But this wasn’t a singular complaint. It was a consistent frustration across the higher ed community, and Internet2 NET+ was intent on making sure it didn’t remain one, raising the concern to AWS.
Gerard Shockley, director of IT at Boston University, has been working with Transit Gateway since 2018 and has been advocating for better cost visibility for almost as long.
“When Transit Gateway came out, I asked for two things: to make it free for higher education, and give us observable metrics across attachments,” Shockley recalled. Free wasn’t on the table, but AWS began considering ways to improve visibility into Transit Gateway usage.
Shockley’s individual advocacy for change was not having the desired impact.
Making the Case, Together
Shockley wasn’t alone. Starting in 2021, institutions like Carnegie Mellon, Northwestern, the University of Colorado, and the University of Utah raised this issue through Internet2 NET+ AWS, a community of AWS and Cloud Infrastructure Community Program (CICP) subscribers who meet bi-weekly to discuss shared learning and challenges.
The group’s request was consistent: give us the ability to attribute Transit Gateway costs to the accounts using the service, not just to the organization that owns the service.
AWS listened. In November 2025, they released Flexible Cost Allocation for Transit Gateway, allowing administrators to direct network traffic costs to the source or destination account when appropriate. The feature supports granular configuration down to individual flow levels, enabling precise, consumption-based chargeback models.
Chris Manly, program manager of Cloud Infrastructure and Platform Services at Internet2, has seen the budget reality behind these challenges firsthand, pointing out stark differences between higher ed and corporate environments while highlighting the benefits of a service provider that listens.
“It’s often a frustrating reality in higher ed that budgeting and financial frameworks preclude the best technical architecture,” Manly said. “Flexible cost allocation allows schools to use the best technical approach without needing to compromise due to budget constraints.”
Unlike commercial environments where centralized infrastructure costs often come from a single budget, In higher ed –especially for externally funded research – costs need to flow back to the department or grant that generated them. When you can’t do that, you’re left choosing between good architecture and workable finances.
Transit Gateway cost allocation removes that tradeoff.
As Kevin Murakoshi, principal solutions architect at AWS and lead technical resource for the NET+AWS community, points out, “A whole feature was released because of the Internet2 community advocacy,”. It came from years of sustained conversation between AWS and the higher ed community through the NET+ AWS program during which institutions articulated the same need and documented the demand.
As an ongoing effort to refine the flexible cost allocation feature, the team at Boston University is currently evaluating it and will provide useful feedback to the AWS service team. Shockley notes that being part of the NET+ AWS community and working with AWS has been a seamless experience and that seeing the community’s feedback turn into real product improvements makes the effort worthwhile.
The success of this feature launch is a testament to the power of the NET+ program. By bringing together institutional experts and vendor partners like AWS, the community ensures that cloud services are optimized for the unique needs of research and education.
Join the community that turns feedback into features and institutional change.
Your institution’s challenges shouldn’t be a casual sigh or another “just the way it is.” Add your voice. Shape the tools your institution depends on.. For CICP subscribers, this is a clear example of participation turning into influence.