How Much Pipe Do You Need?
When ordering a Direct Connect connection, you choose between two consumption models based on your bandwidth needs and budget.
1. Dedicated Connection
You get an entire physical port on the cloud provider's router, reserved exclusively for you.
- Available speeds: 1 Gbps, 10 Gbps, or 100 Gbps.
- How it works: The cloud provider provisions a physical port on their router in the colocation facility. You run a cross-connect cable from your equipment to that port. The full capacity of that port is yours.
- Virtual Interfaces (VIFs): On a dedicated connection, you can create multiple Virtual Interfaces — logical subdivisions of the physical link. A Private VIF connects to a VPC. A Public VIF connects to AWS public services (like S3) without going through the internet. A Transit VIF connects to a Transit Gateway.
- Pros: Maximum capacity, full control, ability to run multiple VIFs for different purposes.
- Cons: Expensive (port fees plus cross-connect fees), longer lead time (the cloud provider must provision the physical port), minimum commitment is the full port speed.
2. Hosted Connection
A Direct Connect Partner (companies like Verizon, AT&T, Equinix, Megaport) maintains a large dedicated connection to the cloud provider. They subdivide that capacity and sell smaller slices to customers.
- Available speeds: As low as 50 Mbps, up to 10 Gbps, in flexible increments.
- How it works: The partner already has the physical infrastructure in place. You contract with the partner, they provision a logical slice of their connection for you, and you accept it in the cloud console.
- Pros: Much faster setup (days instead of weeks/months), lower cost for lower bandwidth needs, flexible — you can increase or decrease capacity more easily.
- Cons: You share the underlying physical hardware with other customers (though your bandwidth allocation is guaranteed). You are limited to one VIF per hosted connection.
Choosing between them:
| Criterion | Dedicated | Hosted |
|---|---|---|
| Speed options | 1G, 10G, 100G | 50Mbps – 10G |
| Setup time | Weeks to months | Days |
| Cost | Higher | Lower |
| VIFs per connection | Multiple | One |
| Best for | Large enterprises, maximum control | SMBs, flexible bandwidth needs |
Key Point: Dedicated connections offer maximum control and capacity for large enterprises with predictable, high-bandwidth needs. Hosted connections offer flexibility and lower cost for organizations that need less bandwidth or want faster provisioning. Both provide the same core benefit: bypassing the public internet.