A virtualized packet gateway for use in a cloud computing environment (110; 220) to process data plane network packets for a cellular network, the virtualized packet gateway being configured to perform operations comprising: receiving an entire copy of an external key-value store (170; 270), wherein the external key-value store (170; 270) comprises bearer details for all current bearers of the cellular network, wherein the bearer details define network flows associated with user equipment (120, 122; 220, 222) using the cellular network and include ownership information that indicates which virtualized packet gateway is currently responsible for processing data plane network packets for each bearer; saving the entire copy of the external key-value store (170; 270) in a local cache; receiving data plane network packets from a load balancer (150; 250); and processing, by the virtualized packet gateway , the data plane network packets by relaying packets to and from the user equipment (120, 122; 220, 222), wherein the processing comprises identifying bearers associated with the data plane network packets in the local cache based on the bearer details in the copy of the external key-value store (170; 270) and relaying packets to and from the user equipment (120, 122; 220, 222) using a bearer identified from the bearer details; wherein if the virtualized packet gateway determines from the bearer details in its local cache that it is not currently responsible for processing data plane network packets for the bearer identified from the bearer details, then the virtualized packet gateway registers itself in the key-value store (170; 270) as responsible for processing data plane network packets for the bearer identified from the bearer details to replace a second virtualized packet gateway that was the previous owner. receiving an entire copy of an external key-value store (170; 270), wherein the external key-value store (170; 270) comprises bearer details for all current bearers of the cellular network, wherein the bearer details define network flows associated with user equipment (120, 122; 220, 222) using the cellular network and include ownership information that indicates which virtualized packet gateway is currently responsible for processing data plane network packets for each bearer; saving the entire copy of the external key-value store (170; 270) in a local cache; receiving data plane network packets from a load balancer (150; 250); and processing, by the virtualized packet gateway , the data plane network packets by relaying packets to and from the user equipment (120, 122; 220, 222), wherein the processing comprises identifying bearers associated with the data plane network packets in the local cache based on the bearer details in the copy of the external key-value store (170; 270) and relaying packets to and from the user equipment (120, 122; 220, 222) using a bearer identified from the bearer details; wherein if the virtualized packet gateway determines from the bearer details in its local cache that it is not currently responsible for processing data plane network packets for the bearer identified from the bearer details, then the virtualized packet gateway registers itself in the key-value store (170; 270) as responsible for processing data plane network packets for the bearer identified from the bearer details to replace a second virtualized packet gateway that was the previous owner. <EOS>