On AWS Networking

Something interesting came up on HN: https://miparnisariblog.wordpress.com/2023/03/29/aws-networking-concepts/

This blog post depicts all AWS Networking concepts on a single mind-map form. The diagram is necessarily a bit complicated to look at, but spend some time on it clears up and everything seems to add up. A direct link to the same diagram: https://lucid.app/lucidchart/3272773d-cc55-4742-a91b-e21610fbbcd0/view?page=0_0

The HN discussion is here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36823516

As always, HN comments get you to other nice things. In this case:

1. A simpler look at the state of things: https://grahamlyons.com/article/everything-you-need-to-know-about-networking-on-aws (this has all the essentials, but much more simpler to approach)
2. Apparently, Managed NAT service from AWS is one of the costliest money sinks. The alternative seems to be using your own manually setup NAT'ting VM, which will of course not be as reliable.
3. A follow up to the above point: https://www.lastweekinaws.com/blog/an-alternat-future-we-now-have-a-nat-gateway-replacement/. In summary: the idea is to use a Lambda function to periodically health-check the manually setup NAT machine and in case of downtime, use the Managed NAT service for the few minutes it takes to bring back the manual NAT machine. This means that you do pay the flat cost for the Managed NAT, but save on the per GB costs - which the blog claims adds up to a large amount.
4. Just from the comments on HN, not all concepts have been capture here. Case in point: Lattice and WAN. Who knows how many more services AWS has in this space…
5. This website: https://www.lastweekinaws.com/. The blogs seem to be interesting.

While we are on this topic, I should also point out the recent NSDI'23 paper Invisinets from Berkeley which tries to reduce all this complexity - though it is unclear if it will work like intended.