One signal

AWS Direct Connect is adding flat-rate pricing for dedicated 10 Gbps and 100 Gbps connections, replacing variable data-transfer charges within the chosen pricing tier with one fixed monthly fee.

Why it matters

The pricing covers five geographic scopes, from same-metro connections to global coverage, and is available at Direct Connect locations in commercial AWS Regions, excluding China. AWS says customers can switch a connection between billing modes, giving network and FinOps teams a little more room to tame unpredictable bandwidth bills. The new model also introduces optional port-pairs: two connections on separate devices or locations, with one carrying traffic and the other standing by for resilience. The second connection is included at no extra charge, although the arrangement is recommended rather than mandatory. Predictable cloud networking is not glamorous, but neither is discovering that a busy month has quietly eaten the budget.

Discuss: Does fixed pricing make dedicated cloud links easier to budget, or will the geographic tiers and bandwidth commitments simply move the complexity elsewhere?

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