Network Performance Between Geo-Isolated Data Centers. Testing Trans-Atlantic and Intra-European Network Performance between Cloud Service Providers

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1 Network Performance Between Geo-Isolated Data Centers Testing Trans-Atlantic and Intra-European Network Performance between Cloud Service Providers Published on 4/1/2015

2 Network Performance Between Geo-Isolated Data Centers INTRODUCTION Cloud Spectator was commissioned by Interoute to gauge network performance between European data centers, as well as between Western Europe and the Eastern United States. Cloud service providers (CSPs) Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and Rackspace were also included in the study for comparison. Cloud infrastructure performance is a key consideration that should not be overlooked; differences in performance outputs of virtual machines across the industry make it hard to compare across IaaS providers in a standardized manner by simply examining features and/or pricing. For certain uses cases when hosting workloads in the cloud, the network performance specifically can be a key bottleneck in the overall user experience. Network throughput and latency are the two main attributes to examine when testing network performance. The throughput determines how quickly users can send data across the network, which is important when sending large amounts of data between servers. Latency determines the delay between two servers communicating, highly impacting user experience for real-time communications. Key Considerations Due to the variability in attributes between different CSPs such as data center locations and product sizing, the following limitations should be considered while examining the study. The Trans-Atlantic and Intra-European comparisons were based on comparably located data centers due to the limited data center locations available from the CSPs. Different network routes between data centers can result in longer overall distances data must travel between servers, resulting in higher latencies and reduced throughput. The scope of the study focuses specifically on the networks between provider data centers and does not take into account the use of content delivery networks (CDN) Data collection from testing occurred at different times of day across the providers (see Methodology for details). The results may reflect variability in performance related to network congestion during the time of testing. To increase the sample size for more accurate results, Cloud Spectator is continuing the testing over the course of one year. 2

3 NETWORK PERFORMANCE SUMMARY For this study, Cloud Spectator defined network performance as throughput and latency. Trans-Atlantic network performance and Intra-European network Network Performance Key Findings: Interoute: highest network throughput in European and Trans- Atlantic testing Interoute: lowest network latency in both Europe and Trans-Atlantic performance were tested for 5 days. INTRA-EUROPEAN NETWORK PERFORMANCE Amazon Web Services, Interoute Virtual Data Center and Microsoft Azure Comparison Of the selected CSPs, only Amazon, Azure and Interoute have multiple data center locations in Europe. Amazon has data centers in Europe in Ireland (Dublin) and Germany (Frankfurt); Azure has data centers in Europe in Ireland (Dublin) and the Netherlands (Amsterdam); Interoute s geographically comparable data centers in Europe are in the UK (London) and the Netherlands (Amsterdam). The aforementioned EU data centers were chosen for the Intra-European network testing. Provider data centers were chosen based on options that were closest to London and Amsterdam. Intra-Europe Testing Locations Europe DC #1 Europe DC #2 London Dublin Amsterdam Frankfurt Interoute X X Amazon X X Azure X X Table 1: Data Center Locations of Selected CSPs 3

4 Mbit/s Milliseconds (Round Trip Time) Network Throughput (Europe) Higher is Better Network Latency (Europe) Lower is Better Interoute Amazon Azure 0 Interoute Azure Amazon Cloud Service Provider Cloud Service Provider Bar Chart 1: Network Throughput of Interoute, Amazon and Azure. Throughput is the rate at which data is transferred Interoute had better throughput by up to 73% Bar Chart 2: Network Latency of Interoute, Amazon & Azure. Latency is the delay between sending & receiving data Interoute had better latency by up to 74% I European Network: Throughput and Latency (see charts above) Network testing revealed that Interoute achieved 52% and 73% higher throughput between its London data center and Amsterdam data center compared to the respective network performance between Amazon s Frankfurt and Ireland data centers and Azure s Amsterdam and Ireland data centers. For network latency, Interoute was observed as having 74% and 71% less latency compared to Amazon and Azure. The network latency between Interoute s data centers in Amsterdam and London is less than half of Amazon and Azure s latency; however, Azure s network connection is slightly further, stretching from Amsterdam to a location in Ireland, while Amazon is furthest, stretching between Ireland and Frankfurt. Interoute s lower latency and higher throughput indicate strong network interconnects between its Amsterdam London data centers. Users running geographically dispersed environments (e.g. geo-redundant environments or geographically distributed big data clusters) would benefit most from high performance networks 4

5 Mbit/s Milleconds (Round-Trip Time) TRANS-ATLANTIC NETWORK PERFORMANCE Trans-Atlantic network testing utilized VMs within data centers located in the eastern United States and Western Europe. Provider data centers were chosen based on options that were closest to New York and London. The US data centers chosen were those located in New York and Virginia; the European data centers chosen were those located in Ireland and London. Transatlantic Testing Locations North America Europe New York Virginia Ireland London Interoute X X Amazon X X Azure X X Rackspace X X Table 2: Data Center Locations of Selected CSPs Network Throughput (Trans-Atlantic) Higher is Better Network Latency (Trans-Atlantic) Lower is Better Interoute Amazon Rackspace Azure Interoute Amazon Rackspace Azure Cloud Service Provider Cloud Service Provider Bar Chart 3: Trans-Atlantic Network Throughput of CSPs Throughput is the rate at which data is transferred Interoute had better throughput by 96%-195% Bar Chart 4: Trans-Atlantic Network Latency of CSPs Latency is the delay between sending and receiving data Interoute had better latency by 14%-21% 5

6 Trans-Atlantic Network: Throughput and Latency (see charts above) Comparing with the network throughput of the European data centers within the same region, trans-atlantic throughput was noticeably lower and latency significantly higher. Interoute demonstrated between 96% to 195% higher throughput compared to Amazon, Azure and Rackspace. Interoute again showed the lowest latency amongst the providers tested, offering 14-21% less latency than the US-based providers who exhibited similar levels of latency. The distance between endpoints was likely a deciding factor in the latency differences. Interoute s London New York route was the shortest of the trans-atlantic testing, followed by Rackspace s London Virginia, then Amazon and Azure s Ireland Virginia routes. 6

7 Conclusion The purpose of the study was to examine network performance between European data centers, as well as the trans- Atlantic network performance between Western Europe and the eastern United States. Network performance was examined because the network is one the key components affecting user experience for customers. The throughput of a network will determine how much time it takes a user to transmit data between their servers, while the latency will determine how much delay the user will experience in communicating between their servers. Users want to be able to transfer large amounts of data quickly, with as little delay as possible. The study revealed that Interoute had the higher network throughput and lower latency in European testing compared to Azure, making it a good option for users operating servers within the region. For the European network testing, Interoute s London Amsterdam had the best network throughput, as well as lowest latency. When focusing on a trans-atlantic connection between data centers, Interoute provided the highest throughput, which would make it a good choice for geographically redundant backups. Interoute also provided the best latency ideal for financial trading and other real-time communication use cases. Further Study Cloud Spectator is continuing to monitor the network connections from this study over a period of one year. The duration of the study is intended to examine the variability of network performance over time. Additional studies may include other network connections and additional tests for measuring network performance. External network performance, relative to public Internet outside of the data center networks, will be examined in a separate study commissioned by Interoute. The goal of the external network study is to determine the end user experience of accessing hosted applications and data from their own locations. Multiple end user nodes will be established in various cities across the world to test the network performance between the nodes and comparable European CSP locations. 7

8 ABOUT CLOUD SPECTATOR Cloud Spectator is a cloud analyst agency focused on cloud Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) performance. The company actively monitors 20+ of the largest IaaS providers in the world, comparing VM performance (i.e., CPU, RAM, disk, internal network, and workloads) and pricing to achieve transparency in the cloud market. The company helps cloud providers understand their market position and helps businesses make intelligent decisions in selecting cloud providers and lowering total cost of ownership. The firm was founded in early 2011 and is located in Boston, MA. 8

9 METHODOLOGY TESTING OVERVIEW Cloud Spectator conducted the network performance testing in two stages based on the test location. First, Cloud Spectator identified two different endpoints for setting up servers within each region, based upon available data center locations from the providers. Cloud Spectator then provisioned virtual machines (VMs) of equivalent size across each provider before installing and running the selected network tests. TESTS USED Test Category Description Iperf Throughput Transfers data bi-directionally between 2 nodes within 120 seconds, measured in megabits per second. TCP Ping Latency Sends a signal back and forth between 2 nodes to measure roundtrip delay, measured in milliseconds. ABOUT THE VMS All VM sizes were matched by Cloud Spectator, standardized as closely as possible with vcpus. All VMs ran Linux Ubuntu operating systems. Client Machines INTEROUTE AWS AZURE RACKSPACE OFFERING NAME N/A m3.xlarge A(3) Performance2-15 vcpus MEMORY IN GB Peer Machines INTEROUTE AWS AZURE RACKSPACE OFFERING NAME N/A m3.xlarge A(3) Performance2-15 vcpus MEMORY IN GB

10 TEST LOCATIONS Intra-European Trans-Atlantic Provider End Point 1 End Point 2 Interoute Amsterdam London Amazon Frankfurt Ireland Azure Amsterdam Ireland Provider End Point 1 End Point 2 Interoute London New York Amazon Ireland Virginia Azure Ireland Virginia Rackspace London Virginia DATA COLLECTION The data used in the charts shown in the study was collected between 3/19/2015 and 3/23/2015. A single data point was collected each day from testing and then averaged to represent the performance value achieved by each provider Moving forward in future editions of the study, the data will be sampled on a weekly basis over a period of several weeks in order to capture variability in long-term use. 10