Amazon offers two VPN services: 1. AWS Client VPN and 2. AWS Site-to-Site VPN. While AWS Client VPN is a fully managed, elastic VPN service best suited for auto-scaling, the Site-to-Site VPN connects your cloud resources with your office or data center.
But is AWS VPN any good? And should you use it for your business? While AWS VPN services have a handful of benefits over other providers, whether to use them depends on your specific needs. In this article, we shall try to explain what AWS has to offer if you’re looking for a VPN service.
Can AWS Be Used for VPN?
You can use AWS to establish VPN connections on the client end or as a remote working solution between your branch offices. Below is a comprehensive breakdown of the two VPN services on offer by AWS.
AWS Client VPN
AWS Client VPN allows your remote workforce to use resources located on AWS or your on-premises network. The best thing about this solution is its fully elastic nature that offers on-demand scaling. Plus, it even has support for the OpenVPN protocol. More of its advantages are below:
Advanced Authentication: AWS Client VPN supports both multi-factor and federated authentication to provide the best security for organizations.
Scalability: While most other VPN services have limited on-premises hardware capacity, AWS Client VPN scales up or down according to user requirements.
Fully Managed: AWS Client VPN provides a worry-free service with deployment, service updates, and capacity provisioning taken care of by AWS. Just a console is enough to view all connections.
AWS Site-to-Site VPN
AWS Site-to-Site VPN is also a fully managed service that establishes a secure IPsec tunnel to provide a safe connection between your AWS resources and data center. Like AWS Client VPN, it has some benefits of its own, the key advantage being its seamless integration with different AWS services like VPCs.
High Availability: AWS Site-to-Site VPN uses two tunnels across multiple Availability Zones. Thanks to that, it offers high availability as there’s always a backup tunnel if one tunnel is down.
Performance Acceleration: The Site-to-Site VPN can work alongside AWS Global Accelerator to boost the overall performance of your VPN connectivity. For those unaware, AWS Global Accelerator is a service that enables customers to route traffic across multiple AWS regions and availability zones, improving the availability and performance of applications.
Detailed Monitoring: Using Amazon CloudWatch, AWS Site-to-Site VPN provides you robust monitoring capabilities to analyze the stability and performance of your VPN connections.
Should You Choose AWS For VPN?
Despite having alternative VPN services, why would you pick AWS VPN in the first place? The short answer is the diverse use cases covered by both AWS Client VPN and Site-to-Site VPN. Here’s a more detailed view of how AWS VPN stands out and why you might want to consider it.
1. AWS Client VPN automatically adjusts to accommodate increased VPN connections during unexpected events. It ensures optimal performance without incurring unnecessary costs during low-demand periods.
2. AWS VPN lets you establish encrypted connections between Amazon VPCs and IoT devices.
3. There’s support for authentication with Microsoft Active Directory via Federated and Certificate-based authentications.
4. AWS Client VPN ensures secure access to applications during and after a cloud migration. Therefore, you can maintain your familiar access methods as the transition from on-premises to cloud takes place.
5. Application migration from your network to the AWS cloud is a breeze with AWS Site-to-Site VPN.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is AWS site-to-site VPN secure?
AWS Site-to-Site VPN uses IPsec tunnels to bridge a secure VPN connection between your resources on the AWS cloud and your local data center.
Is VPN free in AWS?
AWS VPN services are not free of cost. Amazon will bill you at an hourly rate against the duration of your VPN connection.
What is the speed limit of AWS VPN?
With each tunnel established when using AWS Site-to-Site VPN, you get a max connection throughput of 1.25 Gbps.
Conclusion
Like other web services from Amazon, implementing AWS VPN can be rewarding. Both AWS Client VPN and Site-to-Site VPN offer strong encryption, high scalability, and cost efficiency. So, we recommend using AWS for VPN if a reliable solution is what you prefer.
