Easily compare Tata Communications and CloudFront 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 | Tata Communications | CloudFront |
|---|---|---|
| Short profile | 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. | 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. |
Products
| Product | Tata Communications | CloudFront |
|---|---|---|
| Dynamic content deliveryNon-cacheable content delivery. User login, shopping cart ... | Dynamic Site Acceleration | Dynamic Content Delivery |
| 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? | Live Streaming | Streaming Media |
| 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 | CDN Security | AWS WAF |
| Anti-DDoSDDoS attack protection. Specific product(s) for this. | CDN Security | AWS Shield |
| Private CDNDedicated edge resources & custom configs | ||
| Edge ComputeRun your code on CDN edge servers | Lambda@Edge |
Network
How many POP locations do Tata Communications and CloudFront have in different parts of the world?
| Region | Tata Communications | CloudFront |
|---|---|---|
| North America | 8 | 19 |
| Latin America | 0 | 7 |
| Europe | 4 | 31 |
| Russia & CIS | 0 | 0 |
| Asia excl. China | 10 | 18 |
| China | 0 | 4 |
| Oceania | 1 | 5 |
| Middle East | 1 | 5 |
| Africa | 0 | 4 |
Pricing
| Pricing & contract duration | Tata Communications | CloudFront |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum contract term | Unknown | None |
| Minimum monthly costs | Unknown | None |
| Requests costsCustomers pay for client to CDN requests | Unknown | $0.0075 - $0.022 per 10k requests |
| Ingress costsCustomers pay for origin-to-CDN bytes transferred | Unknown | $0.02 - $0.16 per GB (free if origin is AWS) |
| NA/EU traffic (low volume) | Unknown | $0.085 per GB |
| APAC traffic (low volume) | Unknown | $0.12 per GB (India: $0.109) |
| LATAM traffic (low volume) | Unknown | $0.11 per GB |
Features
| Web acceleration | Tata Communications | CloudFront |
|---|---|---|
| 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 |
Global Anycasted network
Tata recommends against root domain though, as they may make changes in DNS at any time
|
Only if used together with AWS Route53 |
| HTTP/2 | End of 2017 | HTTP/2 announcement (Sep 2016) |
| 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
Always fetch compressed from origin
|
Resend from origin, or compress on edge
CloudFront can compress many content types on the edge and supports Brotli
|
| 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 |
Tiered architecture, not single POP shield
Tata support is needed to enable/configure this
|
Origin Shield docs |
| 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 |
No longer than 2 mins, often much faster | Purge Speed |
| Purge - capabilities | Purge all, purge by directory, not by tag or header | Purge all and by directory/file type (wildcards) |
| Analytics |
Many metrics in the UI
2 seconds refresh ('instant') possible at extra charge
|
Amazon CloudFront Reports & Analytics |
| Log files |
Refreshed every 24h. Available via FTP
15m refresh possible at extra charge
|
Only delivered to S3
CloudFront delivers access logs for a distribution up to several times an hour
|
| API | Purge, configuration. Not analytics | Purge, analytics, configuration |
| HTTPS & Content Protection | Tata Communications | CloudFront |
|---|---|---|
| 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 |
SNI. Pricing is custom.
Update cert via UI or API
|
Free (SNI) or $600/m for non-SNI |
| Token authentication | Serving Private Content through CloudFront | |
| Geo blocking | Restricting the Geographic Distribution of Your Content | |
| Hotlink protectionThird parties cannot deeplink to your content | Their support team is needed | Use AWS WAF for Referer Checking |
| Basic authenticationUser logs in on the CDN to get content | ||
| IP white/blacklisting |
White or black listing. IP addresses and CIDR blocks
Customer can configure self in UI
|
Use AWS WAF to Block IP Addresses |
Support
| Customer support | Tata Communications | CloudFront |
|---|---|---|
| Documentation | Some documentation, not public | Yes, public. API docs |
| Humans | All customers get 24/7 email and phone support. | Community support is free. Email and phone support (AWS Support) available at extra costs |