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June 22, 2026|
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Introduction
Modern businesses rely heavily on fast, secure, and highly available web applications to deliver seamless digital experiences to customers. To achieve this, organizations commonly use Content Delivery Networks (CDNs), Web Application Firewalls (WAFs), DNS management systems, and SSL/TLS security services. Many companies initially adopt third-party platforms for these capabilities because they are easy to deploy and quick to configure.
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Overview
The existing infrastructure used Cloudflare for CDN delivery, web security, and domain management. While the platform was functioning properly, the organization wanted a more integrated AWS-based architecture to align with its growing cloud environment.
The migration was planned as a phased Proof of Concept to validate:
- CDN performance
- Traffic handling
- DNS routing
- SSL/TLS management
- Security protections
- Monitoring and logging
- Operational visibility
The implementation focused on integrating the following AWS services:
- Amazon CloudFront
- AWS WAF
- Amazon Route 53
- AWS Certificate Manager (ACM)
- Amazon CloudWatch
- AWS CloudTrail
Together, these services formed a centralized, scalable, and highly available edge delivery and security platform.
Business Objectives
The organization defined several important business and technical objectives before starting the migration project.
- Centralized Infrastructure Management
Managing CDN, DNS, monitoring, and security across multiple platforms increased operational complexity. The organization wanted a unified AWS-native management approach to simplify operations.
- Improve Security
The business required stronger visibility and control over incoming traffic, web attacks, and malicious requests. The new solution needed to provide advanced WAF protections and better security monitoring.
- Enhance Performance
The organization wanted to improve global application performance and reduce user latency by leveraging AWS edge locations and optimized caching.
- Simplify SSL/TLS Management
The team wanted automated SSL/TLS certificate provisioning and renewal without manual operational overhead.
- Build a Scalable Architecture
The architecture needed to support future traffic growth, high availability, and easier scalability while maintaining consistent performance.
AWS-Native Architecture Overview
The proposed AWS-native solution was designed to deliver content securely, scalably, and with low latency.
The architecture flow was structured as follows:
- User requests are routed through Amazon Route 53.
- Traffic is forwarded to Amazon CloudFront.
- AWS WAF filters and inspects incoming requests.
- Amazon CloudFront securely connects to the origin of the backend application.
- AWS Certificate Manager enables HTTPS encryption.
- Amazon CloudWatch and AWS CloudTrail provide centralized monitoring and logging.
Amazon CloudFront Implementation
Amazon CloudFront was implemented as the primary CDN layer for the application.
The configuration included:
- Global edge delivery
- Optimized caching
- HTTPS redirection
- Compression support
- Backend origin integration
- SSL/TLS encryption
- Logging and monitoring integration
Amazon CloudFront caches content at AWS edge locations closer to end users, reducing latency and improving response times.
Amazon CloudFront integration with other AWS services simplified infrastructure management and improved service interoperability.
AWS WAF Security Implementation
Security was one of the most important components of the migration project.
AWS WAF was deployed to protect applications from common web vulnerabilities and malicious traffic.
The WAF configuration included:
- AWS Managed Rule Groups
- OWASP protection rules
- Rate limiting
- IP filtering
- Monitoring mode
- Security visibility metrics
AWS Managed Rules helped protect against threats such as:
- SQL injection attacks
- Cross-site scripting (XSS)
- Malicious bots
- Suspicious request patterns
Rate-limiting rules were configured to minimize the impact of traffic spikes and abusive requests. IP filtering provided additional control over traffic sources.
Initially, AWS WAF rules were configured in monitoring mode to safely analyze traffic patterns during the POC phase before enabling active blocking.
DNS Migration Using Amazon Route 53
The organization wanted centralized DNS management directly within AWS.
Amazon Route 53 was configured for:
- Public hosted zones
- DNS record management
- Traffic routing
- SSL validation support
- CloudFront integration
The migration process involved validating DNS records, configuring hosted zones, and testing traffic routing to ensure minimal downtime during implementation.
Route 53 improved DNS reliability and simplified operational management.
SSL/TLS Management Using AWS Certificate Manager
AWS Certificate Manager (ACM) was implemented to simplify SSL/TLS certificate management.
The ACM implementation included:
- Certificate provisioning
- DNS validation
- HTTPS enablement
- CloudFront integration
ACM automated certificate management and renewal processes, reducing operational overhead and improving security compliance.
Secure HTTPS communication was enabled across the application environment.
Monitoring and Observability
Centralized monitoring and observability were implemented using Amazon CloudWatch and AWS CloudTrail.
The monitoring setup provided visibility into:
- Request counts
- Bandwidth utilization
- Cache performance
- Latency metrics
- 4xx and 5xx errors
- WAF blocked requests
- Security events
- Traffic anomalies
Custom dashboards were created for operational visibility and real-time monitoring.
Amazon CloudWatch alarms were configured to support proactive monitoring and faster incident response.
AWS CloudTrail logging provided governance, auditing, and API activity tracking.
Logging and Traffic Analysis
Logging was enabled to validate the Proof of Concept and improve operational visibility.
The following logs were configured:
- Amazon CloudFront Access Logs
- AWS WAF Logs
- CloudTrail Logs
These logs helped analyze:
- User traffic behavior
- Cache hit ratios
- Security events
- Error trends
- Traffic spikes
- Potential attack attempts
Centralized logging simplified troubleshooting and infrastructure analysis.
Benefits Achieved
The migration successfully demonstrated several important benefits.
- Improved Performance
Amazon CloudFront edge caching reduced latency and improved application response times for global users.
- Better Security
AWS WAF provided layered security protections against web application attacks and malicious traffic.
- Centralized Management
DNS, CDN, SSL/TLS, security, and monitoring were consolidated into a single AWS-native platform.
- Enhanced Visibility
Amazon CloudWatch dashboards and centralized logging improved operational visibility and monitoring capabilities.
Conclusion
Migrating from an existing Cloudflare-managed setup to an AWS-native CDN and security architecture can significantly improve operational efficiency, scalability, visibility, and security integration.
Drop a query if you have any questions regarding CDN, and we will get back to you quickly.
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FAQs
1. Why migrate from Cloudflare to AWS-native services?
ANS: – Organizations often migrate to AWS-native services to simplify infrastructure management, improve AWS integration, centralize monitoring, and reduce dependency on multiple platforms.
2. What does AWS WAF protect against?
ANS: – AWS WAF protects web applications from common attacks such as SQL injection, cross-site scripting (XSS), malicious bots, and abusive traffic patterns.
3. Was downtime involved during migration?
ANS: – The migration was carefully planned, with phased validation and DNS testing to minimize downtime and operational impact.
WRITTEN BY Shaikh Mohammed Fariyaj Najam
Mohammed Fariyaj Shakh is a Sr. Research Associate – Cloud Engineer at CloudThat with a strong background in AWS and Azure infrastructure management, security, optimization, and automation. Certified in both AWS and Azure, he has hands-on experience in designing, implementing, and managing highly reliable, secure, and scalable cloud solutions. Well-versed in DevOps practices and tools such as Git, GitHub, AWS CI/CD, Jenkins, Docker, Kubernetes, and Terraform, Fariyaj leverages his expertise in automation, Infrastructure as Code (IaC), and container orchestration to build and manage robust deployment pipelines. Known for his strong troubleshooting skills, he delivers effective and scalable solutions to complex cloud challenges.
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