What is the primary purpose of an Internet Gateway within an Amazon VPC?

The primary purpose of an Internet Gateway within an Amazon VPC is to allow communication between the VPC and the internet. An Internet Gateway serves as a routing mechanism to enable outbound traffic from instances in the VPC to the internet and, conversely, to allow inbound traffic from the internet to those instances, provided the necessary security group and network ACL rules are configured accordingly. This functionality is crucial for resources that need to be accessible from the internet, such as web servers.

Other options focus on distinct aspects of networking and connectivity within AWS. For instance, allowing private subnets access to AWS services typically involves NAT Gateways or NAT Instances, rather than an Internet Gateway. The direct connection of VPNs to VPCs is managed through Virtual Private Network (VPN) connections but does not involve Internet Gateways. Providing a static IP address is more related to Elastic IP addresses, which can be assigned to instances for static public access, rather than being a function of an Internet Gateway.