Introducing Private Network Interface (PNI) on AWS: Lower Kafka Networking Costs by 50%

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Introduces Private Network Interface (PNI) on AWS as a new private networking option for Confluent Cloud, designed to reduce networking costs and enhance security. PNI leverages AWS Elastic Network Interfaces (ENIs) for secure, low-latency, high-throughput connectivity directly within the customer's VPC. It eliminates the cost-security trade-offs of VPC peering and PrivateLink by offering centralized security policy enforcement, freedom from IP address management, and reduced data transfer costs. The post details cost savings achieved through PNI on both Enterprise and Freight clusters, with specific examples showing significant reductions compared to PrivateLink. It also highlights the elimination of cross-AZ networking costs and reduced data transfer/processing fees as key drivers of these savings. A case study with Indeed illustrates the practical implementation and benefits of PNI and Freight for cost-efficient and secure data infrastructure.