Controversial Cloud Networking Opinions | Generated by AI
Question: What are unpopular ideas about cloud networking?
Answer:
Cloud networking—encompassing VPCs, transit gateways, hybrid/multi-cloud connectivity, SD-WAN integration, and provider-specific architectures—sparks heated debates. Here are some unpopular or controversial opinions drawn from professional discussions and experiences:
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Public cloud is often more expensive and less performant than on-premises for steady workloads: Despite hype around scalability, many argue that predictable workloads run cheaper and faster on dedicated hardware without virtualization overhead, noisy neighbors, or egress fees.
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Multi-cloud strategies are overhyped and rarely worth the complexity: Avoiding vendor lock-in sounds ideal, but in practice, it increases operational overhead, integration challenges, inconsistent tooling, and costs without proportional benefits for most organizations.
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Hybrid cloud is a temporary compromise, not a long-term strategy: True cloud-native designs should go all-in on public cloud; keeping on-premises ties organizations to legacy constraints and prevents full agility.
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AWS networking is overly complicated and restrictive: Features like limited static IPs, security group complexities, and transitive routing limitations frustrate users compared to simpler designs in GCP or Azure.
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Transit Gateway is unnecessary overhead; VPC peering suffices for most scales: While marketed for complex hubs, direct peering is simpler, cheaper for data transfer, and avoids extra attachment costs in many real-world setups.
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SD-WAN in cloud environments is often redundant: Native cloud connectivity (Direct Connect, ExpressRoute) and provider backbones provide sufficient performance and QoS without third-party SD-WAN appliances adding latency or management burden.
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Cloud networking security models (e.g., no traditional perimeters) are flawed for enterprises: Zero-trust assumptions work in theory but complicate compliance, visibility, and east-west traffic inspection compared to on-premises segmented networks.
These views challenge dominant trends toward full cloud adoption and complex interconnects, often rooted in cost surprises, operational realities, and performance trade-offs.
References:
- https://dev.to/aws-builders/cloud-outages-the-unpopular-truth-no-one-wants-to-hear-4enl
- https://www.reddit.com/r/sysadmin/comments/16ydav5/am_i_the_only_one_who_kinda_hates_the_cloud/
- https://www.cloudflare.com/learning/cloud/multicloud-vs-hybrid-cloud/
- https://www.infoworld.com/article/2270528/why-traditional-ip-networking-is-wrong-for-the-cloud.html
- https://cloudviz.io/blog/aws-vpc-peering-vs-transit-gateway
- https://www.reddit.com/r/aws/comments/ynrm9k/transit_gateway_or_vpc_peering_for_crossregion/
- https://blog.ipspace.net/2020/11/why-public-cloud-networking-so-different/
- https://www.networkcomputing.com/cloud-networking/cloud-connectivity-methods-and-myths