AWS Global Accelerator is a networking service that improves the availability and performance of applications for users around the world. It uses AWS's global network and edge locations to route traffic efficiently to application endpoints running in one or more AWS Regions.
1. Provides Static IP Addresses
Global Accelerator provides two static IP addresses that act as fixed entry points for client traffic. Users connect to these addresses instead of directly connecting to individual regional application endpoints.
2. Traffic Enters Through an Edge Location
When a user sends a request, the traffic enters the AWS network through an edge location that is close to the user. Global Accelerator then routes the traffic across the AWS global network toward the appropriate application endpoint.
This can reduce the time traffic spends traveling across the public internet and can improve latency and network performance.
3. Routes Traffic to the Best Endpoint
For a standard accelerator, Global Accelerator considers factors such as the user's location, endpoint health, and configured endpoint weights when selecting where to send traffic. Supported endpoints include Application Load Balancers, Network Load Balancers, EC2 instances, and Elastic IP addresses.
4. Performs Health Checks
Global Accelerator continuously monitors the health of standard accelerator endpoints. If an endpoint becomes unhealthy, new connections can be directed to another healthy endpoint. This helps improve application availability and supports multi-Region architectures.
5. Supports Traffic Control
Teams can use traffic dials to control how much traffic is sent to different endpoint groups. Endpoint weights can also be used to distribute traffic between endpoints within a Region. These features are useful for testing, gradual deployments, and multi-Region traffic management.
6. Standard vs Custom Routing
AWS Global Accelerator provides two main accelerator types. A standard accelerator routes traffic to healthy application endpoints based on factors such as proximity and configuration. A custom routing accelerator allows applications to direct users to specific destinations and ports, which can be useful for applications such as online gaming and real-time communication.
7. Example
Suppose an application has servers in the United States and Europe. A user in Europe connects to the Global Accelerator static IP address. The traffic enters through a nearby AWS edge location and is routed across the AWS network to an appropriate healthy endpoint.
If the European endpoint becomes unhealthy, new connections can be redirected to another available endpoint according to the accelerator's routing configuration.
Overall, AWS Global Accelerator works as a global traffic-routing layer between users and application endpoints. It provides static IP addresses, intelligent routing, health checks, traffic control, and access to the AWS global network, making it useful for applications that require high availability and consistent performance across regions.