Performance Improvement Strategy — AWS Solutions Architect Pro (SAP-C02)
Global Accelerator vs CloudFront: Dynamic vs Cacheable Responses
Global Accelerator routes all TCP and UDP traffic over the AWS global backbone from the nearest edge point of presence to the application origin, reducing public internet path variability for any traffic type. CloudFront caches responses at edge locations, eliminating origin round-trips for content it can serve from cache. The tradeoff: Global Accelerator benefits dynamic, non-cacheable API responses by shortening the network path to origin; CloudFront benefits static or cacheable responses by serving them without involving the origin at all. A scenario describing high latency for globally distributed users on dynamic API responses points to Global Accelerator. A scenario describing high origin load from repeated requests for the same assets points to CloudFront.
What This Pattern Tests
The exam describes a performance issue and tests whether you identify the bottleneck before optimizing. High CPU = scale out (more instances) or up (larger instance type). High memory = increase instance memory or add caching (ElastiCache). High disk IOPS = switch to provisioned IOPS SSD (io2) or instance store. Network bottleneck = use enhanced networking, placement groups, or a higher bandwidth instance type. The trap is adding more instances when the bottleneck is a single-threaded process that needs a faster CPU (scale up, not out) or adding cache when the bottleneck is write throughput (caching helps reads, not writes).
Decision Axis
Bottleneck identification before optimization selection. CPU, memory, disk, and network each have different solutions.
Associated Traps
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Decision Rules
Determine which network-layer acceleration service correctly handles non-HTTP UDP gaming traffic to resolve the geographic latency breach—distinguishing between CloudFront (HTTP/HTTPS edge cache operating at L7, wrong protocol layer) and Global Accelerator (anycast TCP/UDP routing over the AWS private backbone at L4, correct layer).
Domain Coverage
Difficulty Breakdown