edge locations
- What they are
- Hundreds of sites worldwide (600+, far more numerous than Regions) that cache content and terminate connections close to users.
- Also called points of presence (PoPs). Regional Edge Caches sit between edge locations and the origin as a second cache layer.
- What runs there
- Amazon CloudFront — content caching, and CloudFront Functions / Lambda@Edge for code at the edge.
- Amazon Route 53 — DNS resolution.
- AWS Global Accelerator — traffic entry into the AWS backbone.
- AWS WAF and AWS Shield — filtering attacks before they reach the Region.
- Why
- Lower latency for end users, reduced load on the origin, and cheaper data transfer out.
- Not to be confused with
- AWS Local Zones — general-purpose compute and storage in a metro area. Edge locations run caching and edge functions only, not your full application.