How to Achieve Maximum Enterprise-Network-Cloud Aggregation for Less Cost

We’ve all heard of symbiotic relationships in nature, either with species that can’t live without each other – obligate symbiosis – or those that live together by choice – facultative symbiosis. The same mutually beneficial relationships can also be found where enterprises, networks and clouds reside and work together. From these symbiotic relationships, new mission-critical services have emerged. The Equinix Cloud Exchange is central to this trend as the new interconnect fabric that aggregates connections among the three parties.

Our NSP and CSP customers look to Equinix to help them optimize their CAPEX/OPEX with innovative next-generation interconnection models. Today, many of our largest providers have a myriad of different networks, clouds and customers intersecting at major Equinix metros, and a vast array of cross-connects, platforms and aggregation solutions to support them. NSPs are looking for ways to simplify their interconnection infrastructures and pass on the benefit of greater efficiencies to their customers.

For example, many NSPs have deployed large-edge nodes among our global data center facilities to address the increase in demand for network and cloud connectivity services from their enterprise customers. These network nodes could be delivering any type of network service, such as:

• Internet access platforms
• MPLS provider edge nodes
• As part of a new NFV hub or SD-WAN architecture

Aggregation is beneficial to NSPs, CSPs and the enterprise, because many enterprises, access devices and clouds are meeting at a single edge Network-as-a-Service infrastructure, and over time, many more will be connecting to these networks. Aggregation enables NSPs to offer CSPs and enterprises greater performance and scalability when interconnecting to networks and clouds, at much greater levels of efficiency and less cost.

The tale of two aggregation approaches

Let’s look at two different approaches for aggregating enterprise network traffic.

The first approach, as illustrated below, represents the ad hoc process of connecting customer access routers on a case-by-case basis to the network edge. This is not an efficient way of providing a connectivity service over the long term for NSP because these single connections going through a standard edge router can be costly and difficult to manage.

The alternative approach shown below uses the Equinix Cloud Exchange to provide the necessary aggregation functionality:

This solution affords the NSP a number of significant benefits and efficiencies that it can pass on to cloud partners and enterprise customers:

• Operational Simplicity
  • Multiple virtual connections can quickly be provisioned, aggregated and interconnected to the NSP edge router through a single physical port. An aggregated and colocated access solution gives the NSP significant gains by statistical multiplexing individual customers onto a shared link, reducing the CAPEX on multiple individual connections.
  • This approach provides much more efficient use of infrastructure resources on the edge router and a much greater density of subscribers/customers per network edge node
• Choice and Flexibility
  • NSPs can integrate and operate the Cloud Exchange aggregation solution in line with their existing third-party access supplier processes.
  • The solution and benefits are equally valid for emerging service models that include SDN/NFV and SD-WAN.
  • A carrier-neutral colocation platform enables choice among dense ecosystems of NSPs for peering and CSPs for partnering.
• Cost Savings
  • It reduces the need to deploy costly, low-level aggregation infrastructure.
  • Due to the aggregation design, equipment (line card and port) costs are reduced on the NSP edge router, which is typically an expensive carrier-class router.
  • It can reduce OPEX costs for the total solution.

According to Forrester Research’s “Total Economic Impact™ of Equinix’s Interconnection Oriented Architecture™” report, aggregating the connections among enterprises, networks and clouds via Equinix interconnection solutions such as the Equinix Cloud Exchange, “reduces bandwidth costs by 40% and increases ROI by 300% over three years.”

Creating a data center interconnect fabric via the Equinix Cloud Exchange optimizes and maximizes facultative symbiosis among enterprises, networks and clouds. Read the Forrester Research report on the Total Economic Impact™ of Equinix’s Interconnection Oriented Architecture™ and see how you can transform your IT infrastructure though greater interconnection and reduce costs.