AWS Direct Connect is a networking service designed to establish a dedicated network connection from your on-premises environment to AWS, enhancing security and performance for hybrid cloud architectures.
AWS Direct Connect provides a dedicated, reliable, high-bandwidth connection, superior to the public internet for consistent throughput and low latency with sensitive data. It acts as a dedicated, private connection from on-premises to AWS VPC using private IP addresses.
AWS Direct Connect utilizes various types of virtual interfaces (VIFs) to connect your on-premises network to different AWS resources, each designed for specific networking needs.
Acts as a dedicated, private connection from on-premises to AWS VPC using private IP addresses. This type is crucial for scenarios requiring all API calls to use private addressing and avoid the internet.
Uses public IP addresses. This type would violate requirements for private addressing, as traffic would traverse public IP space.
Used for connecting to Transit Gateways, rather than for general VPC access directly.
This type is similar to a private virtual interface, but the term 'hosted' is considered less precise than explicitly stating 'private' when the requirement for a dedicated private connection is paramount.
AWS Direct Connect supports various hybrid cloud architectures that demand secure, high-performance, and reliable network connectivity to AWS services.
AWS Direct Connect is the most reliable solution when combined with AWS DataSync for securely and efficiently transferring large amounts of data, such as 10TB of daily JSON instrumentation data, from an on-premises SAN to Amazon S3 for near-real-time analytics. This setup offers consistent throughput and low latency, which is superior to using the public internet for sensitive data transfers.
Technical Specs: Scenario: 10TB of daily JSON instrumentation data from on-premises SAN to S3.
For company applications on-premises that need to consume a REST API on Amazon API Gateway, ensuring all API calls use private addressing only and avoid the internet via AWS Direct Connect. The solution requires a combination of a private virtual interface on Direct Connect and an Interface VPC Endpoint for API Gateway, which provisions an Elastic Network Interface (ENI) with a private IP address within the VPC.
Technical Specs: Requires a private virtual interface on Direct Connect and an Interface VPC Endpoint for API Gateway.
Understanding the specific purpose of Direct Connect and how it compares to other AWS networking options is crucial for appropriate architectural design.
AWS Direct Connect provides a dedicated, reliable, high-bandwidth connection that is inherently superior to the public internet. This superiority stems from consistent throughput and low latency, which are critical for sensitive data. The public internet, by contrast, is less reliable due to potential bandwidth fluctuations and performance bottlenecks.
AWS Direct Connect is designed for connectivity between an on-premises network and AWS. It is not intended for establishing private connections between AWS services within the same AWS region, such as connecting applications in a VPC privately to Amazon Redshift. For intra-AWS private service connectivity, VPC Endpoints (e.g., Interface Endpoints powered by AWS PrivateLink) are the appropriate solution.
While Direct Connect can provide the underlying network connectivity, the AWS Database Migration Service (DMS) is specifically for migrating and replicating databases. It is not designed for general-purpose file transfers, such as JSON data, even if Direct Connect is used as the network medium.