Virtual storefront technology and electronic commerce services pioneer Amazon today announced Amazon CloudFront. Cloud Front is a web service for content delivery. So with this Amazon has stepped in the CDN marketplace.
CDNs or Content Distribution Networks. are companies that provide high speed, low latency delivery of streaming rich media content on public and private networks, including the internet.
The key existing players in this market AT&T, Akamai, Level 3 and CacheFly etc.
How Amazon will manage the content distribution:
Amazon will distribute static and streaming content using a global network of edge locations. To make the entire process effective, content requests are automatically routed to the nearest edge location.. The “edge locations” are geographically dispersed copies of content located on servers sprinkled all over the world. This arrangement reduces load on any one server (as many servers provide content contributing streams) and enhances performance. This results in a user getting seamless streams of content, a TV show or web connectivity.
Payment Model:
-- Continuing with the payment model it follows for its other web serevices, Amazon CloudFront payment model doesn’t require businesses to sign contracts or monthly commitments for using the service. User pays only for as much or as little content as it actually delivers through the service.
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E-Book: Cloud Application Architectures: Building Applications and Infrastructure in the Cloud (Theory in Practice (O'Reilly))
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