Key Takeaways
What is a NAT gateway, and why is it important for cloud workloads?
A NAT gateway allows workloads in private cloud subnets to access the internet without requiring individual public IP addresses. It translates private source IP addresses into a public IP address for outbound traffic, while preventing unsolicited inbound connections from reaching those workloads.
How do NAT gateway implementations differ across AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud?
All three cloud providers offer managed NAT gateway services, but their implementations differ in deployment, session limits, scalability, and network configuration. Managing NAT gateways across multiple cloud environments can therefore introduce additional operational complexity, particularly as traffic and session requirements increase.
What drives the cost of native cloud NAT gateways?
Cloud providers typically charge for NAT gateway usage, data processing, public IP addresses, and outbound internet data transfer. Depending on the architecture, additional charges such as cross-availability-zone traffic or other networking services may also apply. These usage-based costs can become significant for workloads transferring large volumes of data.
How does Megaport NAT Gateway differ from cloud-native NAT services?
Megaport NAT Gateway runs on Megaport-managed infrastructure outside the cloud provider’s environment. Cloud workloads connect to it through private cloud connectivity, such as AWS Direct Connect, before accessing the internet through Megaport. Instead of metering NAT data processing per gigabyte, Megaport offers a predictable, capacity-based pricing model sized around throughput and session requirements.
How can Megaport NAT Gateway help reduce cloud networking costs?
By moving NAT processing and internet egress onto Megaport’s network, organizations may reduce the usage-based charges associated with native cloud NAT gateways. In the webinar’s AWS comparison, a redundant Megaport NAT Gateway architecture delivered approximately 43% lower monthly costs for the example workload, including AWS Direct Connect charges. Actual savings depend on traffic volumes, cloud regions, and network architecture.
How can organizations design NAT gateway connectivity for resilience and scalability?
Megaport supports NAT Gateway deployments across separate red and blue diversity zones, allowing organizations to build redundant connectivity paths. NAT Gateway capacity can be selected based on throughput requirements ranging from 1 Gbps to 100 Gbps and session requirements ranging from 250,000 to 10 million sessions. Organizations can also consider hybrid designs that retain a cloud-native NAT gateway as a backup path.
What should organizations evaluate before moving to a private NAT gateway solution?
Key considerations include monthly internet-bound traffic volumes, peak throughput, concurrent session requirements, cloud regions, and existing network architecture. Additional services, such as AWS Transit Gateway, may introduce charges that need to be included in the comparison. Understanding these factors helps determine the appropriate gateway size, potential savings, and whether migration is commercially worthwhile.
How is Megaport NAT Gateway deployed and connected to cloud workloads?
The webinar demonstrates provisioning a NAT Gateway through the Megaport Portal, selecting a diversity zone and capacity, adding internet connectivity, and establishing a private connection to AWS Direct Connect. A live test from an EC2 instance in a private AWS subnet confirms that outbound traffic travels through Megaport’s NAT Gateway and internet service rather than AWS’s native internet path.
