Route 53 is AWS's DNS service (translating domain names to addresses, with routing policies); CloudFront is AWS's CDN (Content Delivery Network, caching content at edge locations worldwide for fast delivery). Both improve performance and availability for web applications.
Route 53 — DNS and traffic routing
Route 53 is a managed DNS service (+ domain registration):
→ translates domain names (example.com) → IP addresses / AWS resources
→ ROUTING POLICIES (intelligent traffic direction):
- SIMPLE → one destination
- WEIGHTED → split traffic by percentage (e.g. A/B testing, gradual rollout)
- LATENCY → route users to the lowest-latency region (performance)
- GEOLOCATION → route by user location
- FAILOVER → route to a backup if the primary fails (HIGH AVAILABILITY)
→ HEALTH CHECKS → route away from unhealthy endpoints
