How E-commerce TrustMeUp Achieved 40% Faster Delivery and 25% Bandwidth Savings with GlobalDots & CloudFront

A popular e-commerce platform was growing fast, but that growth created challenges. With a poorly optimized cloud setup, the company faced content quality problems, as well as ongoing security issues.

The only way to solve the problem was to optimize their CloudFront distribution – leading them to work with GlobalDots’ innovation experts. Using the solution we selected for them, the company improved content load times by 40%, while cutting bandwidth consumption by 25%. 

The Problem: Delivering Dynamic Content to Global Users

TrustMeUp, a growing e-commerce platform, required a scalable, secure, and efficient way to deliver dynamic content and high-resolution images to its global customer base. Their existing CloudFront setup was functional but lacked optimized caching, security features, and dynamic image resizing capabilities. These shortcomings resulted in slower load times and increased vulnerability to security threats, particularly during high traffic periods.

After considering multiple vendors, TrustMeUp chose GlobalDots to be their expert innovation partner. Our senior engineers have experience in all aspects of network security, network performances, all types of CDNs and all kinds of use cases. As a result, we know how to tailor the best solution fit for your business. 

Being an AWS certified partner, GlobalDots also has a special private pricing for CloudFront – making the process easier and more affordable.

The Solution: Using Edge Locations to Deliver Content 

GlobalDots, AWS Advanced Consulting Partner, was engaged to optimize TrustMeUp’s CloudFront distribution. The solution focused on enhancing security, improving performance, and ensuring seamless content delivery across all edge locations. The solution had five key components::

1. Dynamic Content Acceleration with CloudFront:

This featured four key factors:

• Origin Setup: We configured the origin settings using an S3 bucket with strict Origin Access Control (OAC) and signed requests for enhanced security.
• Viewer Protocol Policy: All HTTP traffic was redirected to HTTPS to ensure secure data transmission.
• Cache Optimization: Leveraging the AWS Managed-CachingOptimized policy, we optimized caching to reduce latency and improve load times. The setup utilized all edge locations for the best performance.
• Custom SSL Certificate: We implemented a custom SSL certificate with TLSv1.2_2021, following AWS’s security best practices.

2. Image Resizing with Lambda@Edge:

To further optimize performance, we introduced Lambda@Edge functions, associated with viewer requests, to dynamically resize images stored in the S3 bucket. This allowed TrustMeUp to serve appropriately sized images based on device type, improving load times and reducing bandwidth usage.

3. Implementation of Origin Security Features, Origin Access Control (OAC):  

A robust OAC policy was enforced to secure the origin. Plans were also laid out to implement AWS Shield for additional protection against DDoS attacks.

4. Authorization at the Edge, Custom Authorization Logic:

Lambda@Edge was used to implement custom authorization logic, providing granular access control at the edge locations and ensuring that only authorized users could access certain content.

5. Application Firewall at the Edge, AWS WAF: 

To protect TrustMeUp from common web exploits, we enabled AWS Web Application Firewall (WAF) at the edge, mitigating threats before they could reach the application.

The Results: 40% Faster Load Times and 25% Higher Consumptions

The implementation resulted in significant improvements in TrustMeUp’s content delivery performance and security:

• Performance: Average load times for dynamic content decreased by 40%, and the use of Lambda@Edge for image resizing reduced bandwidth consumption by 25%.
• Security: With the integration of OAC, HTTPS, and AWS WAF, TrustMeUp saw a marked decrease in unauthorized access attempts and DDoS attacks.
• Scalability: TrustMeUp’s CloudFront setup now seamlessly handles traffic spikes, ensuring consistent user experience even during peak shopping periods.

40%	25%	Zero
Improvement in load times	Reduction in bandwidth usage	Successful DDoS attacks since implementation

Driving Short-Term Improvements and Long-Term Value

The use of edge computing for tasks like image resizing and the integration of comprehensive security features within CloudFront were not only technically beneficial – they also aligned with best practices in cloud architecture. 

These choices resulted in a more efficient, secure, and user-friendly solution that is scalable and cost-effective, providing long-term value for TrustMeUp. These lessons underscore the importance of designing cloud solutions that are not only technically sound but also strategically aligned with business goals.

Want to explore how our team could deliver similar improvements for your company?