AWS’s hidden networking overhaul cuts energy use and costs, but stays under-public radar

A recent visit to an Amazon Web Services networking laboratory showed that the firm has replaced traditional, vendor-heavy networking with a flat, single-tier architecture wired in a near-random pattern, delivering up to 40% better energy efficiency. This approach, now standard for most new AWS data-center builds, relies on commodity hardware and a custom Scalable Intent-Driven Routing (SIDR) protocol to manage the complex routing landscape.

AWS executives, including VP Matt Rehder, confirmed that the cost reductions are largely passed on to users, contributing to the stability of instance pricing even as hardware costs rise. The company also introduced flat-rate pricing for its Interconnect multicloud service, eliminating per-gigabyte fees for traffic to other cloud providers. While AWS excels at keeping these technical advances invisible, the changes have significant implications for cloud economics and network performance. Critics note that competitors may not match this efficiency, and the hidden nature of the work could leave other datacenter builders unaware of the challenges involved.