Purpose: |
Help determine which AWS networking and content delivery services are the best fit for your organization. |
Last updated: |
January 16, 2025 |
Covered services: |
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Deciding on an approach to cloud networking and content delivery can be complex,
especially if you’re used to managing and configuring networks with on-premises hardware.
Fortunately, building networks in
the cloud
Amazon Web Services (AWS) offers 20+ purpose-built networking and content delivery services that you can use to build, operate, and secure your cloud networks across all your cloud environments and distributed cloud and edge locations globally. You can also build network infrastructure that extends your on-premises environment to AWS.
This decision guide will help you ask the right questions to choose the networking and content delivery services and tools that fit your needs.
This video provides a four-minute introduction to AWS networking.
Understand
What you build in AWS depends on your business needs. In this guide, we use the term workloads to refer to any collection of resources and code that delivers business value, such as a customer-facing application or a backend process.
Networking and content delivery services at AWS fall into four categories: networking foundations, global and hybrid connectivity, edge networking and content delivery, and application networking.

Networking foundations
In AWS, your workloads run inside one or more Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (VPCs). After your workloads are running in VPCs, you can connect the workloads to other VPCs—such as an AWS Transit Gateway—or you can connect them to software as a service (SaaS) services including other AWS services, such as AWS PrivateLink. Amazon VPC lets you provision a private, isolated section of the AWS Cloud where you can launch AWS resources in a virtual network using customer-defined IP address ranges. Amazon VPC gives you several options for connecting your AWS virtual networks with other remote networks.
Global and hybrid connectivity
You can use the services in this category to securely connect from on-premises networks to
your workloads in the AWS Cloud. You can create a virtual private network (VPN)
Edge networking and content delivery
Services in this category help ensure higher performance through caching and optimized transport. A good example of this is Amazon CloudFront. You'll also want to see customer traffic optimally routed to provide availability using services such as Amazon Route 53. Additionally, it's important that customer traffic is routed to make the most of the AWS global infrastructure using services such as AWS Global Accelerator. AWS Data Transfer Terminal is a network-ready, physical location where you can bring your data storage devices for fast data transfer to and from the AWS Cloud.
Application networking
As you increase adoption of the AWS Cloud, you’ll want to consider how to connect
workloads at scale, by using AWS App Mesh and Amazon VPC Lattice, integrate the workloads in your VPCs with APIs
Networking security and remote access
While Amazon VPC helps you secure access to your workloads, the services in this category offer enhanced protection against threat actors and unauthorized users by using AWS Network Firewall, AWS Shield, AWS Verified Access, and AWS WAF. To help ensure network security, consider using Amazon Route 53 DNS Firewall, AWS Network Firewall, AWS Firewall Manager, network access control lists, and security groups.
Consider
It's important that you choose the networking services that fit your business needs. The following are some of the criteria to consider when choosing networking services.
The networking services that you choose will depend on your business objectives. Assess where you are now and where you want to be when it comes to the security, reliability, accessibility, and performance of your workloads running in the AWS Cloud.
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Consider how the network services you use fit with your migration and integration strategies. A hybrid networking architecture can help you meet this need by integrating your on-premises data center and AWS.
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Review the networking and content delivery blogs
in the Let’s architect! AWS blog series to see what others are building in the AWS Cloud. -
Examine the third-party options available to help you accelerate your networking service adoption. The AWS Marketplace
provides a curated digital catalog that you can use to find, buy, and deploy networking solutions. -
Decide if working with an AWS Partner
that specializes in networking and content delivery would be beneficial. Members of the AWS Partner Network are strategic experts and experienced builders that can help you meet your needs with the AWS Cloud. -
Explore taking AWS networking online courses
on AWS Skill Builder that cover services such as Amazon VPC, AWS Cloud WAN, and Amazon Route 53.
Choose
Now that you know the criteria by which you will be evaluating your networking service options, you are ready to choose which services may be a good fit.
Service category | What is it optimized for? | AWS networking and content delivery services |
---|---|---|
Network foundations | Optimized for getting started with AWS networking services and connecting your VPCs securely. | |
Global and hybrid connectivity |
Optimized to ensure private, secure, and global network connectivity. |
|
Edge networking and content delivery | Optimized for low latency, reliable traffic routing to and from your workloads. | |
Application networking |
Optimized to ensure that your workloads are highly available, adapt to demand, and can communicate with each other. |
|
Network security and remote access | Optimized to protect your workloads against malware, DDoS, SQL injection, and cross-site scripting attacks. |
Use
To explore how to use and learn more about each of the available AWS network services, we have provided a pathway to explore how each of the services work. The following section provides links to in-depth documentation, hands-on tutorials, and resources to get you started.
The following services cover global networking and VPC connectivity.
![]() What is Amazon CloudFront? Learn about speeding up content distribution. |
![]() Getting started with Amazon CloudFront Learn the basic steps to delivering content with CloudFront. |
![]() Hosting on-demand streaming video with Amazon S3, Amazon CloudFront, and Amazon Route 53 Learn how to host videos for on-demand viewing in a secure and scalable way. |
![]() Deliver content faster with Amazon CloudFront Learn how to decrease the end user latency of your web applications. |
The following services relate to application level networking.
![]() What is Amazon API Gateway? Learn about creating APIs for your workloads. |
![]() Building APIs with Amazon API Gateway Learn how to get started building APIs in AWS. |
![]() Configuring private integrations with Amazon API Gateway HTTP APIs Learn how to create an API to control private access to resources in a VPC. |
Explore
Architecture diagrams Explore reference architecture diagrams to help you build your networking and content delivery architectures on AWS. |
Whitepapers Explore whitepapers to help you get started, learn best practices, and understand your networking and content delivery options. |
AWS Solutions Explore vetted solutions and architectural guidance for common use cases for networking and content delivery. |