A Fintech company has its major applications deployed in AWS US East (N. Virginia) region. Since the applications need extremely fast processing, stable and high speed of network broadband is required. A Direct Connect has been set up in the region which connects its on-premises network with the Virtual Private Gateway in AWS VPC. Direct Connect has already run for two months smoothly. Now, as the business grows, new applications have been deployed in AWS US West region VPC recently. They also need to communicate with the on-premises datacenter which is located in Virginia using a high-speed network. Can the existing Direct Connect be reused for the VPC in the AWS US West region?

Answer options:

A.No. Direct Connect cannot be reused. For this scenario, another new Direct Connect is required. Order a Direct Connect as soon as possible in the new region to save time.
B.No. Direct Connect can only be reused if both AWS VPCs are located in the same region. Since the second AWS VPC is in another region, it is impossible to reuse the same Direct Connect.
C.Yes. A Direct Connect Gateway is required to associate with the virtual private gateway for the VPC. Then create a private virtual interface for the AWS Direct Connect connection to the Direct Connect gateway.
D.Yes. A Direct Connect Gateway is required to associate with the virtual private gateway for the VPC. Then create a private VPN IPsec tunnel between the AWS Direct Connect connection and the Direct Connect gateway.

Correct Answer – C
 
Direct Connect Gateway is a service that helps on connecting AWS Direct Connect connection over a private virtual interface to one or more VPCs in the same account that are located in the same or different Regions. The reinvent session https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pj11NFXDbLY has very good introductions of this feature. As below picture, the Direct Connect gateway enables you to use the AWS Direct Connect connection in the US East (N. Virginia) Region to access VPCs in your account in both the US East (N. Virginia) and US West (N. California) Regions.
For the documentation of Direct Connect Gateway, check the below link in https://docs.aws.amazon.com/directconnect/latest/UserGuide/direct-connect-gateways.html.
Option A is incorrect because by using Direct Connect Gateway, the existing Direct Connect can be reused. It does not need to create another new one which is time-consuming.
Option B is incorrect because, via Direct Connect Gateway, VPCs in different regions can use the same AWS Direct Connect connection.
Option C is CORRECT because to use Direct Connect Gateway, a private virtual interface is needed for the AWS Direct Connect connection to communicate with the Direct Connect gateway. In the meantime, attach a private virtual interface in VPC to the Direct Connect gateway.
Option D is incorrect because a private virtual interface instead of a private VPN IPsec tunnel is needed between the AWS Direct Connect connection and the Direct Connect gateway.