The introduction provides an overview of the article's focus, which is to present a comprehensive guide on hosting websites using AWS S3 and CloudFront. It may briefly explain the benefits of using these services for static website hosting, including cost-effectiveness and scalability.  

This section states the purpose of the article, which is to educate readers about AWS S3's website hosting feature, how to set it up, and how CloudFront works in conjunction with S3 to deliver content efficiently. It aims to provide both AWS console and Prismscaler methods for different experience levels.

S3 Introduction Amazon S3 (Simple Storage Service), an Amazon Web Services (AWS) offering, is a versatile and fundamental cloud storage solution. With the ability to store, manage, and retrieve data efficiently, it has become a cornerstone of modern cloud computing. S3 employs object storage, allowing users to store virtually any type of data, from documents and images to backups and logs. Its scalability is a standout feature, capable of accommodating vast data quantities with ease. It ensures data durability and availability by redundantly storing objects across multiple data centers within an AWS region, boasting an impressive 99.999999999% durability rate.   Security features, including access control, encryption, and versioning, provide robust data protection. S3 offers lifecycle management for automated data management and versioning for backup and recovery. Cross-region replication facilitates disaster recovery and redundancy. S3 isn't limited to storage; it's a foundation for various AWS services and use cases. Whether hosting static websites, serving as a data lake for analytics, or supporting machine learning workloads, S3 plays a pivotal role.   Static web hosting feature Amazon S3 allows you to host static websites, which are websites that consist of HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and other static files. You can upload your website files to an S3 bucket and configure it to serve as a web host.   How do enable static web hosting on S3

• Still in your bucket settings, go to the "Properties" tab.
• Click on "Static website hosting."
• Choose the "Use this bucket to host a website" option.
• Enter the names of your main HTML file and your custom error document (if you have one). The main HTML file is typically named "index.html."
• Click "Save changes."

CloudFront introduction Amazon CloudFront is a content delivery network (CDN) service offered by Amazon Web Services (AWS). It is designed to accelerate the delivery of web content to users while also providing security, scalability, and high availability. CloudFront is a globally distributed network of servers that cache and serve content from edge locations closest to end-users, reducing latency and improving the overall performance of web applications and websites. Key features and aspects of Amazon CloudFront include:

1. Content Distribution: CloudFront distributes content (such as web pages, images, videos, and application data) to edge locations strategically located around the world. These edge locations cache content, reducing the load on the origin server and minimizing the time it takes for users to access that content.
2. Low Latency: By serving content from edge locations that are geographically closer to users, CloudFront minimizes the latency and improves the load times of web pages and resources.
3. Scalability: CloudFront scales automatically to handle varying levels of traffic. This scalability ensures that your content can handle spikes in demand, such as during traffic surges or global events.
4. Security: CloudFront provides multiple security features, including Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) protection, HTTPS support (SSL/TLS), and integration with AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) for access control.
5. Origin Fetch: CloudFront can pull content from various origins, including Amazon S3 buckets, AWS Elastic Load Balancers, custom HTTP origins, and on-premises servers. This flexibility allows you to cache and serve content from a variety of sources.
6. Customization: You can configure CloudFront to modify the behavior of your content delivery. For example, you can set cache behaviors, configure custom error pages, and use Lambda@Edge to run serverless code at the edge locations for advanced customization.
7. Content Compression: CloudFront can automatically compress content, reducing the amount of data transferred and improving page load times.
8. Real-time Monitoring: You can monitor the performance and usage of CloudFront distributions using Amazon CloudWatch and CloudFront access logs.
9. Integration with AWS Services: CloudFront integrates seamlessly with other AWS services, such as Amazon S3, AWS Elastic Beanstalk, AWS Lambda, and more.
10. Global Reach: CloudFront has a vast network of edge locations in multiple geographic regions, making it suitable for serving content to a global audience.

How do CloudFront work with S3 Amazon CloudFront can work seamlessly with Amazon S3 buckets to accelerate the delivery of content stored in those buckets. This combination is a common setup for serving static websites, distributing media files, or improving the performance of web applications. Here's an overview of how CloudFront works with an S3 bucket: Content in S3 Bucket:

• First, you store your website's static files, media assets, or other content in an Amazon S3 bucket. This bucket acts as the origin server where your original files are stored. These files can include HTML, CSS, JavaScript, images, videos, and more.

Create a CloudFront Distribution: Next, you create a CloudFront distribution. A distribution is a set of edge locations (content delivery servers) around the world that are used to cache and serve your content. To create a CloudFront distribution:

• Log in to your AWS Management Console.
• Navigate to the Amazon CloudFront service.
• Click "Create Distribution."
• Choose "Web" as the distribution type if you're serving a website or "RTMP" if you're streaming media content.
• In the distribution settings, you specify the S3 bucket (the origin) from which CloudFront will fetch content.

CloudFront Edge Locations: CloudFront has a network of edge locations across the globe. When a user requests content from your website, CloudFront automatically routes the request to the nearest edge location. Content Caching: CloudFront caches your content at these edge locations. When a user requests a file that exists in the cache of an edge location, CloudFront serves it directly from there. This reduces latency and improves the overall performance of your website. Automatic Content Updates: CloudFront automatically checks the content in your S3 bucket for updates. When you update a file in your S3 bucket, CloudFront will recognize the change and invalidate the cache for that file in the edge locations. The next user request for that file will fetch the updated version from your S3 bucket. Security and Access Control: CloudFront provides security features like HTTPS support, DDoS protection, and integration with AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) for access control. You can configure CloudFront to require secure connections and control who can access your content. Custom Domain: You can configure CloudFront to use a custom domain name (e.g., www.example.com) instead of the default CloudFront distribution domain name. To do this, you create a CloudFront distribution with the appropriate custom domain settings and update your DNS records to point to CloudFront.

This section provides a step-by-step guide on how to create a static web host using AWS S3 and CloudFront using the AWS Management Console. It covers creating an S3 bucket, configuring static website hosting, and setting up CloudFront distribution.   Step 1. Create S3 bucket Go to S3 service → click to Create bucket → enter bucket name and region:     Untick Block all public access because we want this bucket to be public where everyone can access to:     And other setting can be default, then you can click to Create. After your bucket was created successfully, go to Properties setting, scroll down to the Static website hosting section → choose edit to enable.         In index document and Error document you can enter index.html and save changes.   Step 2. Create CloudFront distribution Go to CloudFront → click to create Distribution → in Origin domain, please choose the bucket you just created:     Please use website endpoint because your S3 bucket has static web hosting enabled before (AWS will show warning to you, just need to select the button on console). After creating successful, you will see your distribution like this, wait for CloudFront deploy and after that we can access to our website by Domain name.     If you need to remove a file from CloudFront edge caches before it expires, you can do one of the following: Invalidate the file from edge caches. The next time a viewer requests the file, CloudFront returns to the origin to fetch the latest version of the file. That will helpful for you when your code changes, example after you make a commit in Github and CircleCI would re-upload your latest code to S3 bucket.   Select your distribution, choose Invalidations tab, create a new one, and put /* to Object paths.     With DevOps knowledge: 4-6 hours Without DevOps knowledge: 2-3 days

Prism Scaler provides you with an intuitive model and a concise form, you just need to fill in the necessary information and press create, now PrismScaler will automatically build a simple web application/system that moves on a container on AWS.     AWS infrastructure is automatically created:

• Create an S3 bucket with a static website configuration.
• Create Cloudfront and connect to S3 Bucket.

5-15 minutes (without DevOps knowledge)

The reference section lists the sources or external materials used in the article, allowing readers to explore further or verify the information provided. Invalidating files - Amazon CloudFront