How does GCP networking differ from AWS networking?
Answer
GCP networking has several architectural differences from AWS. Global VPCs: a single GCP VPC spans all regions; subnets are regional but in the same VPC — no VPC peering needed for inter-regional private communication. AWS VPCs are regional. Global anycast load balancing: GCP's External Application LB uses a single global IP with anycast routing to the nearest healthy backend. AWS requires Route 53 for geo-routing. Google's private network: GCP traffic between regions travels on Google's private fiber backbone, not the public internet. GKE networking: GKE uses VPC-native (alias IP) networking for pods — pods get IP addresses from the VPC subnet, enabling direct routing without NAT overlays. Pricing: GCP charges less for egress between regions compared to AWS. For enterprises with global applications, GCP's networking architecture often simplifies multi-region deployments.