What is the difference between Amazon Connect, Amazon Direct Connection, AWS Managed VPN and Amazon Connect

Amazon Connect

This is very different to either of the other services, it is a service that operates as a Cloud based call centre replacing on-premise software solutions that would have done this in the past.

Amazon Managed VPN

A VPN (otherwise known a virtual private network) allows a connection to be established over the internet to your AWS VPC(s). AWS has 2 versions of this, a site-to-site VPN and a client VPN.

The site-to-site VPN offers a fixed VPN connection between your AWS VPC and an on-premise location. This will require a static IP to maintain the connection, with all traffic routed over the public internet via IPSec and IKE.

The client VPN is similar to the site-to-site but will allow the client connection from anywhere. Using OpenVPN software you establish the connection with AWS which is maintained for as long as the connection is alive. This again uses the internet for all communication.

Direct Connect

With Direct Connect you can maintain a dedicated connection between AWS and your on-premise. This means you will no longer be using the public internet to connect which improves the performance between your on-premise and AWS. It supports both connections to VPC and connections to the public services of AWS (those not in a VPC such as S3 and DynamoDB).

There are a range of network speeds to choose from upto 10GB, to establish this it has specific hardware requirements and will require the hardware to be hosted at a authorized site. Alternatively you can use a hosted connection from a partner who will provide this hardware for you.