The key is that blibbe is talking about switches. Modern switches can process packets at line rate.
If you're working in AWS, you almost certainly are hitting a router, which is comparably slower. Not to mention you are dealing with virtualized hardware, and you are probably sharing all the switches & routers along your path (if someone else's packet is ahead of yours in the queue, you have to wait).
If you're working in AWS, you almost certainly are hitting a router, which is comparably slower. Not to mention you are dealing with virtualized hardware, and you are probably sharing all the switches & routers along your path (if someone else's packet is ahead of yours in the queue, you have to wait).