In this study, a Smart Network Interface Card (SmartNIC)-based architecture that uses a field-programmable gate array (FPGA) to secure cloud traffic before it enters a provider’s infrastructure was explored. The growing reliance on cloud computing has introduced significant privacy concerns, as cloud administrators may retain access to sensitive tenant data despite existing access controls. To address this, a software-defined model was developed to evaluate how the system establishes keys, encrypts data, and forwards packets of different network sizes. The architecture offloads encryption, encapsulation, and forwarding to an externally managed FPGA accelerator, keeping user data outside the administrative domain of the cloud provider simulation. The results demonstrate predictable key negotiations, stable encrypted-forwarding, and strong scalability across all test scenarios. The findings of this study suggest that FPGA-accelerated SmartNICs can offer an effective and practical path for improving cloud-data privacy without relying on computationally heavy cryptographic techniques.