Posted On: Oct 24, 2023

Today AWS announces Tunnel-less connect, a new feature of AWS Cloud WAN that provides you with a simple and more performant way to build global SD-WAN (Software Defined Wide Area Network). With this capability, third-party SD-WAN appliances can natively integrate with Cloud WAN without the need for any specialized tunneling protocols.

A growing number of Enterprise customers have adopted SD-WAN technologies that simplify branch connectivity to on-premises data centers and AWS. Until now, SD-WAN appliances integrated with Cloud WAN through IPsec or GRE tunnels. Now with Tunnel-less connect, you can integrate your SD-WAN appliances with Cloud WAN using BGP (Border Gateway Protocol) peering without any tunnels. Tunnel-less connect eliminates tunneling overhead and provides higher bandwidth for SD-WAN connectivity with AWS (up to 100 Gbps per Availability Zone). In addition, Tunnel-less connect simplifies integration between SD-WAN and Cloud WAN by removing the complexity of tunneling protocols and allows you to easily build a private, secure and reliable middle-mile network for site-to-site and site-to-cloud connectivity using the AWS global network infrastructure. 

Tunnel-less connect is supported by a number of leading SD-WAN and Security AWS partners and is available in all AWS Regions where Cloud WAN is available. You can enable Tunnel-less connect on Cloud WAN connect attachments using the AWS Management Console, Amazon Command Line Interface, and the Amazon Software Development Kit. There are no additional charges to enable Tunnel-less other than regular Cloud WAN attachment charges.

For additional information, visit the AWS Cloud WAN product page, documentation, and blog post.