AWS Direct Connect Resiliency and Bandwidth Requirements

ANS-C01 By islever Editorial Last updated Aug 21, 2026

Short answer

C Set up two 10 Gbps connections at the primary data center that terminate at one AWS Direct Connect location. Ensure the connections are managed by separate providers. Set up two 10 Gbps connections at the secondary data center that terminate at a second Direct Connect location. Ensure the connections are managed by separate providers.

Question

A global company is establishing network connections between the company's primary and secondary data centers and a VPC. A network engineer needs to maximize resiliency and fault tolerance for the connections. The network bandwidth must be greater than 10 Gbps. Which solution will meet these requirements MOST cost-effectively?

Set up a 100 Gbps connection at the primary data center that terminates at an AWS Direct Connect location. Set up a second 100 Gbps connection at the secondary data center that terminates at a second Direct Connect location. Ensure the connections are managed by separate providers.
Set up a 10 Gbps connection at the primary data center that terminates at an AWS Direct Connect location. Set up a second 10 Gbps connection at the secondary data center that terminates at a second Direct Connect location. Ensure the connections are managed by separate providers.
Set up two 10 Gbps connections at the primary data center that terminate at one AWS Direct Connect location. Ensure the connections are managed by separate providers. Set up two 10 Gbps connections at the secondary data center that terminate at a second Direct Connect location. Ensure the connections are managed by separate providers. Correct Answer
Set up a 10 Gbps connection at the primary data center that terminates at an AWS Direct Connect location. Set up an AWS Site-to-Site VPN connection at the secondary data center that terminates at a virtual private gateway in the same Region as the company’s VPC.

Key Takeaways

Tests understanding that 'resiliency' requires physical redundancy (separate locations/providers) while 'bandwidth >10 Gbps' can be met via link aggregation or multiple connections, not just a single high-speed port.

Maximize resiliency for AWS Direct Connect by deploying redundant links at separate locations with diverse providers. Dual 10 Gbps connections provide the necessary bandwidth >10 Gbps and fault tolerance more cost-effectively than 100 Gbps single links.

Common mistake: Choosing B because it assumes a single 10 Gbps connection per site is sufficient; this fails the 'greater than 10 Gbps' requirement and lacks intra-site redundancy, creating a single point of failure.

Expert Analysis

Why the Answer Is Correct

Option C is the most cost-effective solution that meets all criteria. It provides 20 Gbps total bandwidth per site (exceeding the 10 Gbps requirement) through two 10 Gbps connections. Crucially, it maximizes resiliency by placing these connections in separate physical locations managed by different providers, eliminating single points of failure at both the data center and provider levels.

Why the Other Options Are Wrong

Option A uses 100 Gbps connections which are significantly more expensive than 10 Gbps links, violating the 'cost-effective' constraint despite meeting technical specs. Option B only offers 10 Gbps per site, failing the 'greater than 10 Gbps' requirement, and lacks redundancy within each site. Option D mixes Direct Connect with Site-to-Site VPN; while VPN is cheap, it does not offer the consistent high throughput or deterministic performance of Direct Connect, and relying on one DX and one VPN is less resilient than dual DX paths.

Community Comment Notes

Comment [1] correctly identifies that C exceeds bandwidth needs while ensuring diversity. Comment [3] highlights that B barely meets bandwidth but lacks redundancy. Comment [4] incorrectly argues that combined bandwidth across sites matters, ignoring that each site's connection to the VPC must independently sustain traffic if one fails.

Official Reference

https://docs.aws.amazon.com/directconnect/latest/UserGuide/Recommendations.html

This link opens the official vendor documentation in a new tab.

Exam Strategy

Always check for 'per location/site' constraints when calculating bandwidth requirements. When 'resiliency' is key, look for answers involving diverse physical paths (different locations) and diverse logical providers, even if it means deploying multiple lower-cost links instead of one expensive high-capacity link.

Community Votes

80%

20%

80% of anonymous learners picked answer C. Votes are pick records left by other test-takers — they are not the verified answer.

Discussion 4 contributions

Compiled from public community threads and reader submissions, lightly edited for clarity. Handles and vote tallies are shown as recorded, and comments reflect the views of individual contributors.

From public community threads 4

woorkim 👍 2 Answered C

The answer is C. Provides >10 Gbps bandwidth through multiple 10 Gbps connections Maximizes resiliency with redundant connections at separate locations Uses separate providers for additional fault tolerance More cost-effective than 100 Gbps connections while meeting requirements
djangoGroup 👍 1 Answered C

B) Using 10 Gbps connections: ✗ Barely meets bandwidth requirement (no redundancy) ✓ Good resiliency (separate locations and providers) ✓ More cost-effective than A C) Using dual 10 Gbps connections: ✓ Meets bandwidth requirements (20 Gbps per site with redundancy) ✓ Excellent resiliency (separate providers and locations) ✓ More cost-effective than A, slightly more expensive than B but with better redundancy
AtomicNuke 👍 1 Answered C

C is correct - In order to maximize resiliency and fault tolerance for the connections, two DX connections are established for each AWS DX location https://aws.amazon.com/directconnect/resiliency-recommendation/
meseerie 👍 1 Answered B

B) the bandwidth must be greater overall, combined 10+10 is the most cost-efficient setup.

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