Amazon extends cloud access, enables “identity federation” for accessing it
Amazon Web Services has extended Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (Amazon VPC) to all AWS Regions, allowing enterprises to launch their Amazon VPC environments in the US East and West Coasts, Europe, Singapore, and Tokyo, and in multiple AWS Availability Zones within each Region.
The VPC enables businesses to provision a private section of AWS, where they can then launch AWS resources in a virtual network that they define and control, including selection of IP address range, creation of subnets, and configuration of route tables and network gateways.
This gives enterprises a simple way to leverage AWS while using the same security and management controls already familiar to their business. Enterprises can connect to their Amazon VPC via a Virtual Private Network (VPN) or through an Internet connection. Also, enterprises can now connect multiple networks, such as branch offices, to each other as well as to their central corporate Amazon VPC environment.
AWS also announced AWS Direct Connect, a new service that enables enterprises to bypass the Internet and deliver data to and from AWS via a private network connection in order to increase bandwidth throughput, reduce networking latency and costs, and provide a more consistent network experience when moving data between AWS and their datacenters.
Furthermore, AWS has also added new functionality for AWS Identity and Access Management (AWS IAM) that enables “identity federation,” or the ability for enterprises to use their existing corporate identities to grant secure and direct access to AWS resources without creating a new AWS identity for those users.
This capability enables enterprises to programmatically request security credentials, with configurable expiration and permissions, that grant their corporate identities access to AWS resources controlled by that enterprise.
Amazon VPC and AWS Identity and Access Management can be accessed via the AWS Management Console with console support for AWS Direct Connect coming later this year.