Don’t Let the Networking Layer Lock You in to a Hyperscaler

Networking is a supporting function—it is rarely part of business logic, but can still act as a hard limit when it comes to portability across environments. Especially in cloud-native architectures, organizations use networking rudimentals such as VPCs, Transit Gateways and other native appliances to get their workloads communicating.

These native cloud networking architectures create lock-in through abstractions that appear standard but implement proprietary behaviors underneath. For example, an AWS VPC defines network segments using AWS-specific routing tables, network ACLs, and security groups that employ unique rule formats and processing logic that cannot be directly replicated on other platforms.

External connectivity is another example, where Internet Gateways, NAT Gateways, and Site-to-Site VPN Connections require AWS-specific routing configurations that must be completely redesigned when connecting to non-AWS infrastructure. Hyperscalers even provide proprietary load balancers, AWS Elastic Load Balancing.

From Hyperscaler Native to Open Source Networking

Using open source and third-party tooling you can architect networking in a portable way—one which allows for consistent policy definitions across environments.

For example, secure connectivity can be established using open-source VPN solutions such as WireGuard or OpenVPN, which create encrypted tunnels that function consistently across different infrastructures. Alternatively, IPsec implementations like strongSwan or Libreswan provide enterprise-grade security through standard protocols, enabling secure communication between any compatible endpoints.

Open-source load balancing solutions provide enterprise-grade capabilities without vendor dependencies. NGINX offers exceptional performance for HTTP/HTTPS traffic with comprehensive features including SSL termination, keepalive connection management, request routing, and sophisticated health checking. Its configuration model translates consistently across environments and provides transparency into traffic processing that proprietary services often obscure.

HAProxy excels in both TCP and HTTP load balancing scenarios, offering detailed metrics, high-availability configurations, and advanced traffic management features that rival or exceed hyperscaler offerings. Both solutions can be deployed on standard Linux servers with automatic scaling capabilities that adapt to traffic patterns without vendor-specific orchestration requirements.

Migrating to an Open-first IaaS Provider

By implementing networking architectures based on open standards and open-source tools, organizations position themselves to take advantage of innovative infrastructure providers that prioritize interoperability and avoid proprietary lock-in. 

Platforms like NetActuate's infrastructure services, built on open-source networking technologies, integrate seamlessly with standards-based network architectures, demonstrating how avoiding hyperscaler networking lock-in enables access to more diverse and potentially cost-effective infrastructure options.

Get the eBook

Learn more about building extending DevOps pipelines using open source tooling, along with all the other common infrastructure and service setups used by cloud-native organizations in our eBook: Architecting for Openness: A Guide for Avoiding Hyperscaler Lock-in.

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