Title

AWS re:Invent 2023 - What can networking do for your application? (NET203)

Summary

• Dave Ward, General Manager for Application Networking, and Mike Wittig, CISO at Block, discuss the role of networking in application development.
• Application networking is about managed services that act as a bridge between networking/security engineers and application developers.
• AWS focuses on increasing availability and security through services like Elastic Load Balancing (ELB), PrivateLink, API Gateway, and the new VPC Lattice.
• ELB has seen improvements in security (TLS 1.3, FIPS compliance, IAM condition keys, Mutual TLS) and availability (gray failure mitigation, zonal DNS affinity, disable cross-zone load balancing).
• API Gateway has been enhanced for better developer experience and integration with partners like ReadMe.
• PrivateLink is the preferred method for connecting to AWS services and SaaS offerings, with over 155 AWS services integrated.
• Gateway Load Balancer facilitates transparent traffic inspection and routing across networking appliances.
• VPC Lattice, a new service, simplifies application networking by combining ALB, Transit Gateway, and PrivateLink, supporting any compute platform, and enabling zero-trust security models.
• Mike Wittig shares Block's plans to adopt VPC Lattice to streamline connectivity and security across their business units, improving developer experience and cost management.
• AWS continues to innovate with VPC Lattice, adding features like ALB as a target, customer-managed permissions, shared VPC support, compliance standards, and identity headers for EKS.
• The EKS controller for VPC Lattice is now generally available, with an open-source project for community contribution.

Insights

• AWS is heavily invested in simplifying the networking aspect of application development, aiming to reduce the complexity for both networking professionals and developers.
• The introduction of VPC Lattice represents a significant shift in AWS's approach to application networking, focusing on ease of use, security, and integration flexibility.
• The emphasis on security features like Mutual TLS and FIPS compliance indicates a strong commitment to meeting the evolving security and compliance needs of AWS customers.
• The integration of API Gateway with partners like ReadMe suggests AWS's strategy to enhance the developer experience and provide a more comprehensive set of tools for API management.
• The adoption of VPC Lattice by companies like Block demonstrates the industry's readiness to embrace managed services that offer simplified networking solutions and the potential for AWS to capture this market demand.
• AWS's iterative approach to product development, as seen with the EKS controller for VPC Lattice, highlights their responsiveness to customer feedback and commitment to community engagement through open-source initiatives.