These days, we can’t imagine our world without the Internet. Connectivity is a vital aspect of the modern world as it gives us great simplicity. But have you ever thought about how large corporations store critical data over the Internet? The data center facilities are designed to house applications and data in a specific virtual environment. The massive demand for data storage makes data centers provide high connectivity. Today, we are going to take a look at the data center connectivity meaning, as well as discover its benefits.
Data center connectivity at the glance
Data center interconnect (DCI) is a part of the networking market needed to link several data centers. Specific data center connectivity technology is typically used to create a network to share resources within a few facilities. There are some DCI options, and which type is better to choose depends on a few factors. It includes the location of data centers facilities, the distance between them, capabilities of local service providers, security concerns, and requirements for availability and bandwidth.
Interconnection ensures enterprises support business continuity and disaster recovery strategies. With the growth of Internet traffic, DCIs are essential to reach scaling infrastructures and improve the performance of day-to-day operations. Apart from that, modern private cloud providers needed more DCIs for better data moving from one data center system. As for public cloud vendors building high-scale data centers, the demand for DCIs is rapidly increasing since more bandwidth and capacity are required.
Benefits of data center connectivity
Datacenter interconnection offers several good advantages. First, sharing information appears more secure at the expense of more robust traffic encryption. DCIs allow businesses to ensure performance by applying the quality of service and other significant policies. Since DCIs tend to support multiple connection types, companies can be more flexible in allocating their workloads. Moreover, DCIs allow organizations to share virtual and physical resources across several sites. This way, businesses can make network infrastructure load more balanced if needed.
Types of data center interconnection
1. Cross-connect
Cross-connect is a specific physical link that connects separate units of facilities in a data center. In other words, this is a direct connection between two hardware assets within data centers. Cross connects are needed to connect different services, customers, or applications.
2. Inter-site connectivity
This type of connectivity is commonly used to establish a virtual or physical connection between two data centers. Inter-site connectivity allows the reduction of link failures and load balance.
3. Peering exchange
It is a specific marketplace that enables ISPs to connect and exchange IP traffic. This type of connectivity improved the end-user experience via the best network route.
4. Blended IP
This solution incorporates several connectivity options for ISPs to ensure a single effective connection. With the ability to get a reliable single Internet connection, the highest data transfer speed is guaranteed.