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CloudFront versus Tata Communications

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.

CloudFront logo Tata Communications logo

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

Yes
Sort of/partially
No
Extra costs
Unknown
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

Yes
Sort of/partially
No
Extra costs
Unknown
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 Blog: Root domain on CDN and performanceNo performance degradation when using http(s)://domain.com Only if used together with AWS Route53 Global Anycasted network
tooltip 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 CDN Guide: CompressionReduce file size for faster delivery Resend from origin, or compress on edge
tooltip CloudFront can compress many content types on the edge and supports Brotli
Resend from origin
tooltip 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
tooltip 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 Guide: Serve StaleCDN serves cached but expired content in case origin is in trouble Supports Cache-Control extensions
Purge CDN Guide: PurgeInvalidate 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
tooltip 2 seconds refresh ('instant') possible at extra charge
Log files Only delivered to S3
tooltip CloudFront delivers access logs for a distribution up to several times an hour
Refreshed every 24h. Available via FTP
tooltip 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.
tooltip 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
tooltip 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.