renders

13. Waterfall Graphs
• Most important tool in web performance measurement
• Most browsers provide Waterfall Graph plugins

14. Understanding Waterfall Graphs
TCP connection Content download
DNS lookup
Time to first byte

15. Understanding Waterfall Graphs

16. Understanding Waterfall Graphs
index.jsp

17. Optimizing Static Content with Caching
OR
Amazon S3 Custom
User request A Edge location
Origin

18. Optimizing Static Content with Caching
OR
Amazon S3 Custom
User request A Edge location
Origin
Get image

19. Optimizing Static Content with Caching
OR
Amazon S3 Custom
User request A Edge location
Origin
Get image Get image

20. Optimizing Static Content with Caching
OR
Amazon S3 Custom
User request A Edge location
Origin
Get image Get image
Image

21. Optimizing Static Content with Caching
OR
Amazon S3 Custom
User request A Edge location
Origin
Get image Get image
Image Image

22. Optimizing Static Content with Caching
OR
Amazon S3 Custom
User request B Edge location
Origin

23. Optimizing Static Content with Caching
OR
Amazon S3 Custom
User request B Edge location
Origin
Get image

24. Optimizing Static Content with Caching
OR
Amazon S3 Custom
User request B Edge location
Origin
Get image
Image

25. Optimizing Static Content with Caching
• Bring content closer to the users
• Improves the experience and performance
• Offloads your infrastructure

26. Optimizing Static Content with Caching
• Before caching = 1.46 seconds

27. Optimizing Static Content with Caching
• After caching = 770 milliseconds

28. Optimizing Static Content with Caching
• Are we done? Not so fast! Goal is 0.5 seconds.
index.jsp

29. Optimizing Static Content with Caching
• Cache as much as you can.
• How? I’m caching all my images, CSS, and JS.
• Find cacheable content.
– Collect web (w3c) logs from your web-tier
– Run a report on your logs (EMR, RDS, or Redshift)
– Identify top N URLs

30. Optimizing Static Content with Caching
• Steps to find cacheable content
– Example query
Select count(url) count, url
from logs_table
Group by url sort by count;

31. Optimizing Static Content with Caching
• Report example

32. Re-Usable or Unique Content?
• Static or Re-Usable
– A given content where the state of the content does NOT change for
a given period of time.
t
0
t
1

33. Caching for Smaller Time Units
• Goal: find content that can be cached for any given period
of time.
– Hours
– Minutes
– Seconds
• CloudFront can cache content for any period of time.

34. Optimizing Static Content with Caching
• Content with query strings
110 /factor/create_image?name=book1&size=10x10
• Reusable?
• CloudFront can cache content with query strings.
• Every unique query-string combination is a new object in
CloudFront’s cache.

35. Optimizing Static Content with Caching
• API calls
100 /api/GetBooks?category=math
• Reusable?
• CloudFront can cache content with query strings.
• Every unique query-string combination is a new object in
CloudFront’s cache.

36. Caching for Smaller Time Units
100 /api/GetBooks?category=math
• Imagine your have a read heavy API GETS hit 100 or 1,000
RPS.
• Offload your web-tier from handling 1,000 RPS.
• Offload your load balancer; Elastic Load Balancing or any
other LB.
• Provision less capacity and reduce costs.

37. Caching Personalized Content
• Optionally configure CloudFront to forward request headers to
your origin.
• Enables caching for personalized content:
• Mobile Device Detection
• Geo Targeting
• Multi-Site Hosting
• Cross Origin Resource Sharing (CORS)
• Protocol Detection
• Cookies

38. Base Page (First HTML Page)
• Re-usable?
220 /index.jsp

39. Optimizing Dynamic Content
index.jsp

40. Optimizing Dynamic Content
index.jsp

41. OR
Amazon S3 Custom
Optimizing Dynamic Content
User request A
Edge location
Origin
User request B

42. OR
Amazon S3 Custom
Optimizing Dynamic Content
User request A
Edge location
Origin
User request B

43. OR
Amazon S3 Custom
Optimizing Dynamic Content
User request A
Edge location
Origin
User request B
Get

44. OR
Amazon S3 Custom
Optimizing Dynamic Content
User request A
Edge location
Origin
User request B
Get
Response

45. OR
Amazon S3 Custom
Optimizing Dynamic Content
User request A
Edge location
Origin
User request B
Get
Response

46. OR
Amazon S3 Custom
Optimizing Dynamic Content
User request A
Edge location
Origin
User request B

47. OR
Amazon S3 Custom
Optimizing Dynamic Content
User request A
Edge location
Origin
User request B

48. OR
Amazon S3 Custom
Optimizing Dynamic Content
User request A
Edge location
Origin
User request B
Get

49. OR
Amazon S3 Custom
Optimizing Dynamic Content
User request A
Edge location
Origin
User request B
Get
Response

50. OR
Amazon S3 Custom
Optimizing Dynamic Content
User request A
Edge location
Origin
User request B
Get
Response

51. Optimizing Dynamic Content
• Can dynamic content be optimized?
– That adds latency?
– How to optimize dynamic content?
– Response time =
Σ Time (DNS + Connection + First Byte + Content Download)
DNS lookup
TCP connection Content download
Time to first byte

52. Faster Response Time =
Reduced DNS Time
+
Reduced Connection Time
+
Reduced First Byte Time
+
Reduced Content Download Time
Optimizing Dynamic Content

53. Faster Response Time =
Reduced DNS Time
+
Reduced Connection Time
+
Reduced First Byte Time
+
Reduced Content Download Time
Optimizing Dynamic Content

54. Keep-Alive connections
& SSL termination
Faster Response Time =
Reduced DNS Time
+
Reduced Connection Time
+
Reduced First Byte Time
+
Reduced Content Download Time
Optimizing Dynamic Content

55. Optimizing Dynamic Content
Keep-Alive connections
& SSL termination
Faster Response Time =
Reduced DNS Time
+
Reduced Connection Time
+
Reduced First Byte Time
+
Reduced Content Download Time
Keep-Alive connections

56. Optimizing Dynamic Content
Keep-Alive connections
& SSL termination
Faster Response Time =
Reduced DNS Time
+
Reduced Connection Time
+
Reduced First Byte Time
+
Reduced Content Download Time
Keep-Alive connections
TCP/IP optimization

57. Optimizing Dynamic Content
• After caching/before CloudFront dynamic acceleration
= 770 milliseconds

58. Optimizing DNS Response Time
• How to optimize DNS response time?
– with Route 53
DNS lookup

59. Without Route 53

60. With Route 53

61. Optimizing TCP Connections and First Byte
• How to optimize TCP connections?
– with CloudFront Keep Alive connections.
TCP connection
Amazon CloudFront
Keep-Alive Connections

62. Optimizing TCP Connections
• TCP/IP handshake
– HTTP runs on TCP/IP
– TCP has the concept of TCP handshake
– Every HTTP connection has to complete TCP handshake
– TCP/IP handshake penalizes dynamic content

63. Two Users without CloudFront
90ms
Region

64. Two Users without CloudFront
SYN
90ms
Region

65. Two Users without CloudFront
SYN
SYN-ACK
90ms
Region

66. Two Users without CloudFront
SYN
SYN-ACK
ACK
GET /index.jsp
90ms
Region

67. Two Users without CloudFront
360ms
SYN
SYN-ACK
ACK
GET /index.jsp
90ms
Region

68. Two Users without CloudFront
360ms
SYN
SYN-ACK
ACK
GET /index.jsp
SYN
90ms
Region

69. Two Users without CloudFront
360ms
SYN
SYN-ACK
ACK
GET /index.jsp
SYN
SYN-ACK
90ms
Region

70. Two Users without CloudFront
360ms
SYN
SYN-ACK
ACK
GET /index.jsp
SYN
SYN-ACK
ACK
GET /index.jsp
90ms
Region
360ms

71. Without CloudFront
• Every user is a new connection.
• More users = more TCP connections.
Region

72. Without CloudFront
• Every user is a new connection.
• More users = more TCP connections.
Region

73. Without CloudFront
• Every user is a new connection.
• More users = more TCP connections.
Region

74. Without CloudFront
• Every user is a new connection.
• More users = more TCP connections.
Region

75. Optimizing TCP Connections
• Without Keep-Alive connections
– Puts load on memory/CPU
– Puts load on your web servers
– Load on your web servers, increases the time to first byte.

76. Two Users with CloudFront Keep-Alive
SYN
30ms 60ms
Region

77. Two Users with CloudFront Keep-Alive
SYN
SYN-ACK
30ms 60ms
Region

78. Two Users with CloudFront Keep-Alive
SYN
SYN-ACK
ACK
GET /index.jsp
30ms 60ms
Region

79. Two Users with CloudFront Keep-Alive
SYN
SYN-ACK
ACK
GET /index.jsp
SYN
30ms 60ms
Region

80. Two Users with CloudFront Keep-Alive
SYN
SYN-ACK
ACK
GET /index.jsp
SYN
SYN-ACK
30ms 60ms
Region

81. Two Users with CloudFront Keep-Alive
360ms
SYN
SYN-ACK
ACK
GET /index.jsp
SYN
SYN-ACK
ACK
GET /index.jsp
30ms 60ms
Region

82. Two Users with CloudFront Keep-Alive
360ms
SYN
SYN-ACK
ACK
GET /index.jsp
SYN
SYN-ACK
ACK
GET /index.jsp
60ms
SYN
30ms
Region

83. Two Users with CloudFront Keep-Alive
360ms
SYN
SYN-ACK
ACK
GET /index.jsp
SYN
SYN-ACK
ACK
GET /index.jsp
60ms
SYN
SYN-ACK
30ms
Region

84. Two Users with CloudFront Keep-Alive
360ms
SYN
SYN-ACK
ACK
GET /index.jsp
SYN
SYN-ACK
ACK
GET /index.jsp
60ms
SYN
SYN-ACK
ACK
GET /index.jsp
30ms
Region
GET /index.jsp
180ms

85. Optimizing TCP Connections
Test CPU Util. %
Without CloudFront 20%
With CloudFront 6%

86. Optimizing SSL Connections
• How to optimize SSL connections?
– with CloudFront SSL termination.
TCP connection
Amazon CloudFront
SSL termination

87. Optimizing SSL Connections
• CloudFront has the ability to support SSL traffic.
• Use CloudFront cert or bring your own.
• SSL traffic gets terminated at the closet CloudFront
location.

88. Optimizing SSL Connections – Even More
• Performance Enhancements
• SSL Session Tickets
• OCSP Stapling
• Security Enhancements
• Perfect Forward Secrecy
• Newer Ciphers

89. Optimizing SSL Connections
• Taking advantage of Keep-Alive connections
– SSL introduces additional TCP handshake packets.
– Keep-Alive eliminates additional SSL TCP handshake packets
– Offloading your infrastructure from terminating 1,000s of end-users
SSL connections.

90. Optimizing Content Download
• How to optimize content download time?
– with CloudFront Slow Start Optimization
Content download
Amazon CloudFront
Slow Start optimization

91. TCP Slow Start

92. TCP Slow Start
Packet 1

93. TCP Slow Start
Packet 1
Packet 1 ACK

94. TCP Slow Start
Packet 1
Packet 1 ACK
Packet 2
Packet 3

95. TCP Slow Start
Packet 1
Packet 1 ACK
Packet 2
Packet 3
Packet 3 ACK

96. TCP Slow Start
Packet 1
Packet 1 ACK
Packet 2
Packet 3
Packet 3 ACK
Packet 4
Packet 5
Packet 6

97. TCP Slow Start
Region

98. TCP Slow Start
Packet 1
Packet 1 ACK
Region

99. TCP Slow Start
Packet 1
Packet 1 ACK
Packet 2
Packet 3
Region

100. TCP Slow Start
Packet 1
Packet 1 ACK
Packet 2
Packet 3
Packet 3 ACK
Region

101. TCP Slow Start
Packet 1
Packet 1 ACK
Packet 2
Packet 3
Packet 3 ACK
Packet 4
Packet 5
Packet 6
Region

102. TCP Slow Start
Packet 1
Packet 1 ACK
Packet 2
Packet 3
Packet 3 ACK
Packet 4
Packet 5
Packet 6
Packet 1
Packet 2
Packet 3
Packet 4
Region

103. TCP Slow Start
Packet 1
Packet 1 ACK
Packet 2
Packet 3
Packet 3 ACK
Packet 4
Packet 5
Packet 6
Packet 1
Packet 2
Packet 3
Packet 4
Packet 4 ACK
Packet 5
Packet 6
Packet 7
Region

104. Performance Tests
• Without CloudFront
Oregon Virginia
• With CloudFront
Oregon Virginia

105. Performance Tests Results
Test # Of Packets Response Time Per Request
Response Time For 200
Requests
Without
CloudFront
2605 170 ms 33.876 s
With
CloudFront
896 96 ms 19.24 s

106. Optimizing PUT/POST
• How to optimize content PUT/POST?
– with CloudFront PUT/POST Verb optimization
TCP connection
Amazon CloudFront
PUT/POST Verb optimization

107. Optimizing PUT/POST
• CloudFront can support verbs:
PUT, POST, DELETE, OPTIONS, and PATCH.
• Data won’t get cached.
• CloudFront can proxy data to origin.

108. Optimizing PUT/POST
• Dynamic content optimizations apply
– Keep-Alive connections
– TCP Slow Start optimization
– Close proximity connection termination

109. Optimizing PUT/POST
• Optimizing form POSTs
• Optimizing AJAX POST requests
• Optimizing content upload
– Uploading to Amazon S3

110. Optimizing PUT/POST Performance Tests
Upload
Oregon Virginia

111. Optimizing PUT/POST Performance Tests
• Uploading 10MB data from an instance in US East region to
US West region: average result is 5 seconds.
Upload
Oregon Virginia

112. Optimizing PUT/POST Performance Tests
• Uploading 10MB data from an instance in US East region to
closest CloudFront location: average result is 3.5 seconds.
Oregon Virginia

113. Optimizing Content Download – Even More!
• How to optimize content download even more?
– with Route 53 Latency Based Routing (LBR)
Content download

114. Optimizing Content Download – Even More!

115. Optimizing Content Download – Even More!

116. Lower Latency with CloudFront & Route 53

117. Lower Latency with CloudFront & Route 53

118. Lower Latency with CloudFront & Route 53

119. Lower Latency with CloudFront & Route 53

120. Lower Latency with CloudFront & Route 53

121. Lower Latency with CloudFront & Route 53

122. Lower Latency with CloudFront & Route 53

123. Lower Latency with CloudFront & Route 53

124. Lower Latency with CloudFront & Route 53

125. Lower Latency with CloudFront & Route 53

126. Lower Latency with CloudFront & Route 53

127. Lower Latency with CloudFront & Route 53

128. Lower Latency with CloudFront & Route 53

129. Optimizing Content Download – Even More!
• Optimization equals 55 milliseconds

130. Customer Stories
• Low TTLs

131. Customer Stories
• Query Strings

132. Customer Stories
• Cookies

133. Customer Stories
• PUT/POST
– “We are excited to use CloudFront's new POST, PUT, PATCH, and DELETE
capabilities to accelerate our RESTful APIs on Amazon EC2. With these
new HTTP methods we can now take advantage of CloudFront’s global
footprint and optimized connections back to our origin servers in AWS.
Routing our customers’ API requests via a CloudFront edge location near
them will help improve their experience by minimizing packet loss and
upload latency. This will help provide a streamlined experience for our
customers.” Ilan Rabinovitch, Tech Lead, Site Reliability Region
Engineering

134. Customer Stories
• Custom SSL
Region

135. Customer Stories
• Health Checks and Failover
– “Amazon Route 53’s DNS Failover feature provides high availability
across our multiple AWS regions and gives us the ability to offload
our origins.”
Region

136. Get Started with CloudFront
• AWS Free Usage Tier
• 50 GB CloudFront Data Transfer per Month
• 2,000,000 HTTP/HTTPS Requests per Month
• Learn More: http://aws.amazon.com/free/
Region

137. Thank You!
AWS EXPERT?
GET CERTIFIED!
Danilo Poccia aws.amazon.com/certification
Technical Evangelist
@danilop #AWSsummit