What’s the difference between a hosted virtual interface (VIF) and a hosted connection?

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I'm not sure if a hosted virtual interface (VIF) or a hosted connection with AWS Direct Connect is better for me.

Resolution

When you use Direct Connect, you can create a VIF in one of three ways:

  • On the AWS account where the parent Direct Connect connection exists ("standard VIF").
  • On another AWS account that uses the same parent Direct Connect connection. Or, on another AWS account that uses a VIF that's purchased from an Amazon Partner Network (APN) partner who provisions it for you ("hosted VIF").
  • A physical Ethernet connection that an AWS Direct Connect partner provisions for you.

Hosted VIFs

Hosted VIFs can connect to public resources or an Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (Amazon VPC) in the same way as standard VIFs. However, the account that owns the VIF is different from the connection owner. Bandwidth is shared across all VIFs on the parent connection. For more information, see Create a hosted virtual interface and Accept a hosted virtual interface.

Hosted connections

Hosted connections allow an APN partner to create a Direct Connect connection for you. Complete bandwidth is allocated for the Direct Connect hosted connection. This allows for the creation of one VIF instead of multiple VIFs on the same Direct Connect connection.

The hosted Direct Connect connection can be the following values:

  • 50 Mbps
  • 100 Mbps
  • 200 Mbps
  • 300 Mbps
  • 400 Mbps
  • 500 Mbps
  • 1 Gbps
  • 2 Gbps
  • 5 Gbps
  • 10 Gbps

AWS Direct Connect partners that meet specific requirements can create a 1 Gbps, 2 Gbps, 5 Gbps or 10 Gbps hosted connection. Contact an AWS Partner Network (APN) to create the Direct Connect connection. Then, complete the steps to accept a hosted connection.

Note: You can create only one VIF per hosted Direct Connect connection. You can't modify VLAN information to create a new VIF from the AWS Management Console. The partner assigns a VLAN on creation to each hosted connection. Each VIF on a given connection requires a unique VLAN tag that only the partner can provision. To get additional private or public VIFs, request another hosted connection from your APN partner.

Related information

What is AWS Direct Connect?

AWS OFFICIAL
AWS OFFICIALUpdated 8 months ago