Fullstack Python: Cloud-Based Flask App Load Balancing with CloudFront

As web applications grow in user base and complexity, ensuring fast and reliable access becomes essential. Flask, a lightweight Python web framework, is widely used to build scalable APIs and fullstack applications. However, to serve global users with speed and resilience, integrating a content delivery and load balancing solution becomes crucial. This is where Amazon CloudFront, AWS’s content delivery network (CDN), comes into play.

In this blog, we’ll explore how to use CloudFront to load balance and accelerate a Flask application deployed in the cloud, ensuring lower latency, high availability, and improved performance.


Why Use CloudFront for Flask Apps?

Amazon CloudFront is a fast, highly secure, and programmable CDN that delivers your web content through a network of global edge locations. Here’s how it benefits Flask applications:

Faster Content Delivery: Caches static and dynamic content close to users.

Reduced Latency: Routes requests to the nearest edge server.

Load Balancing: Distributes traffic across multiple Flask instances (via ALB or EC2).

Security: Supports HTTPS, access control, and AWS WAF integration.


Architecture Overview

A typical CloudFront + Flask setup includes:

Flask App deployed on AWS EC2 instances or Elastic Beanstalk.

Application Load Balancer (ALB) distributing traffic across instances.

CloudFront in front of ALB to cache and accelerate content.


Step-by-Step Setup

1. Deploy Your Flask App on EC2 or Elastic Beanstalk

If you haven’t already, deploy your Flask application to AWS using EC2, ECS, or Elastic Beanstalk. Make sure it’s running behind an Application Load Balancer (ALB) for scalability.

Example Flask app (app.py):

python


from flask import Flask

app = Flask(__name__)


@app.route('/')

def home():

    return "Welcome to the Flask App via CloudFront!"


if __name__ == '__main__':

    app.run(host='0.0.0.0', port=80)

Ensure security groups and ALB listeners allow HTTP/HTTPS traffic.


2. Create a CloudFront Distribution

Go to the AWS Management Console > CloudFront > Create Distribution.

Under Origin Settings, set your ALB's DNS as the origin.

Choose HTTP or HTTPS based on your setup.

Enable caching for static assets or dynamic content as needed.

Under Default Cache Behavior, set viewer protocol policy to “Redirect HTTP to HTTPS”.

Enable Geo restriction or WAF rules if needed.

Once deployed, AWS assigns a CloudFront domain like d123abc.cloudfront.net.


3. Update DNS (Optional)

For a custom domain (e.g., app.example.com):

Set up an A record in Route 53 pointing to the CloudFront distribution.

Use ACM (AWS Certificate Manager) to generate an SSL certificate for your domain.


Performance Tips

Cache static files (e.g., JS, CSS, images) aggressively with long TTL.

Use Flask’s send_file or send_from_directory for efficient file serving.

Set proper headers (Cache-Control, ETag) to control CloudFront behavior.

Combine CloudFront with Auto Scaling on EC2 for ultimate scalability.


Conclusion

Integrating Amazon CloudFront into your Flask deployment architecture enhances performance, security, and scalability. Whether you're building a portfolio site, an eCommerce API, or a fullstack SaaS platform, CloudFront ensures your app is always fast and available to users worldwide.

With just a few configurations, your Flask app goes from local to globally optimized — a key step in building production-grade, cloud-native Python applications.

Learn FullStack Python Training

Read More : Flask App Deployment with Continuous Integration on Azure DevOps

Read More : Fullstack Python: Setting Up Cloud Storage for Flask Applications on S3

Read More : Fullstack Flask: Building and Deploying APIs on Cloud with Docker

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