Improving Application Performance with AWS Global Accelerator

What You'll Learn

• Global Accelerator architecture and components
• Implementation strategies and patterns
• Performance optimization techniques
• Health checks and failover configuration
• Cost optimization strategies

Understanding Global Accelerator

Key Components Overview

Implementation Patterns

Basic Setup Configuration

const createGlobalAccelerator = async () => {
  const accelerator = new aws.globalaccelerator.Accelerator('app-accelerator', {
    name: 'app-accelerator',
    enabled: true,
    attributes: {
      flowLogsEnabled: true,
      flowLogsS3Bucket: 'flow-logs-bucket',
      flowLogsS3Prefix: 'global-accelerator',
    },
  });
  
  const listener = new aws.globalaccelerator.Listener('app-listener', {
    acceleratorArn: accelerator.arn,
    clientAffinity: 'SOURCE_IP',
    protocol: 'TCP',
    portRanges: [
      {
        fromPort: 80,
        toPort: 80,
      },
      {
        fromPort: 443,
        toPort: 443,
      },
    ],
  });
  
  return { accelerator, listener };
};

Endpoint Group Configuration

const createEndpointGroups = async (listener: aws.globalaccelerator.Listener) => {
  // Primary region endpoint group
  const primaryGroup = new aws.globalaccelerator.EndpointGroup('primary', {
    listenerArn: listener.arn,
    endpointGroupRegion: 'us-west-2',
    trafficDialPercentage: 100,
    healthCheckPort: 80,
    healthCheckProtocol: 'HTTP',
    healthCheckPath: '/health',
    thresholdCount: 3,
    endpoints: [
      {
        endpointId: 'alb-arn',
        weight: 100,
      },
    ],
  });
  
  // Secondary region endpoint group
  const secondaryGroup = new aws.globalaccelerator.EndpointGroup('secondary', {
    listenerArn: listener.arn,
    endpointGroupRegion: 'us-east-1',
    trafficDialPercentage: 0,
    healthCheckPort: 80,
    healthCheckProtocol: 'HTTP',
    healthCheckPath: '/health',
    thresholdCount: 3,
    endpoints: [
      {
        endpointId: 'alb-arn',
        weight: 100,
      },
    ],
  });
  
  return { primaryGroup, secondaryGroup };
};

Performance Optimization

Traffic Management Strategies

Health Checks and Failover

Health Check Configuration

Monitoring and Analytics

Key Performance Metrics

Cost Optimization

Cost Management Strategies

Security Best Practices

Security Considerations

• Enable flow logs for traffic analysis
• Implement DDoS protection
• Use HTTPS listeners where possible
• Configure access logging

Access Control

• Use IAM roles and policies
• Implement resource tags
• Monitor API activity

Conclusion

AWS Global Accelerator provides a powerful way to improve application performance and availability for global users. By implementing the strategies and best practices outlined in this guide, you can create highly available and performant applications that deliver excellent user experiences worldwide.

Additional Resources

1. AWS Global Accelerator Documentation
2. Global Accelerator Best Practices
3. Performance Optimization Guide