AWS Certified Advanced Networking Specialty Practice Exam

Which component of AWS Direct Connect is essential for establishing a secure and reliable link to AWS resources?

1. Virtual Private Gateway

2. BGP (Border Gateway Protocol)

3. Elastic Load Balancer

4. VPN Gateway

The correct answer is: BGP (Border Gateway Protocol)

The essential component of AWS Direct Connect for establishing a secure and reliable link to AWS resources is BGP (Border Gateway Protocol). BGP is a standard exterior gateway protocol used to exchange routing information between different networks on the internet. In the context of AWS Direct Connect, BGP is employed to facilitate dynamic routing between your on-premises network and AWS. When a Direct Connect connection is established, BGP enables the advertisement of locally configured routes, along with the detection of changes in network topology. This dynamic update mechanism ensures that traffic is routed efficiently and remains resilient to network topology changes or outages. The redundancy and reliability provided by BGP play a crucial role in maintaining a stable connection between your infrastructure and AWS services, making it a foundational element of the Direct Connect architecture. Other components like a Virtual Private Gateway or a VPN Gateway might play roles in linking networks and providing security in different scenarios, but they do not specifically deal with the dynamic routing aspect that BGP facilitates for Direct Connect. An Elastic Load Balancer manages incoming traffic but does not pertain to the direct connection itself. Thus, BGP's role in ensuring effective routing and connectivity makes it the correct choice for this question.