Amazon CloudFront vs Apache Traffic Server

Amazon CloudFront is a content delivery network for delivering data, videos, applications, and APIs around the world. It uses more than 750 globally dispersed Points of Presence, with automated network mapping and intelligent routing. CloudFront works with Amazon S3, Amazon EC2, Elastic Load Balancing, and custom HTTP origins; edge behavior can be customized with CloudFront Functions and AWS Lambda@Edge. Listed uses range from websites and dynamic APIs to live and on-demand video, software distribution, game patches, and IoT updates. Security options include HTTPS/TLS, signed URLs and cookies, token authentication, geographic restrictions, and limiting S3 origin access to CloudFront. It integrates with AWS Shield, AWS WAF, and Amazon Route 53 for layered protection, including against DDoS attacks. CloudWatch metrics and logs to S3 or Kinesis Data Streams provide monitoring options. CloudFront has a free plan at free, with 1 million requests and 100GB data transfer. Paid plans start at $15 a month per distribution; Pro, Business, and Premium each list 50TB of transfer.

Apache Traffic Server is a free, open-source caching proxy server for HTTP/1.1 and HTTP/2. It stores frequently requested pages, images, and web service calls so they can be reused, with the stated aims of improving response time and reducing server load and bandwidth needs. It can also add keep-alive behavior, filter or anonymize requests, and balance traffic through a proxy layer. Deployment patterns include web proxy cache, reverse proxy, and cache hierarchy. As a layer 7 HTTP load balancer, it can choose next-hop servers using request attributes, weighted round robin, or URL consistent hashing. Plug-in APIs let teams add behavior such as changing headers, handling ESI requests, or implementing cache algorithms. Security options include client access controls and authentication, SSL termination, and SSL-based access control. It is self-hosted, with Linux and macOS listed as platforms. The project identifies enterprises, internet service providers, backbone providers, and large intranets as its intended audience. The listed stable release is 10.2.0; 9.2.15 is listed as the long-term support release.