How Fast is Your Cloud | Virtual Data Centre | VDC

How fast is your cloud?

In a world obsessed with speed; we know the lift won’t come any faster when we repeated push the call button, but we do it anyway because we can’t stand to waste those seconds it takes to arrive.

With our cloud services, you'll be keeping good company

We are conditioned to expect everything to be faster, better and cheaper. Impatience is the new 21st century virtue. Cloud computing is no different, so what makes a fast cloud and what more importantly do we want to avoid for fear of being in the slow lane.

There are two factors that dictate the speed of your cloud provider. The first is how much of those shared resources are dedicated to you? The economics of Cloud Computing are that the smart operator will make more money if it can get everyone to use as much of your computing and storage resources without contending them, thereby, guaranteeing performance. How do you know they have sufficient resources? In short generally you don’t. A sensible SLA and a track record in serving the right kind of customers is another way to get a solid level of confidence.

Whilst most operators should be able to control contention the second and generally less controllable factor for many providers is the network that your cloud computing uses and the network you use to get to your computing and storage. Network and general traffic transfer can also be source of hidden cost so getting a reliable and moreover predictable connection is crucial to a cost effective and speedy solution.

The internet is increasingly a fairly predictable “super highway” so long as you are on the highway and not on a side road so check your providers connectivity! Some do offer direct access but as most cloud providers don’t have a network of their own they’ll either try to play down it’s significance or charge you extra every time you want to make a direct connection (after all they’re getting charged by the network provider so they need to pass that cost on).

A better option for a scalable and high capacity cloud are providers who are able to carry more of that traffic across network they control and preferably can use technologies like MPLS to secure traffic allowing for private cloud security but with public cloud convenience. In simple terms if they have a big expansive network with big connectivity to the major content providers not only is your cloud computing experience predictable but also in the case of public solutions your customers experience is that much better.

Interoute has a track record of supporting enterprises with over a million connected users reliant on critical services. Interoute’s VDC is a combination of Interoute’s own Fibre Optic, Ultra Low latency network (as used algorithmic trading houses where a few milliseconds advantage can make millions when shares are traded). With over 250 interconnect partners globally operating in over 80 countries VDC is as close to your business as it needs to be. So if you’re looking for a cloud that built for speed then start with the fastest network. VDC the Cloud starts here.