Reduce Cost and Improve Security with Amazon VPC Endpoints

KubeBlogs: Reduce Cost and Improve Security with Amazon VPC Endpoints
KubeBlogs: Reduce Cost and Improve Security with Amazon VPC Endpoints

What If I Told You That You Could Reduce Your AWS Costs by Up to 90%?

No, you’re not wrong—that’s entirely possible. For example, when working with S3 buckets, you can cut costs by as much as 90%. So, you might be wondering: what’s the secret technique?

The simple answer is VPC Endpoints. Not only do they help reduce costs, but they also make your network more secure. Traditionally, accessing AWS services required routing traffic through the internet, which meant relying on Internet Gateways or NAT Gateways.

But with VPC Endpoints, everything stays within your private network. This means you’re not exposing your data to the public internet, creating a much safer environment.

In this blog, I’ll walk you through:

  1. What VPC Endpoints are
  2. The different types of VPC Endpoints
  3. A real-world example where I compared costs between a VPC Endpoint and a NAT Gateway

By the end, you’ll clearly understand how to use VPC Endpoints to reduce your AWS costs and improve your cloud security setup. Let’s get started!

What Are VPC Endpoints?

A VPC Endpoint is a way to privately connect your VPC to AWS services without requiring internet access.
Let me explain with a simple example. Imagine you're connected to your house router, and you want to send a message to your brother on WhatsApp. When you send a message, it typically goes through the internet, hops across several points, and eventually reaches your brother, even though both of you are on the same network.

Why take the long route through the internet when you're already on the same local network? This is the idea behind AWS VPC Endpoints. Instead of routing traffic over the public internet, you can securely and directly access services within the same network.

This not only improves security but also optimizes costs by reducing reliance on NAT Gateways and associated data transfer charges. Instead of sending traffic over the public internet, the traffic flows through AWS’s private network.

VPC Endpoints are horizontally scaled and highly available, facilitating private communication between your resources and AWS services. These endpoints are divided into two main categories: Gateway Endpoints and Interface Endpoints.


Types of VPC Endpoints

1. Gateway Endpoints

Gateway Endpoints are used to connect your VPC to specific AWS services, namely Amazon S3 and Amazon DynamoDB. These endpoints are free to use and provide a direct route for private communication between your VPC and these services.

Gateway Endpoints work by adding a route to the route table associated with your VPC subnets, directing traffic to the target service.

When interacting with a service that uses Gateway Endpoint - you actually send requests to a Public IP address which gets routed internally by AWS - so your request never reaches the Internet. Routing is done using prefix lists - AWS-managed prefix lists - Amazon Virtual Private Cloud.

2. Interface Endpoints

Interface Endpoints utilize AWS PrivateLink to provide private connectivity to various AWS services, such as ECR, CloudWatch Logs, Secrets Manager, and many others.

Unlike Gateway Endpoints, Interface Endpoints incur hourly charges and data processing costs. These endpoints create an elastic network interface (ENI) in your subnet, which serves as the entry point for traffic to the specified service.

Understanding the Difference: Gateway Endpoints vs. Interface Endpoints

If you’ve ever worked with AWS networking, you’ve probably come across Gateway Endpoints and Interface Endpoints. It’s easy to get confused between the two, but understanding their differences can help you make the right choice for your architecture.

Here’s a clear comparison:

Gateway Endpoints:

  • Operate inside a VPC (not within a subnet).
  • When associated with a route table, they automatically add service prefix lists to it.
  • You request actually goes a public IP address but instead of being routed via the Internet - it gets routed internally due to the route table entry.
  • Limited to only a few services like S3 and DynamoDB.

Interface Endpoints:

  • Deployed within a subnet in a specific Availability Zone. For high availability, you can deploy one in each AZ.
  • Do not use route tables to route traffic.
  • Utilize Elastic Network Interfaces (ENIs) and are secured with security groups.
  • Each endpoint has its own DNS name, specific to the region and AZ.
  • Compatible with Route 53 Resolver for resolving private IPs.
  • Support a wide range of AWS services, far beyond just S3 and DynamoDB.
  • Can be accessed outside the VPC using VPN, Direct Connect, or VPC peering.

Real-World Scenario: Using VPC Endpoints to Save Costs

Let’s consider a scenario where you’re running ECS tasks in a VPC with private subnets across three Availability Zones (AZs). These tasks need to:

  • Pull container images from ECR
  • Access data stored in S3
  • Query DynamoDB
  • Send logs to CloudWatch Logs

Without VPC Endpoints

Without VPC Endpoints, all traffic between your ECS tasks and these AWS services flows through a NAT Gateway.
This setup incurs both an hourly running cost of $0.045 per NAT Gateway and a data processing cost of $0.045 per GB. Additionally, deploying NAT Gateways in each AZ for high availability increases these costs significantly.

With VPC Endpoints

By adding VPC Endpoints, you can avoid NAT Gateway data transfer charges for specific services:

  • Use a Gateway Endpoint for S3 and DynamoDB (free of cost).
  • Use Interface Endpoints for ECR and CloudWatch Logs, which have a lower data processing fee of $0.01 per GB and a fixed hourly charge of $0.01 per AZ.

Cost Comparison

Here’s a breakdown of monthly costs for 150 GB of data transfer across 3 AZs:

In this example, switching to VPC Endpoints saves $81.90 per month, while also improving network security by keeping data within AWS


How to Set Up VPC Endpoints

Setting Up a Gateway Endpoint for S3

  1. Open the AWS Management Console and navigate to the VPC Dashboard.
  2. Select Endpoints and click Create Endpoint.
  3. Choose S3 as the service and select your VPC.
  1. Configure the route table to direct traffic to the endpoint.
  1. Review and create the endpoint.

Now that you’ve seen how to create an endpoint for S3, you can follow a similar process for other AWS services.
For more details and specific instructions, refer to the AWS VPC Endpoint Documentation.


Best Practices for VPC Endpoints

  1. Deploy endpoints in each AZ for redundancy and high availability.
  2. Use endpoint policies to enforce granular access controls.
  3. Monitor endpoint traffic using VPC Flow Logs for visibility and troubleshooting.

VPC Endpoints vs. NAT Gateway

When deciding between VPC Endpoints and a NAT Gateway, understanding their differences and use cases is crucial. Both serve the purpose of enabling communication between your VPC and AWS services, but they vary significantly in cost, security, and functionality.

Cost Comparison

  • VPC Endpoints:
    1. Gateway Endpoints for S3 and DynamoDB are free.
    2. Interface Endpoints incur hourly charges.
    3. No need for an Internet Gateway, reducing costs further.
  • NAT Gateway:
    1. Costs ~$0.045 per hour per AZ.
    2. Data processing fees are ~$0.045 per GB, making it more expensive for high data transfer volumes.

Security

  • VPC Endpoints:
    1. Ensure traffic never leaves the AWS network, providing private and secure access to AWS services.
    2. Allow granular control with resource policies and security groups.
  • NAT Gateway:
    1. Routes traffic through the public internet, which might introduce security risks.
    2. Requires additional configurations like firewalls for enhanced security.

Performance

  • VPC Endpoints:
    1. Direct and optimized communication within the AWS network.
    2. Lower latency for supported services.
  • NAT Gateway:
    1. Slightly higher latency due to public internet routing.

Use Cases

  • VPC Endpoints:
    1. Ideal for services like S3, DynamoDB, ECR, and CloudWatch where secure, private access is required.
    2. Cost-effective for applications with high internal traffic to specific AWS services.
  • NAT Gateway:
    1. Useful when you need access to the broader internet or third-party services outside AWS.
    2. Suitable for workloads that require internet access for updates or external API calls.

Ultimately, choosing between a VPC Endpoint and a NAT Gateway depends on your specific use case, budget, and security requirements.

If your workloads primarily interact with AWS services, VPC Endpoints are often the more cost-effective and secure option.

However, for scenarios that require extensive internet access, a NAT Gateway may still be necessary. Evaluate your architecture and data transfer patterns to make the best choice.


Conclusion

Amazon VPC Endpoints are a powerful tool for reducing costs and securing communication between AWS services and your VPC.

By implementing the right type of endpoint for your use case, you can eliminate the need for NAT Gateways, cut down data transfer costs, and improve the security of your cloud infrastructure. Whether you’re managing ECS tasks, big data workloads, or serverless applications, VPC Endpoints offer a scalable solution to modern cloud challenges.

At Kubenine, we provide end-to-end cloud infrastructure services and design architectures tailored to your business needs.

Our offerings include a range of services aimed at optimizing costs so you can focus solely on your product, leaving the complexities of cloud infrastructure and management to us.


Q&A Section

Q1: How do I decide between Gateway and Interface Endpoints?
– Use Gateway Endpoints for S3 and DynamoDB as they’re free. For other services, use Interface Endpoints.

Q2: Are VPC Endpoints available in all AWS regions?
– Yes, but availability may vary for specific services.

Q3: Can I monitor traffic through VPC Endpoints?
– Yes, you can use VPC Flow Logs to capture and analyze traffic.

Q4: What happens if I misconfigure endpoint policies?
– Misconfigured policies may lead to unauthorized access or blocked traffic. Review policies carefully.

Q5: Can I use VPC Endpoints in a shared VPC setup?
– Yes, endpoints can be accessed from other accounts in a shared VPC.