Connecting on demand

London-based datacentre service provider, Virtus, has launched new Connectivity-on-Demand service that adds the well-known and widely available ability to cloudburst services on a (close to) cost-per-use basis.

Available from its LONDON1 facility, the service allows customers to increase or decrease their committed interconnect bandwidth on short notice, or to use IP transit based on a totally flexible ‘consumption only’ based model.

The company says it recognises that demand for infrastructure based services is more dynamic and flexible than ever before, and that Connectivity-On-Demand enhances the portfolio of ‘carrier neutral’ connectivity services it offers IT and Cloud Service providers, Enterprise IT and Media customers. This, it suggests, provides them with flexible connectivity options designed to meet their business requirements and align their revenues with their overheads.

Connectivity-On-Demand services offer significant benefits and cost savings compared to the standard connectivity model which ties customers into fixed contract terms  of typically three year’s duration. The company suggests that these contracts normally offer no possibility to shorten the term or flex the bandwidth without incurring very heavy costs due to cancellation of the service.

Connectivity-On-Demand works differently offering flexibility and cost savings to both interconnect and IP transit users while maintaining SLAs and high quality connectivity. Interconnect users can adjust their bandwidth commitment up and down on a monthly basis giving them an opportunity to exactly match their varying bandwidth requirements and achieve significant cost savings. IP transit users will pay only for actual consumed bandwidth billed in arrears, rather than committed in advance. There are no burst charges and the higher the actual consumed bandwidth the lower the unit charge.

The portfolio of Connectivity-On-Demand services matches up with the company’s CoLo-On-Demand service. This is a usage-only based colocation product that allows a customer to scale up or down the amount of colocation services they want to use and pay for on a daily basis, with a contract cancellation notice of just one day.