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Peering

A direct network connection between two Virtual Private Clouds (VPCs) that allows them to communicate using private IP addresses.

Categorycloud

Overview

VPC Peering allows you to route traffic between two VPCs as if they were on the same network. The connection is private, secure, and does not travel over the public internet.

Key Characteristics

  • Private IP Communication: Instances in peered VPCs can communicate using their private IP addresses.
  • No Single Point of Failure: Peering is not a physical gateway or a VPN connection, so it does not have a single point of failure or bandwidth bottleneck.
  • Non-Transitive: If VPC A is peered with VPC B, and VPC B is peered with VPC C, VPC A is NOT automatically peered with VPC C.

Use Case

Connecting different parts of an application that are hosted in separate VPCs (e.g., a frontend VPC and a database VPC).

Related Terms

Transit Gateway