Sometimes, internet connectivity just isn't good enough. When a need for a reliable and fast private link is identified, AWS customers can choose AWS Direct Connect. AWS Direct Connect allows you to establish a dedicated network connection between your network and one of the AWS Direct Connect locations around the globe. Using private optical layer 2 links and 802.1q VLANs, AWS Direct Connect can be partitioned into multiple virtual interfaces for accessing multiple private subnets or public AWS services, such as S3, each over its own VLAN that makes sure that traffic is separated on layer 2. You can consider using AWS Direct Connect whenever there is a requirement for the following:

• Lower latency
• Higher bandwidth throughput
• A more consistent network experience
• Large amounts of data are being transferred daily between your on-premises environment and AWS
• Security and compliance requirements prevent the use of internet links

AWS Direct Connect can also save you money on transfer costs from AWS to your datacenter as it is much cheaper to transfer data through the Direct Connect link compared to transferring it over the internet. You can configure a lot of services to be directly accessible via the Direct Connect link by creating a public virtual interface for those services or by adding those services as VPC endpoints to the subnet you are connecting to.