Over the last year, and very feverishly over the past five months, we’ve been working on a really big project: a revamp of the Linode plans and our hardware and network – something we have a long history of doing over our past 11 years. But this time it’s like no other. These upgrades represent a $45MM investment, a huge amount of R&D, and some exciting changes.
SSDs
Linodes are now SSD. This is not a hybrid solution – it’s fully native SSD servers using battery-backed hardware RAID. No spinning rust! And, no consumer SSDs either – we’re using only reliable, insanely fast, datacenter-grade SSDs that won’t slow down over time. These suckers are not cheap.
40 Gbps Network
Each and every Linode host server is now connected via 40 Gbps of redundant connectivity into our core network, which itself now has an aggregate bandwidth of 160 Gbps. Linodes themselves can receive up to 40 Gbps of inbound bandwidth, and our plans now go up to 10 Gbps outbound bandwidth.
Processors
Linodes will now receive Intel’s latest high-end Ivy Bridge E5-2680.v2 full-power server-grade processors.
New Plans
We’ve doubled the RAM on all Linode plans! We’ve also aligned compute and outbound bandwidth with the cost of each plan.
In other words, the number of vCPUs you get increases as you go through the plans. And on the networking side, Linodes are now on a 40 Gbit link, with outbound bandwidth that also increases through the plans. Inbound traffic is still free and restricted only by link speed (40 Gbps).
| Plan RAM | SSD | CPU | XFER | Outbound Bandwidth |
Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Linode 2G | 48 GB | 2 cores | 3 TB | 250 Mbps | $0.03/hr | $20/mo |
| Linode 4G | 96 GB | 4 cores | 4 TB | 500 Mbps | $0.06/hr | $40/mo |
| Linode 8G | 192 GB | 6 cores | 8 TB | 1 Gbps | $0.12/hr | $80/mo |
| Linode 16G | 384 GB | 8 cores | 16 TB | 2 Gbps | $0.24/hr | $160/mo |
| Linode 32G | 768 GB | 12 cores | 20 TB | 4 Gbps | $0.48/hr | $320/mo |
| Linode 48G | 1152 GB | 16 cores | 20 TB | 8 Gbps | $0.72/hr | $480/mo |
| Linode 64G | 1536 GB | 20 cores | 20 TB | 10 Gbps | $0.96/hr | $640/mo |
| Linode 96G | 1920 GB | 20 cores | 20 TB | 10 Gbps | $1.44/hr | $960/mo |
And in case you missed it, we announced hourly billing recently, too.
Availability
All new Linodes will be created exclusively on the new Linode Cloud, using the new plan specs and on the new hardware and network.
Likewise, existing Linodes can upgrade free of charge via the “Pending Upgrades” link on your Linode’s Dashboard (bottom right), however there are some temporary availability delays while we work through getting hundreds of more machines in the pipeline:
| New Linodes | Upgrade Existing 64-bit | Upgrade Existing 32-bit | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fremont, CA | Yes | Yes | ETA 2 months |
| Dallas, TX | Yes | Yes | ETA 2 months |
| Atlanta, GA | Yes | Yes | ETA 2 months |
| Newark, NJ | Yes | Yes | ETA 2 months |
| Tokyo, JP | Yes | ETA 3 weeks | ETA 2 months |
| London, UK | ETA 1 week | ETA 1 week | ETA 2 months |
Linodes that have configuration profiles that reference 32-bit kernels will need to wait while we ramp up 32-bit compatible availability. If you don’t want to wait, you can check out our switching kernels guide, or redeploy using a 64-bit distribution.
Also, new Linodes created on the new Linode cloud can only deploy 64-bit distributions, of which we support all popular versions. If you have a special need for legacy bitness, please open a support ticket and we’ll do our best to accommodate you.
TL;DR
Linode = SSDs + Insane network + Faster processors + Double the RAM + Hourly Billing
In conclusion………
HELL YEAH!
This is the largest single investment we’ve made in the company in our almost eleven year history. We think these improvements represent the highest quality cloud hosting available, and we’re excited to offer them to you. We have always been committed to providing upgrades for our customers and are excited about continuing our focus on simplicity, performance, and support.
Thank you for your continued loyalty and for choosing us as your cloud hosting provider.
Enjoy!
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