GoGrid became the second cloud services vendor to offer dedicated intramural connections across its network today. Amazon has been offering a somewhat similar service called Direct Connect since August. Called CloudLink, traffic is sent over a private line inside GoGrid’s network, making it useful for disaster recovery and fast data replication uses.
“Prior to using GoGrid’s CloudLink, we could not maintain a consistent and private database replication environment,’ said an early CloudLink customer Manicka Babu, vice president of Engineering at Martini Media, a leading digital media company. “GoGrid’s CloudLink allows us to transfer gigabits of data privately across the US in a cost-effective and easily implemented way.”
GoGrid’s offering differs somewhat from what AWS is doing. First, GoGrid is cloud-to-cloud, AWS goes from a customer’s data center that is co-located in their facilities. Second, they offer up to 1 Gbps connections, although I would expect AWS to boost their capacity over time.
Finally, GoGrid is using a different pricing model than Amazon, and one that is hopefully a bit easier to calculate. The service is based on bandwidth and starts at 10 Mbs for $99 a month and goes to $799 a month for 100 Mbps. You can send as much data through the private pipe during that month as you wish.
