Question

Difficulty: MediumManaging Storage and Data Transfer Costs

A company has two core applications deployed in separate VPCs (`VPC-A` and `VPC-B`) within the `us-east-1` Region. The application in `VPC-A` processes telemetry data and replicates approximately 300 TB300\text{ TB} of data monthly to a database cluster in `VPC-B`. Both VPCs are connected via an existing AWS Transit Gateway, which also provides hybrid connectivity to the company's on-premises data center. The finance department has flagged high Transit Gateway data processing charges associated with this inter-VPC replication traffic. Which of the following is the most cost-effective routing architecture to reduce data transfer costs while maintaining the existing hybrid connectivity?

  1. Establish a VPC Peering connection between VPC-A and VPC-B, and update the route tables in both VPCs to route the database replication traffic through the peering connection while keeping the Transit Gateway for hybrid traffic.Answer
  2. B
    Replace the Transit Gateway with an AWS Direct Connect Gateway to handle both the inter-VPC database replication traffic and the hybrid connectivity to the on-premises data center.
  3. C
    Create a VPN connection over the internet between the virtual private gateways of VPC-A and VPC-B, and deploy a single NAT Gateway in VPC-A to route replication traffic through the VPN.
  4. D
    Use AWS Resource Access Manager (RAM) to share the Transit Gateway attachment of VPC-B with the AWS account hosting VPC-A to enable direct subnet-to-subnet routing and bypass Transit Gateway data processing charges.

Answer

Establish a VPC Peering connection between VPC-A and VPC-B, and update the route tables in both VPCs to route the database replication traffic through the peering connection while keeping the Transit Gateway for hybrid traffic.
Establishing a VPC Peering connection for high-volume inter-VPC replication traffic is the most cost-effective approach. AWS Transit Gateway charges 0.02perGBfordataprocessingintheuseast1Region,whichresultsin0.02 per GB for data processing in the `us-east-1` Region, which results in 6,000 of unnecessary monthly overhead for $300 TB of data. Since VPC Peering has no data processing fees, migrating the replication traffic to a peering connection eliminates this charge entirely. The Transit Gateway can still be kept active to handle hybrid routing to the on-premises data center.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Analyze current costs and traffic paths.
Database replication traffic (300 TB300\text{ TB} monthly) is routed over an AWS Transit Gateway, which charges a data processing fee of 0.02/GB0.02/\text{GB} in the `us-east-1` Region, resulting in 300,000×$0.02=$6,000300,000 \times \$0.02 = \$6,000 in monthly data processing charges.
Identifying the baseline cost and source of the charges is necessary to evaluate the potential savings of alternative architectures.
2
Evaluate VPC Peering as a cost-optimization alternative.
VPC Peering does not charge any data processing fees. Inter-AZ traffic incurs 0.01/GB0.01/\text{GB} in each direction, and intra-AZ traffic is free. Replacing the Transit Gateway path with VPC Peering for this traffic eliminates the 0.02/GB0.02/\text{GB} processing fee.
VPC Peering is the most cost-effective way to connect two VPCs in the same Region when high data throughput is required.
3
Ensure architectural compatibility with hybrid networking requirements.
The Transit Gateway remains active for handling hybrid connectivity to the on-premises data center, while specific route table entries redirect the inter-VPC replication traffic to the VPC Peering connection.
This guarantees that the cost-optimization measure does not disrupt the existing connection to the on-premises network.

Key Concept

Optimizing inter-VPC data transfer costs by leveraging VPC Peering instead of Transit Gateway for high-volume localized traffic.
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