Google Cloud claims it will be the first major public cloud vendor to offer a tiered cloud network.
In a blog post, Prajakta Joshi, product manager for cloud networking, said Google Cloud Platform now allows users to choose the Premium Tier or the cheaper Standard Tier.
Urs Hölzle, SVP of technical infrastructure at Google explained: "You enjoy the same infrastructure with Premium Tier. But for some use cases, you may prefer a cheaper, lower-performance alternative. With Network Service Tiers, you can choose the network that's right for you, for each application."
The main difference between the Premium Tier and Standard Tier is the former uses Google Network to deliver outbound traffic, which is what organisations using the Google Cloud Platform currently have.
The Standard Tier is less expensive since it delivers the traffic from the Google Cloud Platform over the public internet instead.
Additionally, inbound traffic will only use the Google Network when it comes from the region in which a user's Google Cloud Platform resides. If the traffic comes out of this region, it will have to travel via the public internet first.
In terms of pricing, outbound traffic is priced 24-33 percent lower in the Standard Tier for North America and Europe. Inbound traffic is free for both of the tiers. Google uses different pricing models for the two offerings, which can be seen here. Premium tier prices are based on the traffic's source and destination whereas standard tier pricing is based on where the source is.
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