AWS Core Networking Services Overview | Generated by AI
Question: What typical networking services does AWS provide, including subnets, VPC, NAT, etc.?
Answer:
AWS provides a comprehensive suite of networking services centered around Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (Amazon VPC), which allows users to create logically isolated virtual networks in the AWS cloud. These services enable secure, scalable, and flexible network configurations for resources like EC2 instances.
Core VPC Components and Features
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Virtual Private Cloud (VPC): A logically isolated section of the AWS cloud where you define your own virtual network. You control the IP address range (CIDR block), subnets, route tables, and gateways. VPCs span multiple Availability Zones in a Region for high availability.
- Subnets: Segments of a VPC’s IP address range.
- Public subnets: Have routes to an Internet Gateway for direct internet access.
- Private subnets: No direct internet access; used for secure resources like databases.
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Internet Gateway (IGW): Attaches to a VPC to enable communication between resources in the VPC and the public internet.
- NAT (Network Address Translation):
- NAT Gateway: A managed, highly available AWS service placed in a public subnet. It allows instances in private subnets to initiate outbound internet traffic (e.g., for updates or API calls) while preventing inbound traffic from the internet.
- NAT Instance: An older, user-managed alternative using an EC2 instance for NAT; less recommended due to higher administrative overhead compared to NAT Gateways.
Other Typical Networking Services
- Route Tables: Control traffic routing within the VPC and to external destinations (e.g., 0.0.0.0/0 route to IGW or NAT Gateway).
- Security Groups and Network ACLs: Act as virtual firewalls—security groups at the instance level, NACLs at the subnet level.
- VPC Peering: Connects multiple VPCs (even across accounts or Regions) for private communication.
- Elastic Load Balancing (ELB): Distributes incoming traffic across resources.
- AWS Transit Gateway: Simplifies connectivity between multiple VPCs and on-premises networks.
- AWS Direct Connect: Dedicated private connection from on-premises to AWS.
- AWS PrivateLink: Secure private connectivity to AWS services or partner services without exposing traffic to the internet.
These services form the foundation for building secure architectures, such as multi-tier applications with public-facing load balancers and private backend servers accessing the internet via NAT.
References:
- Amazon VPC Overview
- What is Amazon VPC?
- NAT Gateways
- Subnets in VPC
- AWS Networking and Content Delivery