AWS Certified SysOps Administrator – AssociateReliability and Business ContinuityMedium
A media company uses Amazon EC2 instances to process large video files. These instances retrieve source files from an Amazon S3 bucket, process them, and then upload the processed files back to another S3 bucket. Due to the large data transfer volumes, the company is incurring significant NAT Gateway data processing charges. The SysOps Administrator needs to optimize costs while maintaining connectivity for instances in private subnets to S3. Which solution should be implemented?
- AUse AWS Direct Connect to route S3 traffic directly from the EC2 instances.
- BImplement a proxy server on an EC2 instance in a public subnet.
- CMove the EC2 instances to public subnets and assign public IP addresses.
- DConfigure VPC Endpoints for S3 (Gateway type) in the VPC.
Show answer & explanationAnswer & explanation
Correct answer: D. Configure VPC Endpoints for S3 (Gateway type) in the VPC.
VPC Gateway Endpoints for S3 allow instances in private subnets to connect to S3 directly without traversing a NAT Gateway or Internet Gateway, thus eliminating NAT Gateway data processing charges for S3 traffic and improving security.
Why the other options are wrong
- A. Direct Connect is for connecting on-premises networks to AWS, not for internal VPC traffic optimization between EC2 and S3, and would be significantly more expensive and complex than a VPC Endpoint.
- B. A proxy server would add complexity, introduce another potential bottleneck, and still incur data transfer costs for the proxy instance.
- C. Moving to public subnets exposes instances to the internet, which is a security risk and not ideal for private resources. It also doesn't eliminate data transfer costs if traffic still goes via the internet.
VPC Gateway Endpoint for S3
A VPC endpoint that allows private connectivity from instances in your VPC to Amazon S3, routing traffic through the AWS network instead of the internet or a NAT Gateway.
- Eliminates NAT Gateway data processing charges for S3 traffic.
- Enhances security by keeping traffic within the AWS network.
- Gateway endpoints are specifically for S3 and DynamoDB.
- Configured via route tables to direct S3 traffic to the endpoint.
Memory trick: NAT Gateway costs? VPC Endpoint for S3 is the boss!