Topology-aware routing: balancing cost savings and reliability, with William Morgan


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Jan 21 2025 44 mins   13

In this episode, William Morgan, CEO of Buoyant, explores the complex trade-offs between cost optimization and reliability in Kubernetes networking. The discussion focuses on Topology-aware routing and why its implementation might not be the silver bullet for managing cross-zone traffic costs.

William shares practical insights from real-world implementations and explains why understanding these trade-offs is crucial for platform teams managing multi-zone Kubernetes clusters.

You will learn:

  • How Topology-aware routing attempts to reduce cross-zone traffic costs but can compromise reliability by limiting inter-zone communication

  • Why Layer 7 load balancing offers better traffic management through protocol awareness compared to topology-aware routing's Layer 4 approach

  • How HAZL (High Availability Zonal Load Balancing) provides a more nuanced solution by balancing cost savings with reliability guarantees through intelligent traffic routing

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This episode is sponsored by Learnk8s — get started on your Kubernetes journey through comprehensive online, in-person or remote training.

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