ANS-C01 practice question 25 of 35

A company uses a 1 Gbps AWS Direct Connect connection to connect its AWS environment to its on- premises data center. The connection provides…

A company uses a 1 Gbps AWS Direct Connect connection to connect its AWS environment to its on- premises data center. The connection provides employees with access to an application VPC that is hosted on AWS. Many remote employees use a company-provided VPN to connect to the data center. These employees are reporting slowness when they access the application during business hours. On-premises users have started to report similar slowness while they are in the office. The company plans to build an additional application on AWS. On-site and remote employees will use the additional application. After the deployment of this additional application, the company will need 20% more bandwidth than the company currently uses. With the increased usage, the company wants to add resiliency to the AWS connectivity. A network engineer must review the current implementation and must make improvements within a limited budget. What should the network engineer do to meet these requirements MOST cost-effectively?

Answer options

A: Set up a new 1 Gbps Direct Connect dedicated connection to accommodate the additional traffic load from remote employees and the additional application. Create a link aggregation group (LAG). Correct answer

B: Deploy an AWS Site-to-Site VPN connection to the application VPC. Configure the on-premises routing for the remote employees to connect to the Site-to-Site VPN connection.

C: Deploy Amazon Workspaces into the application VPInstruct the remote employees to connect to Workspaces.

D: Replace the existing 1 Gbps Direct Connect connection with two new 2 Gbps Direct Connect hosted connections. Create an AWS Client VPN endpoint in the application VPC. Instruct the remote employees to connect to the Client VPN endpoint.

Correct Answer:

A. Set up a new 1 Gbps Direct Connect dedicated connection to accommodate the additional traffic load from remote employees and the additional application. Create a link aggregation group (LAG).

Explanation

The current 1 Gbps Direct Connect connection is saturated. The company needs more than 1.2 Gbps of bandwidth and resiliency. Adding a second 1 Gbps Direct Connect connection and creating a Link Aggregation Group (LAG) meets these needs most cost-effectively. A LAG bundles the two connections, treating them as a single logical connection with a total capacity of 2 Gbps, which covers the required bandwidth increase. This configuration also provides high availability; if one connection fails, traffic automatically fails over to the remaining active connection, thus adding the required resiliency.

Why Incorrect

B. An AWS Site-to-Site VPN runs over the public internet and does not offer the guaranteed bandwidth or consistent low latency of a Direct Connect connection.
C. Deploying Amazon Workspaces is a significant architectural change for remote access and does not address the core network bottleneck affecting on-site users.
D. Replacing the existing connection with two 2 Gbps connections (4 Gbps total) significantly over-provisions bandwidth and would be much more expensive than adding one 1 Gbps connection.

References

1. AWS Direct Connect User Guide. (2023). Link aggregation groups. AWS Documentation. Retrieved from https://docs.aws.amazon.com/directconnect/latest/UserGuide/lags.html. (The guide states, "You can use a link aggregation group (LAG) to aggregate multiple connections at a single AWS Direct Connect endpoint, allowing you to treat them as a single, managed connection... A LAG provides a way to get increased bandwidth.")

2. AWS Direct Connect User Guide. (2023). AWS Direct Connect resiliency recommendations. AWS Documentation. Retrieved from https://docs.aws.amazon.com/directconnect/latest/UserGuide/resiliency-recommendations.html. (Under "High availability", it recommends using "Multiple connections in a LAG configuration to one location" as a method to protect against device failure).

Keep practicing

Take the free ANS-C01 practice test

Ten exam-style questions with answers and explanations, plus the exam facts and study guides.

Start the free practice test