Extending SD-WAN Segmentation into AWS Cloud WAN – Part 2

This article explains how to extend SD-WAN network segmentation into AWS Cloud WAN using Tunnel-less Connect attachments with Multi-VPC Elastic Network Interfaces (X-ENIs).

• Tunnel-less Connect supports 100 Gbps per AZ with no encapsulation overhead versus GRE's 5 Gbps per tunnel
• Uses X-ENIs to attach multiple VRFs to SD-WAN appliance, mapping 1:1 to Cloud WAN segments
• Requires dedicated Data Plane VPC per VRF with X-ENI in same AZ as SD-WAN appliance
• Eliminates GRE tunnel maintenance but requires separate ENI per VRF, limited by instance type
• Detailed deployment steps cover VPC creation, X-ENI attachment, Connect peer configuration, and BGP setup
• Validation includes BGP neighbor status, route propagation, and RIB verification
• Trade-offs: higher performance and simpler operations versus increased provisioning complexity and cost per VRF

This architecture enables strict network segmentation for multi-tenant and regulated environments while providing high-performance, tunnel-less connectivity between SD-WAN and AWS Cloud WAN.