Definitions
Cloud egress glossary for FinOps readers
Updated
Shared vocabulary so compares do not mix Internet egress with NAT processing or origin fill.
- Egress / data transfer out
- Bytes leaving a cloud provider boundary toward the Internet or another region/provider — metering varies by product. Egress vs ingress · S3 vs R2 · AWS vs GCP
- Ingress
- Bytes entering a provider; often free, but still verify processing or load-balancer charges. Egress vs ingress · NAT vs IGW
- Cross-AZ (cross-zone) transfer
- Data movement between availability zones in a region; common HA tax. Cross-AZ vs cross-region
- Cross-region transfer
- Data movement between regions; usually priced above cross-AZ. Cross-AZ vs cross-region · AWS vs GCP egress
- NAT Gateway processing
- Per-GB charge for traffic traversing a managed NAT — distinct from Internet egress. NAT vs Internet Gateway · Calculator Mode B (NAT)
- Internet Gateway (IGW)
- VPC component for public-subnet Internet routing without NAT processing fees. NAT vs Internet Gateway
- Origin fill / origin egress
- Bytes pulled from origin storage/compute when a CDN cache misses. CDN origin fill estimator · Calculator Mode C (origin)
- Cache hit ratio (CHR)
- Share of requests or bytes served from cache; drives origin egress estimates. CDN origin fill estimator · Vercel Blob vs R2
- Path template
- PipeToll term: a normalized traffic shape (who→where→SKU) used before comparing $/GB. Compare hub · Methodology
- Unknown until verified
- PipeToll label for rates not yet cited to a dated provider source — no invented numbers. Methodology
- Triple-charge pattern
- Educational stack of hourly + per-GB processing + Internet egress (classic NAT lesson). NAT vs Internet Gateway · Calculator Mode B (NAT)
- FinOps-lite
- Lightweight cost education and estimators — not a full FinOps platform or committed-use broker. About PipeToll · Cloud egress calculator
- VPC endpoint (gateway / interface)
- Private path to AWS services without NAT Internet hairpins — gateway (prefix) or interface/PrivateLink (ENI). Fees differ from NAT. VPC endpoints vs NAT · NAT vs IGW
- S3 Transfer Acceleration
- Edge-accelerated transfers to/from S3 — distinct meter from standard Internet DT-out. Transfer Acceleration vs Internet
- Multi-CDN
- Two or more CDNs in front of one origin; model CHR and origin fill per lane. Multi-CDN origin fill · CDN origin fill
- Free-tier cliff
- Point where complimentary egress/bandwidth allotments end and list $/GB begins — model explicitly. AWS free-tier cliff · Multi-cloud free-tier cliffs