2017 was an exciting year for the bigger players in the cloud hosting arena.
- Both Linode and DigitalOcean upgraded their network capacity.
- OVH opened new data centres in Germany and the UK.
- Bytemark launched an automated backup service for their cloud server platform.
- My own hosting provider, Memset, launched a new OpenStack region in their wholly-owned Dunsfold data centre. They also launched block storage for VPS and rebranded their product range to be more “cloud.”
With all these improvements in cloud hosting, I thought it would be interesting to focus on a key metric of hosting providers that many overlook: network speed.
Most modern cloud hosting providers give your dedicated server or VPS a 100Mbps or 1Gbps network connection. But how close can you actually get to that speed?
TL;DR
The results table is shown below, sorted by the fastest average speed. Read on for more details and how the test was executed.
The winning cloud hosting provider and product based on network speed alone is: Memset OpenStack.
| Provider | Download speed | Download time | Network speed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Memset OpenStack – IPv4 only | 72.2 MB/s | 14 s | 577.6 Mbps |
| Linode – IPv4 | 65 MB/s | 15.33 s | 520 Mbps |
| DigitalOcean – IPv4 | 57.2 MB/s | 18.33 s | 457.6 Mbps |
| Linode – IPv6 | 55.95 MB/s | 17.5 s | 447.2 Mbps |
| Bytemark – IPv4 | 49.13 MB/s | 17.67 s | 393.04 Mbps |
| Memset VPS – IPv4 | 43.8 MB/s | 23 s | 350.4 Mbps |
| Memset VPS – IPv6 | 39.13 MB/s | 26 s | 313.04 Mbps |
| Bytemark – IPv6 | 35.4 MB/s | 28.67 s | 283.2 Mbps |
| Brightbox – IPv4 | 29.47 MB/s | 34.67 s | 235.76 Mbps |
| OVH Public Cloud – IPv4 | 29.0 MB/s | 35s | 232 Mbps |
| DigitalOcean – IPv6 | 22.47 MB/s | 45.67 s | 179.76 Mbps |
| Brightbox – IPv6 | 17.4 MB/s | 62 s | 139.2 Mbps |
| Google Cloud Platform – IPv4 only | 2966 KB/s | 372 s | 23.72 Mbps |
The Test
I’ve conducted this test using the same specification virtual/cloud server (or as close as I can get to being equal) with the cloud hosting providers below.
- Brightbox
- Bytemark
- DigitalOcean
- Google Cloud Platform
- Linode
- Memset (Cloud VPS and OpenStack)
- OVH (public cloud)
The hardware specifications are:
- 4GB allocated RAM
- 2 or 4 CPU cores
- Ubuntu Server 16.04.3 LTS (fully patched, created using provider-supplied image)
The test is a simple one: use cURL to download a large file (1GB) from a location on the public Internet to the server. The output was redirected to /dev/null to prevent disk I/O from influencing the results.
Some of the cloud hosting providers featured in the Great Big Cloud Hosting Speed Test, such as Linode and DigitalOcean, provide their own large file to test their network. To be fair to all providers, I have used an independent 1GB file provided by ThinkBroadband.
I repeated the test 3 times with a 1-minute gap between runs, and recorded each time. The average of all 3 runs gave the result.
Detailed Results for Cloud Hosting Providers
Brightbox
Brightbox is a small outfit that host in Manchester, UK. They split services across 2 data centres that are linked by dark fibre. Customers can choose which data centre (zone) their services are located in.
Brightbox operates both IPv4 and IPv6 capability, although IPv6 appeared consistently slower.
Website: www.brightbox.com
Data centre: Zone A
| Provider | Run 1 – speed | Run 1 – time | Run 2 – speed | Run 2 – time | Run 3 – speed | Run 3 – time | Average speed | Average time |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brightbox – IPv4 | 34.1 MB/s | 29 s | 30.5 MB/s | 33 s | 23.8 MB/s | 42 s | 29.47 MB/s | 34.67 s |
| Brightbox – IPv6 | 19.7 MB/s | 51 s | 11.7 MB/s | 86 s | 20.8 MB/s | 49 s | 17.4 MB/s | 62 s |
Bytemark
Bytemark are another small outfit, employing around 40 people in York. However their size hasn’t stopped them competing with the big players. In fact, it makes them more preferable because they are more attentive to customers.
Bytemark operate their own, purpose-built data centre in York. They are completely transparent about any fault or issue that may befall them.
They operate their own 10GB fibre “ring” between London, York, Leeds and Manchester. Their core network runs both IPv4 and IPv6 natively.
Website: www.bytemark.co.uk
Data centre: York (YO26)
| Provider | Run 1 – speed | Run 1 – time | Run 2 – speed | Run 2 – time | Run 3 – speed | Run 3 – time | Average speed | Average time |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bytemark – IPv4 | 51.7 MB/s | 15 s | 52.7 MB/s | 15 s | 43.0 MB/s | 23 s | 49.13 MB/s | 17.67 s |
| Bytemark – IPv6 | 39.2 MB/s | 26 s | 33.1 MB/s | 30 s | 33.9 MB/s | 30 s | 35.4 MB/s | 28.67 s |
DigitalOcean
DO are one of the bigger players in the market. Funded by venture capital, they have built a platform that matches or exceeds competitors who have been around for years.
DO operate 12 data centres across the globe, which are now inter-connected using their own backbone network.
Website: www.digitalocean.com
Data centre: London
| Provider | Run 1 – speed | Run 1 – time | Run 2 – speed | Run 2 – time | Run 3 – speed | Run 3 – time | Average speed | Average time |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Digital Ocean – IPv4 | 50.6 MB/s | 20 s | 48.1 MB/s | 21 s | 72.9 MB/s | 14 s | 57.2 MB/s | 18.33 s |
| Digital Ocean – IPv6 | 25.5 MB/s | 40 s | 22.9 MB/s | 44 s | 19.0 MB/s | 53 s | 22.47 MB/s | 45.67 s |
Google Cloud Platform
The most surprising result in the test came from Google. GCP is advertised as the cloud platform that utilises Google’s core infrastructure.
With Google being such a giant in the tech industry, it is particularly surprising they don’t yet fully support IPv6. GCP supports IPv6 terminated on load balancers, but not full IPv6 to and from the servers.
Additionally, the download speed of the servers is severely crippled, leaving GCP firmly at the bottom of the list.
Website: cloud.google.com
Data centre: London (europe-west2)
| Provider | Run 1 – speed | Run 1 – time | Run 2 – speed | Run 2 – time | Run 3 – speed | Run 3 – time | Average speed | Average time |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GCP – IPv4 | 2263 KB/s | 7m 43 s | 3921 KB/s | 4m 27s | 2715 KB/s | 6m 26s | 2966 KB/s | 6m 12s |
Linode
Linode were one of the first companies specialising in Linux-only virtualisation. Since launching in 2003, they have expanded to 9 data centres across 3 continents.
In 2015, Linode were the subject of a massive DDoS attack. Following the attacks, Linode have overhauled their global network to give them more control of their bandwidth. The results are evident – Linode hold 2nd and 3rd place in my speed test.
Note: the third IPv6 download failed with a network time out, therefore the average is based on 2 results.
Website: www.linode.com
Data centre: London
| Provider | Run 1 – speed | Run 1 – time | Run 2 – speed | Run 2 – time | Run 3 – speed | Run 3 – time | Average speed | Average time |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Linode – IPv4 | 61.7 MB/s | 15 s | 64.3 MB/s | 15 s | 63.6 MB/s | 16 s | 65 MB/s | 15.33 s |
| Linode – IPv6 | 58.0 MB/s | 17 s | 53.9 MB/s | 18 s | N/A | N/A | 55.95 MB/s | 17.5 s |
Memset
Memset have 2 hosting products in this speed test – Cloud VPS and Cloud IaaS (OpenStack.)
They are a small business based in Cranleigh, Surrey, set up in 2002. They were one of the first UK providers to bring VPS to the mass-market with their “miniserver” product.
I chose Memset as my preferred hosting provider in 2016 because of their forward-thinking and small-business approach.
Website: www.memset.com
Data centre: Dunsfold
| Provider | Run 1 – speed | Run 1 – time | Run 2 – speed | Run 2 – time | Run 3 – speed | Run 3 – time | Average speed | Average time |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Memset VPS – IPv4 | 50.0 MB/s | 20s | 41.4 MB/s | 24s | 40.0 MB/s | 25s | 43.8 MB/s | 23s |
| Memset VPS – IPv6 | 32.5 MB/s | 31s | 41.6 MB/s | 24s | 43.3 MB/s | 23s | 39.13 MB/s | 26s |
| Memset OpenStack – IPv4 | 80.2 MB/s | 12 | 59.3 MB/s | 17s | 77.1 MB/s | 13s | 72.2 MB/s | 14s |
OVH
If you’re looking for hosting on a budget, look no further than OVH.
Using innovative solutions such as containerised data centres (“a data centre in a box”), OVH are able to offer significantly lower prices. My personal experience however, is that customer support isn’t always top of their priority list.
OVH offers a public cloud built on OpenStack. Choose between France, Canada and now Germany, Poland or the UK.
Website: www.ovh.com
Data centre: UK
| Provider | Run 1 – speed | Run 1 – time | Run 2 – speed | Run 2 – time | Run 3 – speed | Run 3 – time | Average speed | Average time |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| OVH Public Cloud – IPv4 | 28.9 MB/s | 35s | 29.0 MB/s | 35s | 29.1 MB/s | 35s | 29.0 MB/s | 35s |
Want to see another provider featured in the Great Big Cloud Speed Test? Get in touch and I’ll see what I can do!