Hybrid multicloud is the preferred way for enterprises to balance priorities around performance, flexibility, scalability, security, compliance and cost-efficiency. A hybrid multicloud architecture allows businesses to pick the best environment from the best provider for each individual workload.
The value of hybrid multicloud is clear, but achieving that value can be difficult. For one thing, multicloud networking can be incredibly complex. It requires stitching together diverse environments to ensure data sets can move freely. Network service providers, software vendors and even the cloud providers themselves offer services to address this complexity. However, these offerings have limitations, including lack of agility, inability to scale globally, performance and security issues, and potentially higher costs.
For years, Equinix has been helping our customers simplify multicloud networking. We offer a vendor-neutral platform, connecting customers to multiple clouds without favoring one over the others. In fact, Equinix is home to more cloud on-ramps than any other digital infrastructure company, allowing customers to integrate with all major cloud providers. These on-ramps are available in markets throughout the world, giving customers the global reach they need.
Equinix Fabric®, our virtual networking solution, allows customers to quickly set up connections across their hybrid multicloud architecture and then change those connections as needed. Virtual connections on Equinix Fabric can be used alongside cloud adjacent data storage to offset the challenges of cloud adoption, including the potential for high data egress fees and vendor lock-in.
Introducing Equinix Fabric Cloud Router
While many customers are already using Equinix Fabric in their multicloud networking strategy, we recognized there was demand for a solution optimized to support a wider range of multicloud use cases. That’s why we’re excited to announce the launch of Equinix Fabric Cloud Router, a new virtual routing service included as a built-in component of Equinix Fabric.
Compared with a physical router deployment, Fabric Cloud Router offers lower cost, improved ease of use, and much faster deployment. Customers can now establish private Layer 3 connections to multiple cloud providers on demand. They can then join those connections into a single routing domain for greater visibility and control, and automate connections to change as their business requirements change.
The new service is available everywhere Equinix Fabric is— 58 global markets and counting—so customers can expand multicloud networking anywhere the need arises. In short, Fabric Cloud Router is the optimized multicloud networking solution so many enterprises have been searching for. It supports the following use cases:
Cloud-to-cloud: Enterprises have typically hair-pinned traffic through their nearest data center. This data center could be far from the closest cloud availability zone, creating significant latency. Now, with Fabric Cloud Router, enterprises can eliminate hair-pinning by routing directly between local cloud availability zones, reducing network latency and eliminating the need to deploy physical routers.
Hybrid cloud: Enterprises need to run applications across different public and private cloud environments. With a networking solution that interconnects all those environments, they can easily manage the flow of data across applications while minimizing cost and complexity.
Customers who use Fabric Cloud Router can expect the following benefits:
Easy multicloud access: With a hassle-free Fabric Cloud Router deployment, customers can benefit from our cloud adjacency and neutrality by spinning up virtual routing in minutes. With a service-based model, customers can also remove network limitations that slow data integration and mobility across clouds.
High-performance networking: Customers can establish and manage private connections for high bandwidth (up to 50 Gbps per connection coming soon), reliable networking between clouds. This removes the need to use the public internet to access cloud services. Unlike the internet, Equinix Fabric offers proven performance benefits and keeps your data on a private network. And since Fabric Cloud Router supports high aggregate throughput and faster connections, customers can run larger workloads between clouds without sacrificing performance.
Reduced costs: By deploying virtually, customers can shift from a CAPEX to an OPEX model, removing the expenses of hardware, licensing, and redundant routers. This means they pay only for the capacity they need. As their networking needs shift between cloud environments and providers, customers will be able to manage those changes cost effectively. Additionally, using private connections can lower data egress fees, thus ensuring businesses can move data between clouds without considering costs.
Technical capabilities of Fabric Cloud Router
To simplify multicloud networking, Fabric Cloud Router offers the following capabilities:
Ensure resilience: Fabric Cloud Router includes built-in redundancy to help ensure high availability. When customers create redundant cloud connections, Equinix Fabric automatically assigns diverse network paths, and the Fabric Cloud Router is distributed across diverse underlying hardware. This makes it simpler to create and manage high-availability services and prevents the user from having to deploy redundant virtual routers to get the level of resiliency included with a single Fabric Cloud Router instance.
Additionally, Fabric Cloud Router uses a distributed data plane (or forwarding plane) with discrete primary and secondary hardware and software at each connection point. This allows the service to forward traffic without having to pass it through a centralized routing device. In contrast, some market alternatives use a centralized data plane that requires traffic to return to the cloud router before continuing to its destination.
Remove routing limitations: Since Fabric Cloud Router utilizes the same hardware as Equinix Fabric, it doesn’t have the limitations that come with services that run in virtualized environments. Specifically, each router supports hundreds of Gbps of aggregate throughput and can support many virtual connections. This makes it a more scalable solution: You get the capabilities you need without having to deploy more routers to increase capacity.
Transfer data at high bandwidths: The aggregate throughput capabilities of Fabric Cloud Router allow it to support many 10 Gbps virtual connections without impacting routing performance. Beginning this month, we’re expanding availability of 25 Gbps virtual connections to nearly all Equinix Fabric markets. We’re also enabling additional markets with 50 Gbps connections and activating 15 more Google Cloud on-ramps supporting 20 and 50 Gbps cloud connectivity. Support for these higher bandwidth options is coming soon to Fabric Cloud Router, enabling even greater scalability for your multicloud and hybrid cloud designs.
Extend multicloud networking with IP WAN: Using built-in IP WAN capabilities, customers can create a multipoint Layer 3 network to support distributed cloud services across different markets globally. They can set up multiple routers in different markets and use multipoint IP WAN connectivity to join them into a single routing domain. This helps simplify configuration and enable faster provisioning of networking services to new cloud regions or expanded markets.
Deploying hybrid edge infrastructure with AWS Outposts
AWS Outposts is an on-premises extension of an AWS Availability Zone and its associated Region. It allows customers to use familiar tools and APIs to deploy applications on the same hardware used in AWS Regions. AWS deploys this managed infrastructure into a customer data center or colocation site; the customer must provide connectivity back to AWS.
Customers can connect the AWS Outposts rack with Equinix Fabric and provision Fabric Cloud Router for Layer 3 connectivity with the nearest AWS on-ramp. This solution delivers low-latency cloud connectivity and high performance for demanding edge workloads. Because Fabric Cloud Router is integrated into Equinix Fabric, customers don’t have to worry about supply chain delays. Instead, they can deploy virtual cloud routers and begin routing traffic within minutes.
Try our free Lab package
Fabric Cloud Router comes in several service packages to meet a range of customer needs. This includes our free Lab package, which offers up to 10 virtual connections with 50 Mbps bandwidth for each connection. You can start using the Lab package today to evaluate Fabric Cloud Router and build proofs of concept.
Visit us today to learn more or get started.
Subscribe to the Equinix Blog