f.a.q.
You have questions. wE have answers.
"The scientist is not a person who gives the right answers, he's one who asks the right questions."
Claude Levi-Strauss
Cloud traffic & Computing
First of all, a GIG.Tech PoP is is what we call a G8. See our concepts documentation for more information.
GIG value proposition is to deliver private or public cloud services through Edge Cloud. G8's are deployed and operated by GIG.Tech Partners or directly by customers.
For example: Kapsch (www.kapsch.net) is a Technology Partner of GIG.Tech that delivers public cloud services based on the GIG Cloud-as-a-Service.
You may deploy your own G8's (private or public and offer SaaS services) and/or deploy SaaS services anywhere in the world through GIG.Tech Partners.
A GIG customer gets a dedicated Cloudspace in a G8. Container orchestration is deployed in this dedicated way in a dedicated customer Cloudspace. Concerns related to noisy neighbours are avoided this way. GIG doesn’t over-subscribes the number of subscribers per G8 like most Data Center providers currently do. This is a key differentiator of GIG versus traditional Data Centers: no overprovisioning on bandwidth, on memory or on disk size. GIG provisions CPU by only x 4, or an improvement in performance by a factor of 2 to 3. Customers decide the level of over-provisioning of the G8 directly or or in agreement with the GIG partner.
The maximum spec is 1 VM with 256 GB RAM and 56 Vcores
We are evaluating both technologies and will implement in a first phase GPU for Artificial Intelligence (AI) / Machine Learning (ML). Both are roadmap items that can be discussed for acceleration if needed.
We currently don’t support this.
Storage
We currently offer block storage directly attached as disks to VM’s. We can tune the quality of discs this way and omit the complexity of current centralized cloud offerings where disk types need to defined upfront. GIG allows the same disk to be modulated in line with needs. This lowers costs of discs through a software-based approach.
S3 will be integrated as a standard offering in 2020.
The maximum amount of storage in one G8 system is 1.6PB. The HW specifications can be adapted based on commercial needs of a specific use case.
GIG uses automatic tiering. All hot data is automatically cached on SSD and all cold on HDD. This doesn’t need to be managed by the customer.
This is current possible for S3 with Minio. We cannot yet tier at this moment for block devices to lower tiers than HDD. GIG’s block storage does however lower the cost of transferring all the data to Glacier. In addition, the storage system provides anti-bitrot practices, preventing deterioration of data over time.
Connectivity & Latency
GIG doesn’t decide the bandwidth.
GIG can engineer the latency based on the locations of the nodes and how they are interconnected. This can result in lower overall bandwidth needs.
One GIG node can handle 2 X 40 Gbps, so use cases are not limited to low bandwidth use cases. If more bandwidth is needed, more nodes can be added to the G8. So, there is no limitation to the bandwidth. It is a trade-off between locations and capacity per node.
It would indeed work as is expressed above. However the BICS subscription would be reduced, since there is no longer a need for international peering. With the cloud services now running at your premise, in the case of Private Cloud, or at the closest Technology Partner POP, Public Edge Cloud, compute, storage and operational needs are handled locally in an Edge Cloud.
Bottomline: expensive peering links are no longer needed with applications deployed near locations where capabilities are needed. Public Cloud runs now locally on Edge Cloud PoPs.
As mentioned above, the current configuration is 2 X 40 Gbps (fully redundant, active-active) and even 4 X 40 Gbps is possible.
If it is needed for you to provide upgrades to > 100 Gbps then this is also possible.
Medianova is one of our strategic solutions partners we work with for CDN. We are also open to discuss alternative options.
Location
GIG offers a Edge Cloud POPs through its Technology Partners in the following countries:
Belgium, Austria, Switzerland, Germany, Mauritius, South Africa, Uganda, Rwanda, Nigeria, Russia, Mexico, Brazil, India
Pricing
GIG only charges based on usage. We develop and operate the platform, and we charge licenses based on the usage of our software. Usage is calculated based on the consumption of units ( See /docs/cloud-units-and-billing/) on a monthly basis. A customer can buy and own a G8 directly or work through a GIG.Tech partner.
This means that there is no upfront investment in software licenses for your cloud! For a detailed simulation of pricing, we recommend working together in order to fine-tune solution (private versus public) and locations of G8 capabilities. The GIG G8 SW requires tested and validated form factors. See /solutions/#predefinedconfigs
GIG provides cloud capacity through its Technology Partners. We provide free testing support for Cloudspace capacity to familiarize our customers with our environment and to support them with easy onboarding tools and help. The needs of GIG customers come first. GIG is happy to have an open discussion related to pricing and commercials T&C.
GIG disrupts current complex pricing practices through a simple pricing based on usage per month as per the Pricing in attachment. Based on our current market intelligence, GIG offers pricing that is 35% more competitive than AWS and Google Cloud for longer term commercial commitments. For private edge cloud (where a company installs a G8 on premise), GIG offers rates that are 25% more competitive than traditional on-premise solutions. A price simulation can be made available to you based on compute/storage needs in specific locations.
GIG breaks away from traditional pricing rules of “cheap in” in order to make lots of money on “expensive out”. GIG operates a distributed, scalable Cloud-as-a-Service model that disrupts centralized data-hungry cloud models.
In the new Cloud-as-a-Service paradigm “You bring the network” and “We provide the cloud anywhere”. GIGs business model is not based on margins from HW or network. GIGs business model is based on a distributed cloud paradigm (through partners and directly) where customers are only charged for effective usage as explained under Point 3.
GIGs core pricing principles are:
No hidden cost: License fees are simple and all inclusive
GIG application automation framework included
GIG direct customers or Technology Partners only pay for what is used
Hybrid Cloud
Nothing needs to be installed in the current DC. By enabling GIG API’s in your pipeline and application orchestration SW, EVS applications can now also run on GIG Edge Cloud infrastructure. GIG provides Ansible modules and Terraform providers for easy integration. Ansible modules are also used to automatically create Kubernetes clusters on a G8.
Availability
This depends on our partner that runs the G8 POPs. GIG doesn’t host POPs directly. For example Kapch runs a Tier III data center.
The hosting provided by GIG distributors is around $0.5/VM/Month, hence the overall impact is low.
It is also important to stress the availability of GIG nodes in general. G8 nodes are power redundant and network redundant. This enhances protection against DC and network failures.