AWS mumbles about its cost-busting networking tech when it should be shouting
- ID
- 19376
- Status
- summarized
- Published
- 29 Aug 2026, 9:30 PM
- Fetched
- 29 Aug 2026, 9:53 PM
- Provider
- The Register
- Category
- technology
- Original URL
- https://www.theregister.com/networks/2026/08/29/aws-mumbles-about-its-cost-busting-networking-tech-when-it-should-be-shouting/5293379
- Source URL
- https://www.theregister.com/headlines.atom
Summary
- Score
- 5.5
- Created
- 29 Aug 2026, 9:53 PM
- Tags
- Audience
- developerssaas_founders
What happened
Corey Quinn reports on AWS's custom networking stack: a flat, single-tier network wired in a near-random pattern that is up to 40% more energy efficient and is now the default for most new AWS datacenter builds. AWS rebuilt its entire networking stack on commodity hardware after James Hamilton identified vendor margins as a blocker 17 years ago. Quinn's central question is whether these real cost efficiencies are passed through to AWS customers or retained by Amazon.
Why it matters
If you're a SaaS founder or team running significant AWS spend, this is ammunition for contract renegotiation — AWS's underlying networking costs have dropped materially, so question whether your egress and data transfer pricing reflects that. For teams architecting on AWS, the detail that new datacenters ship this networking by default means performance and reliability characteristics of newer regions may differ from older ones.
Discussion angle
Quinn's pointed question — where do the savings go? — is worth debating: does AWS's vertical integration of networking actually benefit Malaysian builders, or does it just widen Amazon's margin? Bring it back to concrete egress costs and whether newer APAC regions perform differently.