Day 5: 𝐀𝐖𝐒 𝐆𝐥𝐨𝐛𝐚𝐥 𝐀𝐜𝐜𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐨𝐫

Global Accelerator:

👉 2 Anycast IP >Send traffic> Edge locations>Private AWS

👉 Elastic IP, EC2 instances, ALB, NLB, no caching

👉 Health Checks (application global failover), Security (AWS Shield)

The term “AWS Global Accelerator” refers to Amazon Web Services’ (AWS) service that is designed to improve the availability and performance of applications by using a global network of AWS edge locations.

👉2 Anycast IP > Send Traffic > Edge Locations > Private AWS:

• 2 Anycast IP: AWS Global Accelerator uses two Anycast IP addresses to route traffic. Anycast is a network addressing and routing methodology where multiple servers or nodes share the same IP address. When a user sends a request to the Anycast IP, it is routed to the nearest edge location based on network proximity.
• Send Traffic: When incoming traffic is sent to the Anycast IP addresses, AWS Global Accelerator’s routing mechanism directs the traffic to the appropriate edge locations.

👉Elastic IP, EC2 Instances, ALB, NLB, No Caching:

• Elastic IP: AWS Global Accelerator can be used with AWS Elastic IP addresses. An Elastic IP is a static, public IPv4 address that can be associated with an AWS resource, such as an EC2 instance or a load balancer.
• EC2 Instances: AWS Global Accelerator can route traffic to Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) instances. These instances are virtual servers that can run applications and services.
• ALB (Application Load Balancer) and NLB (Network Load Balancer): Global Accelerator can distribute traffic to AWS Application Load Balancers or Network Load Balancers. These are load balancing services used to manage and route incoming traffic to multiple targets, such as EC2 instances.
• No Caching: AWS Global Accelerator doesn’t perform content caching like a Content Delivery Network (CDN). It focuses on routing and distributing traffic efficiently rather than caching content.

👉Health Checks (Application Global Failover), Security (AWS Shield):

• Health Checks: AWS Global Accelerator allows you to set up health checks for your endpoints, such as EC2 instances or load balancers. These health checks monitor the status of your application and endpoints. If an endpoint becomes unhealthy, AWS Global Accelerator can automatically reroute traffic to healthy endpoints to maintain application availability.
• Application Global Failover: This feature is related to health checks. In the event that an application or endpoint becomes unavailable in one region, AWS Global Accelerator can perform global failover to direct traffic to a healthy endpoint in another region, ensuring high availability.
• Security (AWS Shield): AWS Global Accelerator integrates with AWS Shield, which is AWS’s managed Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) protection service. This ensures that your applications and resources are protected from DDoS attacks and other security threats.

AWS Global Accelerator is a service that enhances the availability and performance of applications by routing traffic to the nearest AWS edge location using Anycast IP addresses. It can work with various AWS resources, such as Elastic IPs, EC2 instances, and load balancers, and provides features like health checks and global failover for maintaining application availability and integrates with AWS Shield for security against DDoS attacks.

Usecases:

AWS Global Accelerator offers several use cases for optimizing the performance and availability of your applications. Here are three common scenarios where you can benefit from using AWS Global Accelerator:

1. Global Application Delivery:

• Use Case: You have a web application or service with a global user base, and you want to ensure that users are directed to the nearest AWS region for the best possible performance.
• How AWS Global Accelerator Helps: Global Accelerator’s Anycast IP addresses direct users to the nearest AWS edge location, which then routes traffic to the closest AWS region where your application is hosted. This minimizes latency and ensures a faster and more responsive user experience. It’s particularly useful for content delivery, e-commerce platforms, and any application with a diverse global user base.

2.High Availability and Failover:

• Use Case: You want to ensure the high availability of your application by configuring automatic failover in case of an outage or issue in one AWS region.
• How AWS Global Accelerator Helps: By setting up health checks for your application endpoints, AWS Global Accelerator can continuously monitor the health of your resources in different regions. If an issue is detected, it can automatically redirect traffic to healthy resources, providing uninterrupted service to users. This is crucial for applications where downtime is unacceptable, such as critical business services and mission-critical applications.

3.DDoS Mitigation and Security:

• Use Case: You operate a high-traffic web application or API that is a potential target for DDoS attacks, and you need robust protection.
• How AWS Global Accelerator Helps: AWS Global Accelerator integrates with AWS Shield, which is designed to protect applications against DDoS attacks. It can intelligently route traffic to absorb and mitigate DDoS attacks, ensuring that your application remains accessible during an attack. This is essential for online services, e-commerce platforms, and financial applications that need to maintain security and availability under the threat of cyberattacks.