Direct Connect (DX)#

AWS Direct Connect (DX) is a dedicated, private, high-speed network connection between your on-premises data center, office, or colocation facility and AWS.

Instead of sending traffic over the public Internet, Direct Connect gives you a layer-2 or layer-3 private circuit into AWS.

Direct Connect benefits#

• Enhanced security – uses private connectivity between AWS and your data center/office
• Consistent network performance – increased speed/latency & bandwidth/throughput
• Lower cost – can reduce costs for organizations that transfer large volumes of data

Key Benefits#

✔️ More predictable performance

No Internet congestion → consistent latency.

✔️ Higher bandwidth options

1 Gbps, 10 Gbps, 100 Gbps (depending on location and partner).

✔️ Private, secure routing

Traffic stays off the public Internet.

✔️ Lower data transfer costs

Outbound data from AWS over Direct Connect is cheaper than Internet data transfer.

✔️ Integrates with AWS routing

Uses BGP to exchange routes with AWS.

How Direct Connect Works (Simple Explanation)#

• You request a DX connection in AWS.
• AWS provisions a physical port in a Direct Connect location (colocation facility).
• You or a partner (e.g., Equinix, Megaport) provide a cross-connect from your router to AWS’s router.
• You configure BGP to exchange routes.
• You now have a private link into your VPCs through a Virtual Private Gateway or Transit Gateway.

Direct Connect Virtual Interfaces (Important!)#

Direct Connect only gives Layer-2 connectivity at first. To actually route traffic, you create virtual interfaces (VIFs):

🔸 Private VIF

Connects to:

• VPC via Virtual Private Gateway (VGW)
• or multiple VPCs via Transit Gateway (TGW)

Used for:

• private subnets
• EC2
• RDS
• internal workloads

🔸 Public VIF

Connects privately to AWS public services like:

• S3
• DynamoDB
• CloudFront

🔸 Transit VIF

• For large multi-VPC enterprises using Transit Gateway.

Direct Connect vs VPN#

Often, companies combine them:

DX = primary  
VPN = backup failover

Common Uses for Direct Connect#

• Hybrid cloud architectures
• Low-latency database replication
• High-bandwidth data transfers (analytics, backups)
• Private connectivity to S3
• Large enterprises linking multiple sites to AWS

Summary#

AWS Direct Connect is a private, dedicated network connection between your data center and AWS, offering higher performance, lower latency, better security, and reduced data transfer costs compared to Internet-based VPN.