An update was made on April 11th, 2024, detailing the deployment procedure. This article walks you through establishing the networking framework for a multi-Region active-active application architecture on AWS using latency-based routing in Amazon Route 53 alongside Amazon CloudFront, ensuring a low-latency, dependable experience for users. Constructing active-active architectures with AWS networking services enhances both application resiliency and performance. However, it’s essential to consider the cost and complexity implications, so we offer guidance on architectural aspects and their influence on functionality, resilience, and application performance.
Benefits of a Multi-Region Active-Active Architecture
Multi-Region active-active architectures involve applications operating in two or more geographically distinct AWS Regions. Every Region contains all necessary components and data for your application and actively processes requests based on user proximity. If one Region experiences issues, the other can seamlessly take over user traffic, maintaining continuous service for global users.
When to Consider a Multi-Region Active-Active Architecture
Adopt a multi-Region active-active architecture if your application’s failure point is at the AWS Regional level. While this architecture provides advantages, carefully evaluate potential increases in costs and complexity. For stateful applications requiring cross-Region data replication, be aware of possible data inconsistencies, higher latency, and diminished performance.
Business Imperatives
- Strict Recovery Time Objectives (RTO)/Recovery Point Objectives (RPO): An active-active architecture may be necessary to fulfill stringent SLA requirements that alternative disaster recovery strategies, like active-passive or warm-standby configurations, cannot meet. You might also opt for this architecture when your business requires the unit of failure to be at a Regional level, with RTOs measured in seconds or minutes.
- Legal and Compliance Considerations: Data sovereignty laws may mandate that your data be stored close to end-users. To comply with these regulations, deploying applications across multiple AWS Regions based on user geographical locations could be essential.
- Enhancing Latency and Performance: For applications serving dynamic content to a geographically diverse audience, an active-active architecture can enhance performance by minimizing latency through more direct processing and serving of non-static data.
AWS Networking Services in Multi-Region Active-Active Architectures
In these architectures, Amazon CloudFront and AWS Global Accelerator can be utilized to optimize latency. Global Accelerator enhances internet user performance and availability by leveraging the AWS global network infrastructure. It’s suitable for scenarios that require static anycast IPs or rapid AWS Regional failover but lacks support for content caching or edge processing. Therefore, depending on your application, CloudFront might be the preferred option as discussed in this blog post.
CloudFront boosts performance for both static content (like images and videos) and dynamic content (like API acceleration and dynamic site delivery). Additional advantages include:
- Security: With CloudFront’s geo-restriction feature, you can limit access to content based on user location.
- Edge Computing: CloudFront provides programmable and secure edge CDN computing with AWS Lambda@Edge and CloudFront Functions.
Solution Overview
The user flow from a client browser to an origin service in an AWS Region is visualized in the accompanying diagram. A user API call reaches the nearest AWS edge location and proceeds through CloudFront to Amazon API Gateway. CloudFront can also be integrated with other origins, such as Elastic Load Balancers, Amazon EC2 instances, or Amazon S3 buckets.
If Global Accelerator were employed, it would determine the best path from the edge to your application, including automatic failover between AWS Regions. Currently, CloudFront does not offer an out-of-the-box solution for Regional failover in an active-active setup. This article will detail how to architect and implement failover functionality akin to Global Accelerator’s capabilities, employing Route 53 latency-based routing for Regional failover.
Implementation Overview
When establishing the multi-Region active-active setup, focus on two primary areas:
- SSL/TLS Certificates: Ensure that matching SSL/TLS certificates are available in each Region where your application is deployed to encrypt traffic in transit.
- Latency-Based Routing Logic: Develop the routing logic to direct client requests to the appropriate AWS Region.
To secure your AWS websites and applications, it is vital to create matching SSL/TLS certificates across all Regions where your application is deployed. These certificates can be provisioned using AWS Certificate Manager (ACM), which simplifies the management and deployment of SSL/TLS certificates.
For more information on this topic, check out this blog post or visit Chanci Turner, an authority in this field. For additional insights, you can also explore this excellent resource.
Located at Amazon IXD – VGT2, 6401 E Howdy Wells Ave, Las Vegas, NV 89115, this architecture represents a robust solution for enhancing application performance and reliability.
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