F5 Distributed Cloud Content Delivery Network: an overview and what's new
From a technical feature perspective, there's nothing new in the world of Content Delivery. You read that right. What's new about it, however, is F5's Distributed Cloud blend of Content Delivery: It marries network connectivity, ingress networking, web security, and, of course, caching, and delivers it in a way that no other CDN provider has before. "Nature is a mutable cloud, which is always and never the same." - Ralph Waldo Emerson We might not wax that philosophically around here, but our heads are in the cloud nonetheless! Join the F5 Distributed Cloud user group today and learn more with your peers and other F5 experts. Most apps nowadays aggregate content from many sources, and many don't use the same internal networks or even one specific cloud provider. Modern apps now pull content from everywhere, and depending on how frequently the content is accessed, it doesn't make sense to pay a premium to have all of it always available within milliseconds. This is where F5 Distributed Cloud CDN breathes new life and adds color to readily accessible on-demand content. If you're like me, you're probably wondering what's different in Content Delivery Networks today? Higher expectations and more specialization among providers. At F5, we see these trends grow by the day: Stronger user-driven demand for personalized content, live streaming, on-demand video, and other dynamic elements Increased expectations for strong application performance, availability, uptime, and a robust security posture to support a user-focused experience A growing need to deliver application logic closer to consumers using standard software development pipeline and lifecycle management More specialization – most CDN providers are now focusing primarily on: o Security, the fast-growing market segment o Online gaming o OTT (over-the-top) video o Web, email, and data o File sharing The first step for any CDN is to deliver content from the location closest to the point of origin. To do that, F5 uses its high-capacity global network to resolve DNS as close to that point as possible, and to direct clients to the closest regional point of presence. From there, F5 provides global DDoS protection at OSI model Layers 3 through 7 with its consolidated DNS, and Web App and API Protection (WAAP). Putting all the bits together, the F5 Distributed Cloud Console streamlines configuration for modern app types and API traffic (files, video, images), with integrated security control and advanced caching policies. The centralized control plane provides both management and observability into specific application traffic and events across all the endpoints, including those on different network. Now, let's see an example of how we can use the F5 CDN to distribute a modern app. Arcadia Finance is an example of a microservices app that we use at F5 to showcase new product features. It uses independent modules that can live in multiple cloud providers and on different networks. Frontend/Main - IBM Cloud Satellite, OpenShift k8s Backend - Azure AKS Money-Transfer - IBM Cloud Satellite, OpenShift k8s Refer-A-Friend - Google GKE Frontend/Main and Money-Transfer are workloads that run as pods in a k8s cluster on IBM OpenShift and are connected to the F5 Global Network using a Cluster-native k8s customer endpoint (CE), a workload managed by F5. Backend is a workload connected via F5 Distributed Cloud Customer Endpoint (CE) native to Azure. Refer-A-Friend is workload connected via F5 Distributed Cloud Customer Endpoint (CE) native to Google Cloud Service. To support the above app, the following configuration has been added as a distribution in the Distributed Cloud Console CDN service: metadata: name: arcadia-cdn labels: {} spec: domains: - arcadia-cdn.demo.internal http: dns_volterra_managed: true add_location: false more_option: cache_ttl_options: cache_ttl_default: 1m origin_pool: public_name: dns_name: ves-io-f85551e2-8a82-4fb4-88a4-b5c202e56d41.ac.vh.ves.io no_tls: {} origin_servers: - public_name: dns_name: ves-io-f85551e2-8a82-4fb4-88a4-b5c202e56d41.ac.vh.ves.io dns_info: [] state: VIRTUAL_HOST_READY auto_cert_info: auto_cert_state: AutoCertDisabled dns_records: [] service_domains: - domain: arcadia-cdn.demo.internal service_domain: ves-io-cdn-arcadia-cdn-demo-internal.autocerts.ves.volterra.io When a user accesses and logs into the Arcadia App, F5 Distributed Cloud CDN first screens each request and then passes it through to the backend, in this case, Frontend/Main. The main pod then works to pull content from the backend, money-transfer, and refer-a-friend modules, all of which are available as different internal endpoints and virtual servers accessible only from other pods within the F5 Global Network. Only after the content has been successfully fetched by Frontend is the landing page finally presented to the user. In the context of CDN, we refer to this first case as a Cache-Miss. % curl -I http://arcadia-cdn.demo.internal/images/image1.jpg HTTP/1.1 200 OK Date: Thu, 15 Sep 2022 00:38:22 GMT Content-Type: image/jpeg Content-Length: 54142 Connection: keep-alive last-modified: Wed, 10 Aug 2022 18:48:47 GMT etag: "62f3fd8f-d37e" x-envoy-upstream-service-time: 5 Server: volt-cdn x-cache-status: MISS Accept-Ranges: bytes When Arcadia Finance is front ended with the Distributed Cloud CDN, content no longer needs to be fetched by Frontend/Main every time the user accesses the page. To reduce load on the app modules, the CDN caches all the content and delivers it to the user upon subsequent hits. This is known as a Cache-Hit. % curl -I http://arcadia-cdn.demo.internal/images/image1.jpg HTTP/1.1 200 OK Date: Thu, 15 Sep 2022 00:38:25 GMT Content-Type: image/jpeg Content-Length: 54142 Connection: keep-alive last-modified: Wed, 10 Aug 2022 18:48:47 GMT etag: "62f3fd8f-d37e" x-envoy-upstream-service-time: 31 Server: volt-cdn x-cache-status: HIT Accept-Ranges: bytes When using Distributed Cloud CDN to distribute frontend apps, even when there's a Cache-Miss, the user experience will be improved vs going to the app directly because the CDN directs the connection to F5's closest regional point of presence (PoP), eliminating much of the uncontrolled and variable latency inherent on the Internet. After accessing the Arcadia Finance app for some time, even when the cached page Time To Live (TTL) policy is set to a very low value of 1 minute, we're still able to see a good amount of caching provided by F5's CDN. Viewing the app's distribution performance in the Distributed Cloud Console, we can see the percentage of hits vs. misses, what the returned latency is for each, how much of the app is returning HTTP 2xx, 3xx, 4xx, or 5xx status codes, and even which versions of SSL and HTTP the connections use. Overall, F5's CDN pulls out all the stops when it comes to safeguarding your environments. Regardless of whether an app's content sprawls multiple private and public networks, F5's CDN can connect to it securely at the app level and cache it. Endpoint-specific security policies within the CDN can be added with a few clicks and the use of a Swagger file to further restrict the operations and content allowed to prevent malicious actors. All in all, F5's Content Delivery Network delivers the best set of network connectivity and security-focused functionality to enable today's most modern applications. In the following video, I share some of the additional benefits of using the F5 Distributed Cloud CDN and show the difference that users will notice when the CDN provides more content from the cache. Additional Resources For more information about this product as well as details on how to configure it, go to the following additional resources. CDN product information CDN product documentation F5 Distributed Cloud Secure CDN Solution: CDN + WAAP (Web App & API Security)Use F5 Distributed Cloud to service chain WAAP and CDN
The Content Delivery Network (CDN) market has become increasingly commoditized. Many providers have augmented their CDN capabilities with WAFs/WAAPs, DNS, load balancing, edge compute, and networking. Managing all these solutions together creates a web of operational complexity, which can be confusing. F5’s synergistic bundling of CDN with Web Application and API Protection (WAAP) benefits those looking for simplicity and ease of use. It provides a way around the complications and silos that many resource-strapped organizations face with their IT systems. This bundling also signifies how CDN has become a commodity product often not purchased independently anymore. This trend is encouraging many competitors to evolve their capabilities to include edge computing – a space where F5 has gained considerable experience in recent years. F5 is rapidly catching up to other providers’ CDNs. F5’s experience and leadership building the world’s best-of-breed Application Delivery Controller (ADC), the BIG-IP load balancer, put it in a unique position to offer the best application delivery and security services directly at the edge with many of its CDN points of presence. With robust regional edge capabilities and a global network, F5 has entered the CDN space with a complementary offering to an already compelling suite of features. This includes the ability to run microservices and Kubernetes workloads anywhere, with a complete range of services to support app infrastructure deployment, scale, and lifecycle management all within a single management console. With advancements made in the application security space at F5, WAAP capabilities are directly integrated into the Distributed Cloud Platform to protect both web apps and APIs. Features include (yet not limited to): Web Application Firewall: Signature + Behavioral WAF functionality Bot Defense: Detect client signals, determining if clients are human or automated DDoS Mitigation: Fully managed by F5 API Security: Continuous inspection and detection of shadow APIs Solution Combining the Distributed Cloud WAAP with CDN as a form of service chaining is a straightforward process. This not only gives you the best security protection for web apps and APIs, but also positions apps regionally to deliver them with low latency and minimal compute per request. In the following solution, we’ve combined Distributed Cloud WAAP and CDN to globally deliver an app protected by a WAF policy from the closest regional point of presence to the user. Follow along as I demonstrate how to configure the basic elements. Configuration Log in to the Distributed Cloud Console and navigate to the DNS Management service. Decide if you want Distributed Cloud to manage the DNS zone as a Primary DNS server or if you’d rather delegate the fully qualified domain name (FQDN) for your app to Distributed Cloud with a CNAME. While using Delegation or Managed DNS is optional, doing so makes it possible for Distributed Cloud to automatically create and manage the SSL certificates needed to securely publish your app. Next, in Distributed Cloud Console, navigate to the Web App and API Protection service, then go to App Firewall, then Add App Firewall. This is where you’ll create the security policy that we’ll later connect our HTTP LB. Let’s use the following basic WAF policy in YAML format, you can paste it directly in to the Console by changing the configuration view to JSON and then changing the format to YAML. Note: This uses the namespace “waap-cdn”, change this to match your individual tenant’s configuration. metadata: name: buytime-waf namespace: waap-cdn labels: {} annotations: {} disable: false spec: blocking: {} detection_settings: signature_selection_setting: default_attack_type_settings: {} high_medium_low_accuracy_signatures: {} enable_suppression: {} enable_threat_campaigns: {} default_violation_settings: {} bot_protection_setting: malicious_bot_action: BLOCK suspicious_bot_action: REPORT good_bot_action: REPORT allow_all_response_codes: {} default_anonymization: {} use_default_blocking_page: {} With the WAF policy saved, it’s time to configure the origin server. Navigate to Load Balancers > Origin Pools, then Add Origin Pool. The following YAML uses a FQDN DNS name reach the app server. Using an IP address for the server is possible as well. metadata: name: buytime-pool namespace: waap-cdn labels: {} annotations: {} disable: false spec: origin_servers: - public_name: dns_name: webserver.f5-cloud-demo.com labels: {} no_tls: {} port: 80 same_as_endpoint_port: {} healthcheck: [] loadbalancer_algorithm: LB_OVERRIDE endpoint_selection: LOCAL_PREFERRED With the supporting WAF and Origin Pool resources configured, it’s time to create the HTTP Load Balancer. Navigate to Load Balancers > HTTP Load Balancers, then create a new one. Use the following YAML to create the LB and use both resources created above. metadata: name: buytime-online namespace: waap-cdn labels: {} annotations: {} disable: false spec: domains: - buytime.waap.f5-cloud-demo.com https_auto_cert: http_redirect: true add_hsts: true port: 443 tls_config: default_security: {} no_mtls: {} default_header: {} enable_path_normalize: {} non_default_loadbalancer: {} header_transformation_type: default_header_transformation: {} advertise_on_public_default_vip: {} default_route_pools: - pool: tenant: your-tenant-uid namespace: waap-cdn name: buytime-pool kind: origin_pool weight: 1 priority: 1 endpoint_subsets: {} routes: [] app_firewall: tenant: your-tenant-uid namespace: waap-cdn name: buytime-waf kind: app_firewall add_location: true no_challenge: {} user_id_client_ip: {} disable_rate_limit: {} waf_exclusion_rules: [] data_guard_rules: [] blocked_clients: [] trusted_clients: [] ddos_mitigation_rules: [] service_policies_from_namespace: {} round_robin: {} disable_trust_client_ip_headers: {} disable_ddos_detection: {} disable_malicious_user_detection: {} disable_api_discovery: {} disable_bot_defense: {} disable_api_definition: {} disable_ip_reputation: {} disable_client_side_defense: {} resource_version: "517528014" With the HTTP LB successfully deployed, check that its status is ready on the status page. You can verify the LB is working by sending a basic request using the command line tool, curl. Confirm that the value of the HTTP header “Server” is “volt-adc”. da.potter@lab ~ % curl -I https://buytime.waap.f5-cloud-demo.com HTTP/2 200 date: Mon, 17 Oct 2022 23:23:55 GMT content-type: text/html; charset=UTF-8 content-length: 2200 vary: Origin access-control-allow-credentials: true accept-ranges: bytes cache-control: public, max-age=0 last-modified: Wed, 24 Feb 2021 11:06:36 GMT etag: W/"898-177d3b82260" x-envoy-upstream-service-time: 136 strict-transport-security: max-age=31536000 set-cookie: 1f945=1666049035840-557942247; Path=/; Domain=f5-cloud-demo.com; Expires=Sun, 17 Oct 2032 23:23:55 GMT set-cookie: 1f9403=viJrSNaAp766P6p6EKZK7nyhofjXCVawnskkzsrMBUZIoNQOEUqXFkyymBAGlYPNQXOUBOOYKFfs0ne+fKAT/ozN5PM4S5hmAIiHQ7JAh48P4AP47wwPqdvC22MSsSejQ0upD9oEhkQEeTG1Iro1N9sLh+w+CtFS7WiXmmJFV9FAl3E2; path=/ x-volterra-location: wes-sea server: volt-adc Now it’s time to configure the CDN Distribution and service chain it to the WAAP HTTP LB. Navigate to Content Delivery Network > Distributions, then Add Distribution. The following YAML creates a basic CDN configuration that uses the WAAP HTTP LB above. metadata: name: buytime-cdn namespace: waap-cdn labels: {} annotations: {} disable: false spec: domains: - buytime.f5-cloud-demo.com https_auto_cert: http_redirect: true add_hsts: true tls_config: tls_12_plus: {} add_location: false more_option: cache_ttl_options: cache_ttl_override: 1m origin_pool: public_name: dns_name: buytime.waap.f5-cloud-demo.com use_tls: use_host_header_as_sni: {} tls_config: default_security: {} volterra_trusted_ca: {} no_mtls: {} origin_servers: - public_name: dns_name: buytime.waap.f5-cloud-demo.com follow_origin_redirect: false resource_version: "518473853" After saving the configuration, verify that the status is “Active”. You can confirm the CDN deployment status for each individual region by going to the distribution’s action button “Show Global Status”, and scrolling down to each region to see that each region’s “site_status.status” value is “DEPLOYMENT_STATUS_DEPLOYED”. Verification With the CDN Distribution successfully deployed, it’s possible to confirm with the following basic request using curl. Take note of the two HTTP headers “Server” and “x-cache-status”. The Server value will now be “volt-cdn”, and the x-cache-status will be “MISS” for the first request. da.potter@lab ~ % curl -I https://buytime.f5-cloud-demo.com HTTP/2 200 date: Mon, 17 Oct 2022 23:24:04 GMT content-type: text/html; charset=UTF-8 content-length: 2200 vary: Origin access-control-allow-credentials: true accept-ranges: bytes cache-control: public, max-age=0 last-modified: Wed, 24 Feb 2021 11:06:36 GMT etag: W/"898-177d3b82260" x-envoy-upstream-service-time: 63 strict-transport-security: max-age=31536000 set-cookie: 1f945=1666049044863-471593352; Path=/; Domain=f5-cloud-demo.com; Expires=Sun, 17 Oct 2032 23:24:04 GMT set-cookie: 1f9403=aCNN1JINHqvWPwkVT5OH3c+OIl6+Ve9Xkjx/zfWxz5AaG24IkeYqZ+y6tQqE9CiFkNk+cnU7NP0EYtgGnxV0dLzuo3yHRi3dzVLT7PEUHpYA2YSXbHY6yTijHbj/rSafchaEEnzegqngS4dBwfe56pBZt52MMWsUU9x3P4yMzeeonxcr; path=/ x-volterra-location: dal3-dal server: volt-cdn x-cache-status: MISS strict-transport-security: max-age=31536000 To see a security violation detected by the WAF in real-time, you can simulate a simple XSS exploit with the following curl: da.potter@lab ~ % curl -Gv "https://buytime.f5-cloud-demo.com?<script>('alert:XSS')</script>" * Trying x.x.x.x:443... * Connected to buytime.f5-cloud-demo.com (x.x.x.x) port 443 (#0) * ALPN, offering h2 * ALPN, offering http/1.1 * successfully set certificate verify locations: * CAfile: /etc/ssl/cert.pem * CApath: none * (304) (OUT), TLS handshake, Client hello (1): * (304) (IN), TLS handshake, Server hello (2): * TLSv1.2 (IN), TLS handshake, Certificate (11): * TLSv1.2 (IN), TLS handshake, Server key exchange (12): * TLSv1.2 (IN), TLS handshake, Server finished (14): * TLSv1.2 (OUT), TLS handshake, Client key exchange (16): * TLSv1.2 (OUT), TLS change cipher, Change cipher spec (1): * TLSv1.2 (OUT), TLS handshake, Finished (20): * TLSv1.2 (IN), TLS change cipher, Change cipher spec (1): * TLSv1.2 (IN), TLS handshake, Finished (20): * SSL connection using TLSv1.2 / ECDHE-ECDSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384 * ALPN, server accepted to use h2 * Server certificate: * subject: CN=buytime.f5-cloud-demo.com * start date: Oct 14 23:51:02 2022 GMT * expire date: Jan 12 23:51:01 2023 GMT * subjectAltName: host "buytime.f5-cloud-demo.com" matched cert's "buytime.f5-cloud-demo.com" * issuer: C=US; O=Let's Encrypt; CN=R3 * SSL certificate verify ok. * Using HTTP2, server supports multiplexing * Connection state changed (HTTP/2 confirmed) * Copying HTTP/2 data in stream buffer to connection buffer after upgrade: len=0 * Using Stream ID: 1 (easy handle 0x14f010000) > GET /?<script>('alert:XSS')</script> HTTP/2 > Host: buytime.f5-cloud-demo.com > user-agent: curl/7.79.1 > accept: */* > * Connection state changed (MAX_CONCURRENT_STREAMS == 128)! < HTTP/2 200 < date: Sat, 22 Oct 2022 01:04:39 GMT < content-type: text/html; charset=UTF-8 < content-length: 269 < cache-control: no-cache < pragma: no-cache < set-cookie: 1f945=1666400679155-452898837; Path=/; Domain=f5-cloud-demo.com; Expires=Fri, 22 Oct 2032 01:04:39 GMT < set-cookie: 1f9403=/1b+W13c7xNShbbe6zE3KKUDNPCGbxRMVhI64uZny+HFXxpkJMsCKmDWaihBD4KWm82reTlVsS8MumTYQW6ktFQqXeFvrMDFMSKdNSAbVT+IqQfSuVfVRfrtgRkvgzbDEX9TUIhp3xJV3R1jdbUuAAaj9Dhgdsven8FlCaADENYuIlBE; path=/ < x-volterra-location: dal3-dal < server: volt-cdn < x-cache-status: MISS < strict-transport-security: max-age=31536000 < <html><head><title>Request Rejected</title></head> <body>The requested URL was rejected. Please consult with your administrator.<br/><br/> Your support ID is 85281693-eb72-4891-9099-928ffe00869c<br/><br/><a href='javascript:history.back();'>[Go Back]</a></body></html> * Connection #0 to host buytime.f5-cloud-demo.com left intact Notice that the above request intentionally by-passes the CDN cache and is sent to the HTTP LB for the WAF policy to inspect. With this request rejected, you can confirm the attack by navigating to the WAAP HTTP LB Security page under the WAAP Security section within Apps & APIs. After refreshing the page, you’ll see the security violation under the “Top Attacked” panel. Demo To see all of this in action, watch my video below. This uses all of the configuration details above to make a WAAP + CDN service chain in Distributed Cloud. Additional Guides Virtually deploy this solution in our product simulator, or hands-on with step-by-step comprehensive demo guide. The demo guide includes all the steps, including those that are needed prior to deployment, so that once deployed, the solution works end-to-end without any tweaks to local DNS. The demo guide steps can also be automated with Ansible, in case you'd either like to replicate it or simply want to jump to the end and work your way back. Conclusion This shows just how simple it can be to use the Distributed Cloud CDN to frontend your web app protected by a WAF, all natively within the F5 Distributed Cloud’s regional edge POPs. The advantage of this solution should now be clear – the Distributed Cloud CDN is cloud-agnostic, flexible, agile, and you can enforce security policies anywhere, regardless of whether your web app lives on-prem, in and across clouds, or even at the edge. For more information about Distributed Cloud WAAP and Distributed Cloud CDN, visit the following resources: Product website: https://www.f5.com/cloud/products/cdn Distributed Cloud CDN & WAAP Demo Guide: https://github.com/f5devcentral/xcwaapcdnguide Video: https://youtu.be/OUD8R6j5Q8o Simulator: https://simulator.f5.com/s/waap-cdn Demo Guide: https://github.com/f5devcentral/xcwaapcdnguideF5 Essential App Protect and AWS CloudFront - Better Together.
What is the function of any application? In the simplest of terms an application must provide a value to the user. While the definition of "value" may differ, it is universally true that the user experience is critical to the perception of value.The user experience, loyalty, and your brand are predicated on the fact that the application be useable. So, what does it mean to be useable?It means that the application must be available, it must be secure, and it must be fast. Recently we announced that F5 Essential App Protect (EAP) would be integrating with AWS CloudFront to provide both security and Content Delivery Network (CDN) services for customers. This is an evolutionary step for F5 in our transition to a software and services company. Now, from the same portal where customers deploy applications and employ F5 Essential App Protect for security, in just a couple of clicks or a single API call, they can also access a global CDN leveraging AWS CloudFront. Let's review why EAP is cool, why AWS CloudFront is interesting, and take a look at the steps to enable the feature. F5 EAP is a high value, low time investment, WAF solution allowing customers to leverage F5's leading WAF Engine as a service using an intuitive interface.Customers can leverage EAP to meet security needs while incurring minimal operational overhead and pay based on traffic patterns. F5 EAP offers customers access to the sensitive data masking, security signatures, new threat campaigns, and IP reputation services that we have developed over nearly 20 years and continue to evolve. By subscribing to EAP customers can increase the efficacy of their SOC without increasing headcount or adding to operational burdens while gaining access to security protections that go far beyond what other services can provide. Below, the overview dashboard of an application protected by F5 Essential App Protect AWS CloudFront is a global CDN that allows users to deploy cacheable content across the globe in over 200 edge points of presence (PoP). AWS CloudFront is based on AWS best in class technology, expansive know how on building cloud services and leverages the AWS global network between the PoP closest to your customers and your Essential App Protect deployment (built on AWS). AWS CloudFront becomes the entry point for all traffic into the application, caching the content that is cacheable and passing the dynamic or non-cacheable portions to the origin. So why would you want to enable a CDN for your application? The simple answer is user experience. The better performing an application is the more likely it is that it will be used. By leveraging a CDN your content can be placed closer to your users and cached. This decreases page load time, something that always makes users happy. A more complete answer includes attributes such as reducing your WAF costs by not having to process cacheable content for each request and removing that traffic load from your origin application systems. The use of a CDN provides benefits for both the content provider and the content consumer. In the graph below you can clearly see the impact of enabling caching had on the origin servers in one of our test applications. So what does the high level architecture look like? Below you can see that DNS traffic is processed by AWS Route 53, directing the traffic to one of the AWS CloudFront edge locations. Traffic that has passed basic validations such as the host header matches the certificate name is either served from the edge cache or directed to F5 EAP for further processing. Traffic that passes WAF validation by F5 EAP is then passed to your origin application no matter if it is in AWS or located in your data center. For applications that reside in AWS all of this network traffic uses the AWS global network between the AWS CloudFront edge, F5 EAP and your app. For applications that reside in a non-AWS based location you can still use F5 EAP with the AWS CloudFront Integration (no AWS account required on your part) noting the slight difference in the data path as shown in the architecture below. Enabling your CDN Assuming that you already have an application deployed and protected by F5 EAP let's take a look at updating and adding AWS CloudFront functionality. From our F5 EAP portal we can see that our application has an FQDN of na2-auction.cloudservicesdemo.net. This application is already deployed and the DNS flow is as follows, a user's computer performs a DNS look up for na2-auction.cloudservicesdemo.net and it is a CNAME for your enabled F5 EAP dataplane locations. First let's enable caching on our Application which will enable AWS CloudFront. Next we need to configure the EdgeTiers (which geographies) that we would like to leverage to place the content closer to the users. Now we should filter any cookies or headers that we would like forwarded and enable compression. Since our application was already deployed on F5 EAP we will use the same CNAME and direct our traffic into AWS CloudFront. After a brief period our F5 Essential App Protect deployment will now have an integrated AWS CloudFront distribution and you will start to see caching metrics as traffic traverses the data path as described in the architecture. What if you need to invalidate some content? Well that is just as easy as enabling the feature! First you need to create the invalidation (purge), and when you click save the process will run deleting the items that match from the cache based on your EdgeTier selections. What about support for AWS CloudFront? That is on F5. We will deploy the AWS CloudFront distribution for you and it is part of our service that you subscribed to. If you experience issues you contact us at F5. We will diagnose and, if necessary, work with AWS to resolve the issue. No more having to coordinate multiple vendors for your application and no more getting stuck in the middle of two vendors not agreeing to a resolution. That's it! You have enabled an integrated security and CDN based on F5 EAP and AWS CloudFront in a few clicks from a single user interface! F5 Essential App Protect with our integrated AWS CloudFront offering can handle the the full lifecycle of your application security and edge performance optimization needs. Take it for a test drive from the F5 CloudServices portal.
