Search code examples
azureazure-blob-storageazure-cdnazure-front-doorazure-static-web-app

Azure Front door caching VS Azure CDN for blob storage

This is regarding usage of Azure Front Door caching and Azure CDN. I have a Azure static website that will displaying the data (mainly office files and videos) from Azure blob storage. The files in blob storage will rarely change. I am looking for the best way and cheapest way to cache these files, so that files can be fetched quickly.

Recommendation or supporting links will be helpful.

Thanks in advance.

Solution

  • Caching static website content is a technique to improve user experience as well as reducing the load on webservers by offloading the delivery of static content to a dedicated cache service.

    Azure CDN:

    • Azure CDN is globally distributed network of servers that can deliver content to the customers in a very large scale.
    • It is a video streaming platform where videos are delivered based on the customer’s nearest edge location.
    • Azure CDNs stores cached content on the edge servers which results in minimizing network latency.

    Azure Front door:

    • It provides Scalable, secure and fast delivery of your global applications .
    • It enables you to define, manage, and monitor the global routing for your web traffic.
    • It provides best performance and instant global failover for high availability.

    Based on your scenario, that best caching you can use is Azure CDN due to the following:

    • Azure CDN is best for delivering static content like Videos, Images and PDFs whereas Azure Front Door is for delivering sites, services and APIs.
    • Azure CDN is cost-effective whereas Azure Front Door charges per ruleset.
    • Azure CDN does all the functionality similar to Azure Front Door.
    • Azure CDN performs a good job at content delivery at a cheaper price!.

    Update: As suggested by @silent, you can also make use of Azure Front Door Standard which is a combination of classic CDN and Front Door.

    For more information, please refer below links:

    https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/azure-developer-community-blog/azure-on-the-cheap-azure-front-door-caching-vs-azure-cdn/ba-p/1372262

    https://kishoregopalan.medium.com/azure-front-door-or-azure-cdn-what-solution-will-you-use-for-your-high-availability-sites-be26bb34aee7

    https://walkingtree.tech/azure-front-door-azure-cdn-solution-will-choose/