In this AWS article, we will discuss What Is AWS Direct Connect and along with that, we will also discuss a few other topics as below.
- Benefits Of AWS Direct Connect
- Key Features Of AWS Direct Connect
- When Using AWS Direct Connect
- AWS Direct Connect vs VPN
- AWS Direct Gateway
- AWS Direct Connect Use Cases
- AWS Direct Connect Locations
- AWS Direct Connect Pricing
- How much does AWS Direct Connect cost?
- Is AWS Direct Connect a VPN?
- AWS Direct Connect Partners
- How long does it take to get AWS Direct Connect?
Table of Contents
- What Is AWS Direct Connect
- Benefits Of AWS Direct Connect
- Key Features Of AWS Direct Connect
- When Using AWS Direct Connect
- AWS Direct Connect vs VPN
- AWS Direct Connect Use Cases
- AWS Direct Gateway
- AWS Direct Connect Locations
- AWS Direct Connect Pricing
- How much does AWS Direct Connect cost?
- Is AWS Direct Connect a VPN?
- How long does it take to get AWS Direct Connect?
- AWS Direct Connect Partners
- Wrapping Up
What Is AWS Direct Connect
If you want to quickly establish a connection between your on-premises environment and AWS, then here is the AWS Direct connect, an excellent cloud service that can help you for this purpose.
Basically, AWS Direct Connect helps you to high bandwidth throughput private connection between your office, data center, your environment, and AWS. You can enjoy a consistent network experience altogether with the help of AWS Direct Connect.
Benefits Of AWS Direct Connect
There are many benefits you can get when you are using AWS Direct Connect. Below are a few key benefits of AWS Direct Connect Cloud Service.
Highly Consistent Network Connectivity
You can establish a connection between all your AWS resources, and between your office, data centers, your on-premises environment with AWS. AWS Direct Connect cloud service can help you to identify the route of the data by providing a highly consistent network connection experience. If you will compare this network experience with a usual internet connection, then you will feel the difference in terms of consistency.
Data Security
As data security is the key, AWS Direct Connect ensures your data is highly secure by providing different data encryption techniques like native IEEE 802.1AE (MACsec) point-to-point encryption, AWS Site-to-Site VPN connections using IP security, etc.
Less Bandwidth Cost
You can save a good amount in terms of Bandwidth costs with the help of AWS Direct Connect that helps you to transfer your data directly from and to AWS that minimizes the role of your usual internet service provider in terms of bandwidth commitment. So ultimately, you need to pay based on the AWS Direct Connect data transfer rate which is much lesser if you will compare it with the data transfer rate of your regular internet connection.
Flexibility In Terms Of Connection Options
AWS Direct Connect provides you with so many connection options that’s where, you are flexible enough to choose different connections like 100 Gbps (For selected Locations), 1 Gbps, or 10 Gbps based on your requirement. It also provides you different hosted connections from 50 Mbps to 10 Gbps that you can choose based on your requirement.
Compatibility
AWS Direct Connect is very much compatible with many AWS services like VPC, EC2, S3 bucket, etc.
Key Features Of AWS Direct Connect
You can find so many interesting features of AWS Direct Connect cloud service. Let’s discuss a few key features of AWS Direct Connect.
Located World Wide
AWS Direct Connect is available in many places like United States, Canada, China, Asia Pacific, South America, the Middle East, EU, and Africa, etc to fulfill your need.
Highly Secure
While transferring your data, AWS Direct Connect ensures high security for your valuable data by implementing so many encryption methodologies.
Cost Saving
You can save a good amount while using the AWS Direct Connect compare to the usual internet connection provider in terms of Bandwidth, speed, etc.
When Using AWS Direct Connect
When you have a requirement to connect all your AWS resources with a consistent private connection and when you want to transfer your most valuable data from your office, data center, or your on-premises environment to AWS with no network congestion and with a high speed then, AWS Direct Connect is a great choice that time.
AWS Direct Connect vs VPN
Let’s discuss here a few key comparison between AWS Direct Connect and VPN.
| VPN | AWS Direct Connect |
| VPN can be used for the same purpose as AWS Direct Connect. | AWS Direct Connect can be used as a replacement for a VPN. |
| Less expensive compared to AWS Direct Connect. | More Expensive as compared to VPN. |
| Less reliable performance as compared to AWS Direct Connect. | More reliable performance as compared to VPN. |
| AWS VPN is available with three flavors like hardware only, software only, and mix (hardware+software). | supports 3 bandwidth levels 1 G, 10 G, and 100 G (For some specific Location). |
| You are charged based on an hourly basis when the VPN is up and running. | In the case of AWS Direct Connect, you need to pay per hour port fee as well as data transfer pricing. |
AWS Direct Connect Use Cases
Below are a few key use cases of AWS Direct Connect.
- An excellent choice when transferring large data sets.
- Best suits for both Cloud and On-Premises environments (Hybrid Connection).
- An Excellent option for real-time applications.
AWS Direct Gateway
AWS Direct Connect Gateway is an excellent service that helps you to connect the AWS environment to AWS. This is targeted to make it easy to connect a single direct location to multiple VPCs or AWS regions.
With the help of Virtual private Gateways, the Direct Connect Gateways can connect to multiple AWS VPCs that are present in different AWS regions.
AWS Direct Connect Locations
AWS Direct Connect is available worldwide like United States, Canada, China, Asia Pacific, South America, the Middle East, EU, and Africa, etc
As part of Asia Pacific, it is available in “GPX, Mumbai, India”, “NetMagic DC2, Bangalore, India”, “STT Delhi DC2, Delhi, India”, “Sify Rabale, Mumbai, India”, “STT Delhi DC2, Delhi, India”, “Global Switch, Singapore”, “Equinix SG2, Singapore”, “GPX, Mumbai, India”, etc.
Similarly, as part of Canada, it is available in “Cologix MTL3, Montréal, Canada”, “eStruxture, Montréal, Canada”, “Allied 250 Front St W, Toronto, Canada”, etc.
As part of China, it is available at “Sinnet Jiuxianqiao IDC, Beijing, China”, “Shapotou IDC, Ningxia, China”, etc.
Similarly, as part of the Middle East, it is located at “AWS Bahrain DC53, Manama, Bahrain”, “AWS Bahrain DC52, Manama, Bahrain”. etc.
In the United States, it is located at “Cologix MIN3, Minneapolis, MN”, “Equinix CH2, Chicago, IL”, “CyrusOne West III, Houston, TX”, “QTS, Chicago, IL”, “CoreSite NY1, New York, NY”, “Equinix DA2, Dallas, TX”, “165 Halsey Street, Newark, NJ”, “Equinix NY5, Secaucus, NJ”, “CoreSite SV2, Milpitas, CA”, etc.
Similarly, in South America, it is available at “Equinix SP4, Sao Paulo, Brasil”, “Equinix RJ2, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil”, etc.
Check out AWS Direct Connect Locations for the complete lists.
AWS Direct Connect Pricing
The most interesting thing is for AWS Direct Connect, you just need to pay based on your usage meaning only pay for what you have used and there is no minimum due concept here.
How much does AWS Direct Connect cost?
In the case of AWS Direct Connect, you have to pay based on the port hours and the outbound data transfer. Basically, there are two connection types and are Dedicated Connection or Hosted Connection. The port hour pricing is being calculated based on the connection type you are actually using.
Dedicated Connections Type Pricing
The pricing structure for dedicated connections type is same for all the location and it is bit different in case of Japan.
| Capacity Utilization | Port rate/Hour | Port rate/Hour (Only for Japan) |
| For 1G | You need to pay $0.30 per hour | You need to pay $0.285 per hour |
| For 10G | You need to pay $$2.25 per hour | You need to pay $2.142 per hour |
| For 100G | You need to pay $22.50 per hour | You need to pay $22.50 per hour |
Hosted Connections Type Pricing
Similarly, the pricing structure for the Hosted Connections type is same for all the locations except Japan locations.
| Capacity Utilization | Port rate/Hour | Port rate/Hour (Only for Japan) |
| For 50M | You need to pay $0.03 per hour | You need to pay $0.029 per hour |
| For 100M | You need to pay $0.06 per hour | You need to pay $0.057 per hour |
| For 200M | You need to pay $0.08 per hour | You need to pay $0.076 per hour |
| For 300M | You need to pay $0.12 per hour | You need to pay $0.114 per hour |
| For 400M | You need to pay $0.16 per hour | You need to pay $0.152 per hour |
| For 500M | You need to pay $0.20 per hour | You need to pay $0.190 per hour |
| For 1G* | You need to pay $0.33 per hour | You need to pay $0.314 per hour |
| For 2G* | You need to pay $0.66 per hour | You need to pay $0.627 per hour |
| For 5G* | You need to pay $0.66 per hour | You need to pay $0.66 per hour |
| For 10G* | You need to pay $2.48 per hour | You need to pay $2.361 per hour |
Check out AWS Direct Connect Pricing for the complete information.
Is AWS Direct Connect a VPN?
Internet connection is a must in the case of VPN to establish a connection between Amazon VPC and your on-premises. Where AWS Direct Connect doesn’t need any internet connection rather it actually uses a private network connection between Amazon VPC and your on-premises.
How long does it take to get AWS Direct Connect?
It might take up to 72 hours to completely get the AWS Direct Connect.
AWS Direct Connect Partners
Well, there is a list of AWS Direct Connect are available in different locations across the globe, and those are as listed below
- Alestra
- Applied Insight
- ARTERIA Networks Corporation
- Beanfield Metroconnect
- C3NTRO Telecom
- BT Cloud Connect Direct
- Ckmates
- CHT X AWS Direct Connection Service
- Colt
Check out, the complete list of AWS Direct Connect Partners now.
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Wrapping Up
In this article, we have discussed the below topics
- What Is AWS Direct Connect
- Benefits Of AWS Direct Connect
- Key Features Of AWS Direct Connect
- When Using AWS Direct Connect
- AWS Direct Connect vs VPN
- AWS Direct Connect Use Cases
- AWS Direct Gateway
- AWS Direct Connect Locations
- AWS Direct Connect Pricing
- How much does AWS Direct Connect cost?
- Is AWS Direct Connect a VPN?
- AWS Direct Connect Partners
- How long does it take to get AWS Direct Connect?
Hope you have enjoyed this article !!!