VPC peering connects two VPCs so resources in each can talk using private IP addresses, as if they were on the same network. Simple for a few VPCs; it doesn’t scale to many.
Peering and its limits
Peering is point-to-point and non-transitive — if A peers with B and B peers with C, A still can’t reach C. For a handful of VPCs that’s fine. Once you have many VPCs to interconnect, the mesh becomes unmanageable and Transit Gateway is the right answer instead.
Test yourself
Two VPCs in the same account need their instances to communicate using private IPs, with minimal setup. What’s the simplest solution?
- VPC peering
- Transit Gateway
- A NAT gateway in each
- Direct Connect
👉 Click to reveal the answer & explanation
Correct answer: A. For just two VPCs, peering gives private-IP connectivity with minimal setup. Transit Gateway (B) is overkill for two VPCs; NAT (C) is for internet access; Direct Connect (D) links on-prem to AWS, not VPC to VPC.
Related topics
Amazon VPC · Transit Gateway · VPC endpoints
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