- [Morgan] The next topic for this domain is all about networking and data-transfer solutions. In order to be prepared for the Solutions Architect - Associate Exam, you should be able to select high-performing networking solutions for a workload, given a defined set of requirements or circumstances. Now, this doesn't mean that you need to be an absolute networking expert to be an AWS solutions architect, but you should know enough about AWS networking services and solutions to make informed decisions, and to do basic troubleshooting. For example, following a hybrid model is very common when working with AWS, meaning a company has an on-premises data center that is operating alongside their solutions hosted in AWS. The on-premises data center and the AWS resources often need a way to privately communicate to transfer data and messages across systems. You can privately connect your AWS resources to your on-premises, data-center resources through VPN connections, or the use of services like AWS Direct Connect. Given the volume of data, compliance standards, and performance requirements for a hybrid deployment, you should be able to select the appropriate connectivity option. There can be nuanced differences between the use cases for either type of connection, VPN or Direct Connect. And you should familiarize yourself with the performance and throughput capabilities of both VPN connections and AWS Direct Connect connections, so that you can properly compare and contrast them when making architecture decisions. On top of AWS Managed VPN and AWS Direct Connect, you should also be familiar with services like AWS Transit Gateway, which can be used with either VPN or Direct Connect to connect multiple VPCs to a remote network. You should also know how Transit Gateway works, its use cases, and how it can simplify network-peering solutions. Another service you should know about from a high level is AWS CloudHub, which can also help you create a hub-and-spoke model for connecting networks. Outside of the idea of connecting a remote network to AWS, you also should know how to create connections between VPCs. You may do this so that applications in one VPC can receive and send messages, or data with an application being hosted in another VPC, or in another AWS account. Selecting architectures and comparing solutions for connecting VPCs to each other is important knowledge for this exam, as well. So, you should know about the use cases, requirements, and limitations for services like VPC peering, AWS Transit Gateway, AWS PrivateLink, and AWS Managed VPN. Beyond connecting your on-premises data center to AWS through private connections, you should also be able to select appropriate features to optimize connectivity to AWS for public services. There are many different ways you can create connections, or send requests to public AWS resources, and you should be able to select appropriate features to optimize connectivity to AWS. For example, let's say you have a website hosted across two different Regions, and you want to send traffic to the Region that is geographically the closest to the end user accessing that website. What AWS service or feature would you use to route the traffic to the correct Region? The key to knowing this one is to know how Amazon Route 53 works, and to know the different routing policies, and what use cases they serve. In this example, you would use Amazon Route 53 geoproximity routing policies. I would highly suggest digging into Amazon Route 53 when preparing for this exam. Beyond the routing policies, you should have a firm grasp on the functionality of Amazon Route 53, and how to develop solutions using it. This would include understanding the record types you can create, and why you would need to use Route 53, in general. I would also suggest you learn about AWS Global Accelerator, which is a service that can improve your application's network performance, and may be considered when optimizing AWS solutions for network performance. Another way you can improve network performance is to consider caching assets closer to your end users by taking advantage of AWS edge locations, using services like Amazon CloudFront. You should have in-depth knowledge of the use cases for Amazon CloudFront, as well as how it works, and the benefits of using it. One more topic here for network performance, is that you should be able to select the appropriate data-transfer service for data migration, or ingestion. There are multiple data-transfer services, or ways you can transfer data to AWS, that you should be familiar with, so you can select the appropriate solutions. There is AWS DataSync, the AWS Snow Family, the AWS Transfer Family, AWS Database Migration Service, and others that you should feel comfortable designing architectures with. Depending on the amount of data, the type of data, and the source and destination of the data migration, one service may be more appropriate than other services. So, it's important that you know the functional and performance differences between the data-transfer and migration services. All right, that's all for now. And remember, this course is to help you identify gaps in your knowledge, and give you an opportunity to dig in deeper in your study before you take the exam. So, no worries if you are finding yourself unfamiliar with some of the topics that I called out in this video. It's simply a reminder to go read more about these topics in the AWS documentation, do some experiments and building in your own AWS account to learn, and to focus in on concepts that you aren't quite grasping yet.
