Optimize AWS Network Performance Across Microservices and Databases

Overview

Modern cloud architectures rely heavily on efficient networking. Whether you’re running microservices on Amazon ECS/Amazon EKS, databases on Amazon RDS, or hybrid workloads connected to on-premises systems, network performance directly impacts end-user experience.
This blog offers a comprehensive guide to enhancing latency, throughput, and security across AWS environments by utilizing the optimal AWS networking services and configurations.

Introduction

In distributed and hybrid cloud architectures, network latency and throughput play a crucial role in application performance.
High-latency connections, slow cross-region communication, inefficient routing, or overloaded security layers often become hidden bottlenecks. The goal of this guide is to help architects and DevOps teams optimize AWS network behavior using proven AWS-managed services.

Use Cases and Scenarios

Organizations typically encounter networking issues in scenarios like:

• Applications are facing slow response times due to inefficient routing or internet-based paths
• Microservices running across AZs or regions with intermittent spikes in latency
• Hybrid workloads using VPN connections with inconsistent throughput
• Global applications are struggling with content delivery delays
• Amazon EKS or Amazon EC2 workloads are facing packet drops or node communication delays

The following sections map these scenarios to the most effective AWS services.

Major AWS Services Used for Network Optimization

Throughout this blog, we will use several AWS services, such as:

• Amazon VPC
• AWS Transit Gateway
• AWS Global Accelerator
• Amazon CloudFront
• AWS Direct Connect
• Amazon S3 Transfer Acceleration
• Amazon VPC Endpoints
• Application Load Balancer (ALB)
• Amazon Route 53
• Amazon RDS Proxy
• AWS Network Firewall
• ENA, EFA, Enhanced Networking

Each service addresses specific bottlenecks around latency, throughput, or network security.

Network Latency Testing

Before optimizing, you must accurately measure network performance.
These tools help evaluate round-trip latency, throughput, and percentile-based response times:

1. Gatling

• Automatically provides P50, P95, P99 latency metrics
• Ideal for load & stress testing backend services

2. k6

• Developer-friendly scripting
• Integrates with CI/CD
• Suitable for continuous monitoring

3. Apache JMeter

• Mature and widely adopted
• Excellent for scenarios with large-scale user simulations

4. Browser Developer Tools

• Useful for front-end performance checks
• Helps measure TTFB, DNS lookup time, and server response behaviors

AWS Optimization Topics

1. Latency Optimization Scenarios

• Slow Amazon S3 Access from Amazon EC2 (Public Internet Path)

Service: Amazon VPC Gateway Endpoint
Solution: Utilize the Amazon S3 Gateway VPC Endpoint to ensure that Amazon EC2-to-Amazon S3 traffic remains within AWS, thereby improving performance and security.

• High Latency Between EC2 Instances Across AZs

Service: Cluster Placement Groups
Solution: Place compute nodes in a Cluster Placement Group to achieve low-latency, high-bandwidth communication in the same AZ.

• Cross-Region Application Slowness

Service: AWS Global Accelerator
Solution: Routes traffic through AWS Global Network instead of the public internet, improving speed and reliability.

• Global User Base Facing API Delays

Service: Amazon CloudFront
Solution: Use Amazon CloudFront caching at edge locations to minimize round-trip time.

• Unstable On-Prem ↔ AWS Connectivity

Service: AWS Direct Connect
Solution: Provides dedicated, deterministic connectivity vs unreliable VPN-based routes.

• Latency Between EKS Pods Across Nodes

Service: Amazon VPC CNI + ENA
Solution: Enable enhanced networking with ENA for better packet-per-second performance and reduced jitter.

• Application Delay Accessing Amazon RDS

Service: Amazon RDS Proxy
Solution: Reduces the overhead of opening/closing DB connections; lower connection latency improves overall performance.

• Multi-Region Database Replication Latency

Service: Amazon Route 53 Latency-Based Routing
Solution: Routes users to the nearest region, improving read/write performance.

• Load Balancer Slowness During Traffic Spikes

Service: ALB with Cross-Zone Load Balancing
Solution: Prevents uneven load distribution and reduces local latency.

• Slow Access Between Private Subnets in Different VPCs

Service: AWS Transit Gateway
Solution: Provides high-bandwidth, simplified routing for multi-VPC communication.

2. Throughput Optimization Scenarios

• Amazon EC2 Data Transfer Bottlenecks

Service: Elastic Network Adapter (ENA)
Solution: Enable ENA for throughput up to 100 Gbps.

• Slow File Uploads/Downloads to Amazon S3

Service: Amazon S3 Transfer Acceleration
Solution: Improves speed for global users by routing traffic through the AWS edge network.

• Throughput Drop in Hybrid Architectures (VPN)

Service: Accelerated Site-to-Site VPN
Solution: Boosts throughput using AWS global backbone.

3. Security-Driven Network Optimization

• External Exposure of Private APIs

Service: AWS PrivateLink
Solution: Expose services privately, reducing latency and eliminating internet paths.

• Latency Caused by Heavy Security Inspections

Service: AWS Network Firewall
Solution: Centralized inspection reduces per-flow latency in multi-VPC architectures.

• Latency Spikes During Heavy Traffic

Service: ALB with Auto Scaling
Solution: Auto-scaling infrastructure ensures consistent performance during spikes.

• Amazon EKS Pods Dropping Packets Under Heavy Compute Load

Service: Elastic Fabric Adapter (EFA)
Solution: Ideal for HPC, ML, and analytics workloads needing low-latency node communication.

Conclusion

AWS offers a rich ecosystem of services to significantly improve network performance across latency, throughput, and security dimensions.

When combined with proper testing tools like Gatling, k6, and JMeter, teams can baseline performance and continuously validate improvements.

Drop a query if you have any questions regarding AWS Network Performance and we will get back to you quickly.

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