Demystifying AWS Networking: A Beginner’s Guide

Cloud computing has empowered how businesses introduced scalability and flexibility in their operations. However, navigating the cloud networking journey can seem intimidating for those accustomed to the traditional way of handling hardware management and software configuration on-premises. Amazon Web Services (AWS) is a platform offering a host of services for consumers to maintain network connectivity for their software. 

Whether you’re an aspiring cloud architect, a curious entrepreneur, or someone seeking to broaden your technical horizons, this blog will enlighten you on the basics of Amazon networking and the various AWS networking services you can use for cloud computing. Start on your journey towards a successful career in cloud computing and explore this in-demand sector of the IT industry.

AWS in Networking

Amazon Web Services is the top global cloud services provider. AWS was one of the foremost providers to adopt cloud technology. They were among the first to invest in cloud computing services and reap its subsequent benefits.

AWS offers unparalleled networking services in the world. You can easily create a reliable, secure and fast network using AWS networking. An AWS network requires various AWS services for completion, such as Amazon VPC (Virtual Private Cloud), AWS VPN, Amazon Route 53, Amazon Load Balance and many more. AWS networking services enable us to create underlying high-performance architecture.

Services Offered by AWS Networking

Over a million companies worldwide use AWS networking services for cloud computing tasks. Users can separate their cloud network and connect a physical network to a virtual one using these services. Look at the AWS networking services list below to learn more about the various types of services.

1. Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (VPC)

Amazon VPC is one of the most popular AWS services. You can create isolated virtual cloud networks using Virtual Private Cloud in AWS. The main feature of a virtual network is its capability to stay hidden from the world outside.

If you have an AWS account, you can host Amazon VPC. VPC in networking allows you to work privately on the virtual networks you create. Developers often use Virtual Private Cloud in cloud computing to enable secure communication between various cloud network parts. 

You can change subnets, IPs, route tables and networking configurations and even use Amazon VPS to host multi-tier web software or a simple website.

With Amazon VPC, developers can customise network setup options such as IP address ranges and when to use private and public subnets. They can filter traffic to obtain a safer virtual network. Another method for enhancing the security of the VPC network is the ingress routing feature. You can use security appliances to screen incoming and outgoing VPC traffic by using VPC ingress routing.

Learning about subnets is imperative if you want to use VPC. It consists of a range of IP addresses. There are various types of subnets.

• AWS Private Subnet – It can route traffic to NAT Gateways.
• AWS Public Subnet – It can route traffic to the internet.
• VPN-only Subnet – It can route traffic to a VPN connection.

2. Elastic Load Balancing

Amazon Load Balance or Elastic Load Balancing (ELB) helps to meet traffic demands by scaling resources and automatically distributing incoming traffic across multiple targets. These targets include IP addresses, AWS Lambda functions, Amazon EC2 instances and others. It manages the load on the AWS servers.

ELB can provide efficient security features such as user authentication, SSL/TLS decryption and integrated certificate management. You can monitor the health and performance of your software in real-time by utilising Amazon Cloud Watch metrics. Being a fully managed service, it does not require Global Server Load Balancing.

There are several types of load balancers as part of ELB.

• Network Load Balancer – This is the best load balancer for balancing the load of network protocols. You can use this for load-balancing traffic requiring low latency and high performance. Such traffic includes TCP, Transport Layer Security traffic and User Datagram Protocol. This load balancer works at a Layer 4 connection level.
• Application Load Balancer – You can use it for routing application architecture, such as containers and microservices. This load balancer can balance HTTP requests. It is an OSI Layer 7 load balancer working at the application level.
• Classic Load Balancer – It suits applications created inside the EC2 classic network. It works at the connection and request level. This has Layer 4 functionality along with some Layer 7 functionality.
• Gateway Load Balancer – Working at the Layer 3 network layer, this is useful for running third-party appliances such as intrusion detection and prevention systems and firewalls.

3. Amazon Route 53

This is a scalable DNS (Domain Name System) or IP routing service. AWS Route 53 can change website addresses, such as www.testing.com, to numeric IP addresses, such as 182.0.3.1. Developers can use this service to seamlessly convert domain names to IP addresses cost-effectively.

Other functions of AWS Route 53 are health monitoring and domain registration. It supports several types of routes, such as latency-based routing, weighted round-robin and geo-DNS. Users can create records in complex and large configurations using the built-in visual editor.

Depending on the state of the network, Route 53 automatically directs users to the best DNS server location in the world wide web. Look at some of the advantages of using Amazon Route 53.

• Cost-effective and scalable – The resources and the quantity of queries affect how much you pay for Route 53. It can automatically scale to handle high query volumes.
• Simple and secure – You may set and manage permissions for every user with distinct credentials by connecting Amazon Route 53 with Identity Access Management (IAM). You may set up DNS settings with an easy-to-use API or the AWS Management Console.
• Flexible and Quick – Users can design and modify traffic regulations. Additionally, it directs users to optimal areas based on network circumstances.
• Reliable and Highly Available – Amazon Route 53 Traffic Flow directs customers to an alternative location if the primary location becomes unavailable due to failover.

4. Amazon CloudFront

This native content delivery network (CDN) service of AWS can distribute content such as images, videos and HTML. Companies use Amazon CloudFront for quick distribution of both dynamic and static content. A function of CloudFront is to provide live streaming and video on demand.

CloudFront lessens the number of networks a user’s request must travel through during content delivery. This AWS service routes each request through the Amazon Web Services network to the closest edge location. It adopts this method to provide the quickest delivery method to end users.

It offers a developer-friendly environment with fast transfer speeds and low latency. CloudFront works smoothly with other AWS services such as Amazon S3, Amazon EC2, Elastic Load Balancing and AWS Shield for DDoS Mitigation. Using other AWS services is also cost-effective since you don’t need to pay for transferring any data between CloudFront and these services.

5. AWS Direct Connect

This service provides a dedicated connection from your location to Amazon Web Services. It allows the data centre and AWS to have a secure and private connection. It supports a high bandwidth for a more stable network and faster speed and is compatible with AWS. The beginning speed is approximately 50 Mbps and can be scaled up to 100 Gbps.

Multiple virtual interfaces to Amazon’s publicly accessible cloud services or privately housed resources in AWS are created through AWS Connect. You can establish private connections between AWS and private data centres, significantly reducing network costs.

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6. AWS Virtual Private Network

You can use AWS VPN (Virtual Private Network) to denote a private and secure encrypted tunnel from your device or network to the global network of Amazon Web Services. A detailed study of AWS VPN is necessary to know AWS VPN cost. AWS VPN has two services.

• AWS Client VPN – This VPN allows the employees of a company to access a company’s resources remotely and safely. They can access the resources both with on-premise networks and on AWS. This is an elastic, fully managed VPN service that scales automatically.
• AWS Site-to-Site VPN – This service creates an encrypted and secure connection between an Amazon VPC surrounding and on-location facilities. Accelerated Site-to-Site VPN option, which uses AWS Global Accelerator, can enhance the performance of VPN connections.

7. AWS Transit Gateway

AWS Transit Gateway links Amazon VPCs and on-premises networks across many accounts through a centralised hub. The technology functions as a highly scalable cloud router, establishing each new connection once. Layer 3 routing between VPN and Amazon VPCs is dynamically and statically supported.

For businesses with hybrid cloud infrastructures, AWS Transit Gateway is helpful. The Transit Gateway Network Manager, which offers metrics and events to monitor the whole network, allows AWS users to monitor their network centrally. SD-WAN appliances can be natively integrated into Amazon Web Services with the help of AWS Transit Gateway Connect.

In addition to multicast features, this networking service provides an inter-region peering feature to link networks and share resources across various AWS regions.

8. AWS Global Accelerator

This AWS service enhances network performance and connectivity for end users distributed worldwide. A static IP address functions as a fixed, single-point entry. A regional endpoint is associated with it. The closest edge location’s traffic is accepted onto the global AWS network using the static IP address.

The developer-defined routing policies, geographic location, and application health are considered Global Accelerator. They then route network traffic to an endpoint along the quickest route. Global Accelerator automatically reroutes traffic to stable endpoints in case of any problems.

9. AWS PrivateLink

AWS PrivateLink creates a connection that shields data from the public internet. It increases the security of data shared with cloud-based applications by preventing data from entering the public internet.

AWS PrivateLink offers private communication between VPCs, AWS services, and on-premises applications on the Amazon network. With AWS PrivateLink, connecting services across several accounts and VPCs is simple, greatly simplifying the network architecture.

PrivateLink assists in reducing certain network security risks by preventing public exposure. Examples of such security risks are brute force and distributed denial-of-service attacks.

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Understanding AWS Network Architecture

AWS network architecture is a model or representation for tying together different AWS services in a cloud. It fulfils the connectivity requirements by building a network of connected devices. The many AWS services and components are used to build a quick and secure network.

AWS Networking Future

It won’t be long before the cloud becomes an all-pervading solution, as many organisations worldwide are choosing to relocate their workloads there. The need for highly accessible cloud-based services will increase with the demand for the AWS backbone to serve the interconnectivity requirements of all different business models.

As the market leader in the cloud, Amazon Web Services is uniquely positioned to meet these expanding needs and enable the innovations required to keep the needle moving forward.

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Conclusion

AWS is a perpetually expanding cloud computing service. AWS networking services can benefit a business by providing resources such as database management systems, machine learning and artificial intelligence. 

Enrolling in a cloud computing course can help you to learn more about AWS networking. Find an appropriate course and start learning now!