In this post, we will share with you the best practices for Cloudfront Cost Optimization. Following best practices can result in a CloudFront bill reduction of up to 85%.
With the increasing demand for cloud services, it is so important to optimize your CloudFront usage to avoid unnecessary costs.
CloudFront is a popular content delivery network (CDN) offered by Amazon Web Services (AWS). While it provides an excellent service, the costs can add up quickly if you are not careful.
By following the tips below, you can reduce your CloudFront bills significantly and improve your overall AWS cost management strategy.
Understand Your CloudFront Usage
The first step in reducing your CloudFront bills is to understand how you are using the service.
AWS provides detailed usage reports that can help you identify which regions and edge locations are generating the most traffic.
This information can help you optimize your CloudFront usage by adjusting your distribution settings or removing unnecessary edge locations.
Optimize Your CloudFront Distributions
CloudFront distributions are collections of edge locations that serve content to end-users.
By optimizing your distributions, you can reduce your CloudFront bills significantly.
One effective strategy is to use CloudFront cache behavior settings to control how frequently content is served from the origin server.
This can help you reduce the number of requests to the origin server and reduce your overall CloudFront usage.
Use CloudFront Custom SSL Certificates
By default, CloudFront uses a shared SSL certificate provided by AWS. However, you can reduce your CloudFront bills by using custom SSL certificates.
Custom SSL certificates are free, and they can help you save money on SSL certificate costs, which can be significant if you have many CloudFront distributions.
Use CloudFront Pricing Class
AWS offers three pricing classes for CloudFront: standard, intermediate, and advanced.
By default, CloudFront uses the standard pricing class, which is the most expensive option. However, you can reduce your CloudFront bills significantly by using the intermediate or advanced pricing class.
These classes provide reduced pricing for edge locations that serve content to users in specific geographic regions.
Use CloudFront Reserved Capacity
AWS offers a reserved capacity option for CloudFront, which can help you reduce your CloudFront bills by up to 50%. With reserved capacity, you commit to a specific amount of CloudFront usage for a one or three-year term. This option is ideal for businesses with predictable traffic patterns and high-volume usage.
Use Compression
Another cost-saving measure is to use compression for your files.
CloudFront data transfer costs are calculated based on the total amount of data served, so serving compressed files is less expensive than serving uncompressed files.
Compressing files like JS scripts and CSS not only reduces costs but also enhances the user experience since your website or web app will render faster. You can easily activate compression in your CloudFront distribution via the dashboard.
DO NOT NEGLECT SECURITY
Firstly, it’s important to secure your account and credentials to prevent bad actors from accessing and using your resources without any limits on billing. You can do this by deleting the root user and refining your users’ rights and access to AWS resources.
Another great security measure is to activate Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) for your AWS account. There are different MFA form factors available such as a virtual device, hardware key fob, hardware display card, and SMS device. Choose the one that works best for you.
To further protect your account, it’s recommended to rotate your AWS keys on a regular basis. By doing this, you shorten the period an access key is active and reduce the impact on your billing in case they get compromised.
Conclusion
When it comes to Cloudfront cost optimization following the above strategies, you can significantly reduce your bills and improve your overall AWS cost management strategy.
Understanding your CloudFront usage, optimizing your distributions, using custom SSL certificates, using CloudFront pricing classes, and using reserved capacity are all effective ways to reduce your CloudFront bills.
We hope this article has provided you with the information you need to optimize your CloudFront usage and save money on your AWS bills.
