Starting from yesterday, AWS Network Load Balancers (NLB) supports TLS/SSL. This new feature simplifies the process of building secure web applications by allowing users to make use of TLS connections that terminate at an NLB. This support is fully integrated with AWS PrivateLink and is also supported by AWS CloudFormation.
Mini-Thread: We've just launched TLS/SSL support for AWS Network Load Balancers. You can now use NLB to terminate TLS/SSL directly and still get the great performance, scalability, and insane magic of network transparency! See @jeffbarr's post at https://t.co/0uYPuD5kGN
— Colm MacCárthaigh (@colmmacc) January 24, 2019
Here are some features and benefits it comes with:
Simplified management
Using TLS at scale requires you to do extra management work like distributing the server certificate to each backend server. Additionally, it also increases the attack surface due to the presence of multiple copies of the certificate. This TLS/SSL support comes with a central management point for your certificates by integrating with AWS Certificate Manager (ACM) and Identity Access Manager (IAM).
Improved compliance
This new feature provides the flexibility of predefined security policies. Developers can use these built-in security policies to specify the cipher suites and protocol versions that are acceptable to their application. This will help you if you are going for PCI and FedRAMP compliance and also allow you to achieve a perfect TLS score.
Classic upgrade
Users who are currently using a Classic Load Balancer for TLS termination can switch to NLB, which will help them to scale quickly in case of an increased load. Users will also be able to make use a static IP address for their NLB and log the source IP address for requests.
Access logs
This support allows users to enable access logs for their NLBs and direct them to the S3 bucket of their choice. These logs will document information about the TLS protocol version, cipher suite, connection time, handshake time, and more.
To read more in detail, check out Amazon’s announcement.
Read Next
Amazon is reportedly building a video game streaming service, says Information
AWS introduces Amazon DocumentDB featuring compatibility with MongoDB, scalability and much more