Easily compare CloudFront and Tata Communications for POP locations, products, pricing, features & support. We hope this helps you better understand the similarities and differences between these content delivery networks.
Company
Company | CloudFront | Tata Communications |
---|---|---|
Short profile | CloudFront is the CDN of AWS (Amazon Web Services), the world's largest cloud services provider. CloudFront offers a mature set of content delivery products and has a big network of POPs on many continents. Solid documentation and APIs make CloudFront a developer-friendly CDN. | Tata Communications is a full service, carrier grade, global CDN that has been in operation since their acquisition of BitGravity in 2012. The CDN rides on Tata’s global infrastructure which is the largest Tier 1 network in the world. Tata’s ownership of the network and peering relationships enable it to be very competitive when it comes to price. |
Products
Product | CloudFront | Tata Communications |
---|---|---|
Dynamic content deliveryNon-cacheable content delivery. User login, shopping cart ... | Dynamic Content Delivery | Dynamic Site Acceleration |
Small file deliveryStatic object delivery; caching of small files (file size <1 MB) | Whole Site Acceleration | |
Large file deliveryStatic object delivery; caching of large files (file size >1 MB) | Large Object Rapid Delivery | |
Live videoDelivery of live video. RTMP? Transcoding/transmuxing? | Streaming Media | Live Streaming |
Video on demandDelivery of on demand video | Video On Demand | |
Image OptimizationAutomatic image transformation/compression/optimization | ||
DNSAuthoritative DNS for customer domain | AWS Route53 | |
WAFWeb Application Firewall | AWS WAF | CDN Security |
Anti-DDoSDDoS attack protection. Specific product(s) for this. | AWS Shield | CDN Security |
Private CDNDedicated edge resources & custom configs | ||
Edge ComputeRun your code on CDN edge servers | Lambda@Edge |
Network
How many POP locations do CloudFront and Tata Communications have in different parts of the world?
Region | CloudFront | Tata Communications |
---|---|---|
North America | 19 | 8 |
Latin America | 7 | 0 |
Europe | 31 | 4 |
Russia & CIS | 0 | 0 |
Asia excl. China | 18 | 10 |
China | 4 | 0 |
Oceania | 5 | 1 |
Middle East | 5 | 1 |
Africa | 4 | 0 |
Pricing
Pricing & contract duration | CloudFront | Tata Communications |
---|---|---|
Minimum contract term | None | Unknown |
Minimum monthly costs | None | Unknown |
Requests costsCustomers pay for client to CDN requests | $0.0075 - $0.022 per 10k requests | Unknown |
Ingress costsCustomers pay for origin-to-CDN bytes transferred | $0.02 - $0.16 per GB (free if origin is AWS) | Unknown |
NA/EU traffic (low volume) | $0.085 per GB | Unknown |
APAC traffic (low volume) | $0.12 per GB (India: $0.109) | Unknown |
LATAM traffic (low volume) | $0.11 per GB | Unknown |
Features
Web acceleration | CloudFront | Tata Communications |
---|---|---|
Instant setupSign up, configure, start testing. | ||
Change propagation delayHow fast do config changes propagate to all POPs? | ~10 minutes | <10 minutes |
Apex/root domain OK No performance degradation when using http(s)://domain.com | Only if used together with AWS Route53 |
Global Anycasted network
Tata recommends against root domain though, as they may make changes in DNS at any time
|
HTTP/2 | HTTP/2 announcement (Sep 2016) | End of 2017 |
HTTP/3 | HTTP/3 announcement | |
WebSockets | Using WebSockets with CloudFront distributions | |
IPv6Do the edge servers have IPv6? | IPv6 support announcement (Oct 2016) | |
Compression Reduce file size for faster delivery |
Resend from origin, or compress on edge
CloudFront can compress many content types on the edge and supports Brotli
|
Resend from origin
Always fetch compressed from origin
|
Origin pull - protocolHTTP only or HTTPS possible too? | HTTP and HTTPS | HTTP and HTTPS |
Origin pull - Host headerUse client > edge value? Set specific value? | Can't configure specific other Host header | Can't configure specific other Host header |
Origin ShieldOne POP pulls from origin, other POPs pull from the shield POP | Origin Shield docs |
Tiered architecture, not single POP shield
Tata support is needed to enable/configure this
|
Waiting RoomDuring peak traffic, route users to a virtual waiting room | Virtual Waiting Room on AWS | |
Push / uploadStore your content directly on CDN, no customer origin | ||
Cache control - CDN caching | Full and granular control | |
Cache control - client caching | Full and granular control | |
Serve Stale CDN serves cached but expired content in case origin is in trouble | Supports Cache-Control extensions | |
Purge Invalidate or delete cached objects on CDN | Purge Speed | No longer than 2 mins, often much faster |
Purge - capabilities | Purge all and by directory/file type (wildcards) | Purge all, purge by directory, not by tag or header |
Analytics | Amazon CloudFront Reports & Analytics |
Many metrics in the UI
2 seconds refresh ('instant') possible at extra charge
|
Log files |
Only delivered to S3
CloudFront delivers access logs for a distribution up to several times an hour
|
Refreshed every 24h. Available via FTP
15m refresh possible at extra charge
|
API | Purge, analytics, configuration | Purge, configuration. Not analytics |
HTTPS & Content Protection | CloudFront | Tata Communications |
---|---|---|
CDN domain HTTPSUse the CDN's domain, like cloudfront.net | Free (not SNI) | |
Customer domain HTTPSYour domain in the CDN's certificate | ||
Customer cert HTTPSYour certificate on the CDN | Free (SNI) or $600/m for non-SNI |
SNI. Pricing is custom.
Update cert via UI or API
|
Token authentication | Serving Private Content through CloudFront | |
Geo blocking | Restricting the Geographic Distribution of Your Content | |
Hotlink protectionThird parties cannot deeplink to your content | Use AWS WAF for Referer Checking | Their support team is needed |
Basic authenticationUser logs in on the CDN to get content | ||
IP white/blacklisting | Use AWS WAF to Block IP Addresses |
White or black listing. IP addresses and CIDR blocks
Customer can configure self in UI
|
Support
Customer support | CloudFront | Tata Communications |
---|---|---|
Documentation | Yes, public. API docs | Some documentation, not public |
Humans | Community support is free. Email and phone support (AWS Support) available at extra costs | All customers get 24/7 email and phone support. |