VPC Endpoints and the NAT Cost Trap
Discover how VPC endpoints eliminate NAT Gateway data-processing charges and learn the cost differences that AWS exams love to test.
Lab Overview
Build a VPC with a NAT Gateway, then add Gateway and Interface VPC endpoints to see how they change traffic flow and cost. You will create a Gateway endpoint for S3, an Interface endpoint for SSM, and calculate the savings compared to routing everything through a NAT Gateway.
You'll learn to:
- Build a VPC with public and private subnets and a NAT Gateway
- Create a Gateway VPC endpoint for S3 and verify traffic bypasses NAT
- Create an Interface VPC endpoint for SSM with private DNS
- Connect to a private instance via SSM Session Manager without SSH or NAT
- Compare costs: NAT Gateway vs Gateway endpoint vs Interface endpoint
Key Resources:
What You'll Learn
Create Gateway VPC endpoints to eliminate NAT data-processing fees for S3
Create Interface VPC endpoints to access AWS services privately
Verify that endpoint traffic bypasses the NAT Gateway
Compare per-GB and per-hour costs across NAT, Gateway, and Interface endpoints
Prerequisites
Basic AWS CLI familiarity
Understanding of VPC, subnets, and route tables
Technologies Covered
Part of a Course
This lab is part of the AWS Solutions Architect Associate (SAA-C03) course
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