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Understanding Aws Direct Connect

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Lightstream Managed Services

AWS direct connect is one of the services provided by the AWS. It establishes a dedicated network connection from a data center to AWS, i.e., it establishes a dedicated network from your office to AWS.

If your organization needs access to resources in the cloud or services on the AWS cloud, there is a way that you can connect your network to the AWS network to have access to those services. This makes it possible for you to look like you are on your local network. But, just like many people, you might wonder, how does this actually work?

In an AWS cloud, there are various services like NOC as a Service, Amazon Glacier, Amazon S3, and VPC. Maybe you have created a VPC for your company

in the VPC section, and there are subnet and EC2 instances that you have created in the VPC. Hence, for you to be able to use the AWS direct connect, you need to have a virtual private gateway with which you can configure the AWS services you need.

Next in the network, you have an AWS direct connect location which has an AWS direct connect endpoint in the AWS cage connected to the virtual private gateway from one end and the customer router from the other end. Along with the AWS cage, there is a Customer or partner cage in the direct connect location. This partner cage has the customer router which is connected to the AWS direct connect endpoint from one end.

The next and final section in the connection is the customer network, aka your office network. There is a customer firewall or a router in the customer network section. This is connected to the router in the partner router in the partner cage section of the direct connect location.

The connection between the customer router and the AWS direct connect endpoint is doing with a VLAN connection using a fiber optic cable that carries 1 gigabyte to 10 gigabytes per second. So this connection between the AWS endpoint and the customer router is termed as AWS direct connect. With the help of this connection, you can create a public network connection from the AWS side and use the services in AWS, or you may be using a private virtual interface to connect to the VPC that you have configured earlier.

The whole thing is all about connecting AWS services in the cloud to your local organization network. So, if you understand the whole connection procedure, you will be able to gain the benefits of the services. But, if you find the whole thing a confusing, you can opt to hire service providers to help you establish the AWS direct connect for your office.

Jacob Albert is the author of this article. To know more about Well-Architected Framework please visit our website:lightstream.tech

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