The OP’s solution is the backend getting a pre-signed URL from S3 and giving it to the front-end, so the file doesn’t need to touch the back-end servers - it go

The OP’s solution is the backend getting a pre-signed URL from S3 and giving it to the front-end, so the file doesn’t need to touch the back-end servers - it goes straight to S3. This is what I do, and it works great, with one caveat: it tightly couples you to S3 (or at least a service that can give pre-signed URLs). That makes non-production workflows more complicated. So I’d recommend using it only if you’re uploading massive files (e.g. > 50MB) or lots of files where the extra hassle is worth it.