AWS Direct Connect SiteLink, is a new capability of AWS Direct Connect that lets you create connections between your on-premises networks through the AWS global network backbone.
In traditional network when this AWS Direct Connect SiteLink functionality was not present, if you want connectivity between your data centers or branch offices, you had to rely on public internet or expensive and hard-to-deploy fixed networks which were having some challenges as below.
Challenges with Traditional Network Connectivity :-
- These are geographically constrained and can be tied to long-term contracts.
- This rigidity becomes a pain point as you expand your businesses globally.
- In turn, you’re required to create custom workarounds to interconnect networks from different providers, which increases your operating costs.
- As we were using multiple network providers and traffic was passing through multiple switches, routers and security devices we were facing high network latency problem.
Now you can solve all these challenges using AWS Direct Connect SiteLink. You may connect your sites through Direct Connect locations, without sending your traffic through an AWS region. AWS having 108 Direct Connect locations available in 32 countries as I am writing this post, located across Africa, Americas, Asia-Pacific, Europe, and Middle East. Traffic flows from one Direct Connect location to another following shortest possible path. You no longer need to connect through the closest AWS Region and manage and configure an AWS Transit Gateway for site-to-site network connectivity.
Advantages with AWS Direct Connect SiteLink :-
- You can take advantage of Direct Connects reliability and global footprint to build a network that grows with your business with no long-term contracts.
- We will get flexible pay-as-you-go pricing model.
- We will get wide range of port-speeds, from 50 Mbps to 100 Gbps.
- SiteLink also integrates with other AWS services, letting you reach your VPCs, other AWS services, and your on-premises networks from your Direct Connect connections.
The following diagram shows the way that you use Direct Connect today. Direct Connect is currently optimized to let you reach your AWS Resources running in any Region as quickly as possible. Sending data from one Direct Connect location to another is not possible.
Once you connect your locations (US, Singapore, Paris, and India in the diagram) to a Direct Connect gateway, those connections can reach any AWS Region (except the two AWS China Regions). No peering between Regions is necessary, because Direct Connect gateways are global resources.
The following diagram shows how you connect multiple sites using SiteLink. The data flows between Direct Connect locations without going through an AWS Region.
Steps to Configure Direct Connect SiteLink :-
Configuring these connections is very similar to what you do today. The first step is to connect my network to Direct Connect locations. After that, SiteLink can be enabled or disabled in minutes.
- Using the AWS Management Console, navigate to the Direct Connect section.
- Under Direct Connect dashboard select Create virtual interface to create a virtual interface.
- Under the Additional Settings section, make the SiteLink switch is turned on.
- Repeat this on another virtual interface, once per site, to connect.
You can monitor this connectivity using AWS CloudWatch.
Availability & Pricing :-
You can connect your on-premises networks or branch offices to any of AWS Direct Connect locations available today, except in China.
Pricing is pay-as-you-go, with no commitment or recurring fees. In addition to existing Direct Connect charges, your monthly bill will include a price-per-hour for SiteLink virtual interfaces, as well as the cost of SiteLink data transfer. Check the pricing page to get the details.
AWS DevSecOps Solutions 