ExpressRoute

ExpressRoute – Worth the Cost?

What is ExpressRoute?

Recently, Microsoft announced .ExpressRoute, which, similar to our private patching, creates a private layer 2 connection between the cloud and on premise infrastructure for more streamlined data access, end-to-end private IP and greater portability, as well as a more consistent networking experience. But, for ExpressRoute customers, it comes with a hefty price tag, leaving one to wonder – is it worth it?

Maybe not.

Microsoft’s solution overall is quite expensive. A 10GigE port with ExpressRoute costs $5,000 – and that’s goes up to $10,000 per month from 1st July. Customers not only have to pay for the line to an appropriate Equinix data center if they aren’t already there (this extra line is not included in the quoted price) and pay the exchange fee, but then Microsoft also charges for outbound data traffic over a certain (relatively low) threshold. This threshold equates to only about 10 percent line utilization on outbound traffic. This means ExpressRoute is realistically only for those spending tens of thousands of dollars in the public cloud to be at all proportionate to their requirements and budget.

What is the Alternative?

In comparison, we launched our private patching technology in June 2013. It allows customers to connect their own infrastructure directly to the private networks within CloudSigma’s cloud as a faster layer 2 connection. To use it, customers only have to pay for the port fee. So, for 10GigE, it’s typically less than $500 per month with CloudSigma – a 90 percent savings over Microsoft ExpressRoute. There are no other charges and we don’t charge for any usage based data fees. After all, it’s the customers’ data. Thus, they should have complete control over it and not worry about being “locked in” to their cloud provider.

What’s more, we actually refund up to 20 percent of customers’ cloud spend to fund their colocation costs if they take advantage of our hybrid hosting offering. This makes it a cost effective model for enterprises at any scale. This, coupled with the lack of deployment restrictions that we offer our customers, makes running one environment between public and private infrastructure significantly easier for companies. Our competitive entry point for our hybrid cloud and private patching offerings means such options are not just for those at the enterprise level.

At CloudSigma’s core, we are in the business of furthering innovation. We do this by making the cloud easier to access for companies worldwide. We take a different approach than other providers to offer a reliable, flexible solution to customers and lower our prices through cloud efficiency gains. Further, we offer comprehensive support options and customizable cloud compute options. We strive to make a cloud that melds to customer requirements, not the other way around.

Happy computing!

Robert

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About Robert Jenkin

Robert is a Co-Founder and CEO of CloudSigma along with his long-time friend Patrick Baillie. Robert & Patrick had a vision for a different style of cloud focused around customer requirements not computing frameworks created by the service provider; an open environment where end-users could define their infrastructure in a highly flexible way with little or no restrictions, just like they were used to doing in their own private environments. Their shared vision was the genesis of CloudSigma in 2009 in Zürich, Switzerland and as with many great things, it began life sketched out on a napkin! Robert previously has experience in early stage venture capital and corporate finance in the City of London. Robert is a graduate in Economics from Cambridge University.