AWS has a new cloud-wide area network (WAN) solution for engineers.
When you peer under the hood of an engineering company’s IT infrastructure, you’ll likely see a disparate mix of cloud and on-premises solutions across geographic locations operating on a patchwork of networks. Although companies are making the most of digital transformation across their departments, these various networks make it difficult to keep data and operations connected and secure. Usually, multiple third-party solutions are required for everything from internet service to data storage to security solutions. However, the more pieces you add to the network puzzle, the more challenging it is to ensure a company is protected across its operations.
AWS and other companies already make it relatively easy to connect on-premises and cloud-based environments with networking services like the Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) and the AWS Direct Connect. Where these services are lacking is an easy and secure connection to branch offices and on-premise data centers. Usually, companies invest a lot of time and money into developing physical networks or software-defined overlay networks to connect facilities and branch offices. Each additional network adds extra layers of security and connectivity concerns and can lead to increased latency.
Seeing these security concerns, AWS wanted to simplify network function and operations. So, in mid-July 2022, it announced the general availability of the Amazon Cloud WAN. The managed wide area network (WAN) services connect cloud resources with on-premises data centers to simplify network operation and improve security. With a central management dashboard, on-premises, cloud and branch offices can be connected in a single global network.
“As the edge of the cloud continues to be pushed outward, and more customers move their applications to AWS to become more agile, reduce complexity and save money, they need an easier way to evolve their networks to support a modern, distributed model that allows them to reach their customers and end users globally with high performance,” said David Brown, vice president of Amazon EC2 at AWS. “With AWS Cloud WAN, enterprises can simplify their operations and leave the time-consuming task of managing complex webs of networks behind.”
What Is AWS Cloud WAN?
The managed AWS Cloud WAN solution lets users build a multi-region global network on the AWS backbone. The solution removes the need to stitch together multiple regions and networks, as is traditionally required.

In simple terms, a single graphical interface will now let network operations engineers connect headquarters, branch locations, data centers, VPCs and other cloud environments to create a secure, managed global network.
Amazon WAN for Secure Company-Wide Networks
With the traditional patchwork of individual networks used across an enterprise, network operations teams must piece together different firewall solutions from different vendors and manually manage communication between them. As new resources and networks are added, the management becomes incredibly complex and difficult to secure.
In contrast, with Amazon Cloud WAN, companies connect to AWS through a local network provider. Then, network operations teams can create one network that connects all locations and network types; no need to individually manage different networks. This can greatly streamline the security process and help better protect data assets.
For example, engineers can easily introduce a policy requiring all network traffic from branch offices to be routed through the same firewall before accessing cloud resources in an AWS region. With the central management dashboard, companies can add AWS regions, on-premises locations and Amazon VPCs to their global network, all under the same security umbrella.
Plus, the central network policy can help segment network traffic, no matter how many locations are involved. For example, network traffic and retail payments can be separated while still allowing both aspects of a business to access corporate resources on the central network. Or, a company could separate its development and production environments with separate segments for each domain.
One of the main benefits here seems to be the opportunity to ensure consistent security policies are in place for large companies with unique routing requirements. As network requirements continuously evolve, with an underlying AWS backbone, it seems like it will be easier for companies to keep their data secure and remain competitive with a speedy, managed WAN solution.
So, Why Cloud WAN Versus Transit Gateway?
In its blog post outlining the new Cloud WAN service, AWS highlighted that this was one of the most common questions it received during the preview period for the solution.
In theory, both Transit Gateway and Cloud WAN can connect VPCs and on-premises locations. The main difference is that Transit Gateway is a regional network optimized for use with a few local AWS regions. It might also be used if a company wants to use its own automation system for network configuration and operation.
Where Cloud WAN differs is its focus on global network operations. Although you theoretically could achieve global coverage by connecting multiple Transit Gateways, the benefit of Cloud WAN is its automation, segmentation and configuration management features. The solution includes integrated performance monitoring to make it easier for network operations teams to assess and manage decision-making for the global network.
If a company is already using Transit Gateways, it can be integrated into a Cloud WAN global network through the core network edges feature. Cloud WAN can then centrally connect all Transit Gateways and use the central management and monitoring offered by the solution.
Cisco Is Connecting Its SD-WAN with Amazon Cloud WAN
The Cisco SD-WAN Cloud OnRamp for Multicloud with AWS is another new solution that lets companies deploy a secure SD-WAN over an AWS Cloud WAN backbone. Cisco vManage then makes it easy to manage the central policy document for the WAN while AWS manages the implementation of the network details. Overall, Cisco said the integrated solution improves the automation of network management, security of the global network and monitoring of network performance.
“In today’s world, organizations need fast, secure and scalable connectivity across global cloud and on-premises environments. To meet these demands, it’s imperative to provide innovative networking and security solutions that are flexible and easy to use,” said Chris Stori, senior vice president, and general manager at Cisco Networking Experiences. “Cisco continues to invest in cloud networking by integrating the Cisco SD-WAN product portfolios with AWS Cloud WAN to securely connect multi-AWS Region workloads, increase application performance and reduce deployment times.”

AWS Wants Network Operations to Meet the Modern Era
Beyond Cisco, the global network solutions seem aimed at engineering firms across industries. For example, Slalom, a technology consulting firm, was interested in the network segmentation capabilities of the WAN to reduce the complexity of network provisioning and routing. Plus, VMware, a software and cloud services company, uses the network for its ability to improve the security and performance of workloads, regardless of their location.
With the cloud WAN solution, AWS is building a service to meet the dynamic requirements of running a business using multi-cloud, hybrid IT environments. Legacy networks traditionally have not had the flexibility to support such disparate computing requirements, and AWS looks to be creating the solution they see is needed for the market.