How to Speak Like a Data Center Geek: Networking and Connectivity

Connectivity is so deeply woven into the fabric of everyday life that we largely take it for granted. Life before the internet is a distant memory for most people, and unimaginable to younger generations. For our hyper-connected culture to be possible, businesses and consumers need a way to exchange data, often very quickly and securely. Data centers serve as a vendor-neutral place for this data exchange to happen in real time.

Behind the scenes of our interconnected world, there’s a wealth of technology and infrastructure enabling the information networks we rely on. This includes everything from physical cables, routers and switches to software-defined networking capabilities. Data centers are a vital part of this infrastructure since they’re the physical place where much of this technology lives.

You can think of networking as the lifeblood of a data center. Without it, a data center is just a big building with power and cooling. But when you add connectivity, it becomes animated with the exchange of information that makes the digital world tick. Interconnected networks are operating 24/7/365, transferring data rapidly between parties, enabling the digital economy and our digital lives.

With data centers having a larger presence in the news and in daily conversation, people outside the industry can benefit from understanding them better. Our ongoing How to Speak Like a Data Center Geek series aims to demystify data centers for everyone—especially colocation facilities, since that’s our wheelhouse. While there are many single-tenant, on-premises data centers out there, colocation data centers offer the most connectivity solutions since the proximity of different organizations in a colo facility enables them to interconnect via a variety of physical and virtual services. In this edition of How to Speak Like a Data Center Geek, we define the various connectivity options in a colocation data center that support data exchange between organizations.

Cross connect: A direct physical connection between two parties, typically using fiber cable. Cross connects offer a direct, point-to-point connection, enabling private data exchange within the same data center or data center campus. They’re a great option for situations where companies need low latency, guaranteed bandwidth and high reliability.

Learn more about cross connects and how they contrast with virtual connects.

Metro connect: A dedicated physical connection between different data centers in the same metro area. Metro connects can be used to connect to a partner or customer in a nearby data center, or to connect two deployments for the same customer in different facilities. Like cross connects, metro connects offer low latency and high bandwidth.

Internet: The public global system of interconnected computer networks. The internet is distributed and decentralized, and it can be used to connect businesses with other businesses or end users. The internet is affordable and easy to use but doesn’t offer predictable performance, so it’s not ideal for some workloads.

Learn more about the use of the internet for enterprise connectivity.

Internet exchange: A platform where many internet service providers (ISPs), content delivery networks (CDNs) and other networks interconnect to exchange internet traffic between their networks. Equinix operates its own internet exchanges in 43 metros around the world and houses several third-party internet exchanges, giving customers a wide range of options.

Peering: A mutual agreement between two organizations (usually, ISPs, CDNs, or content providers) to exchange traffic with one another. Public peering occurs at an internet exchange, where many organizations interconnect. Private peering typically uses a dedicated cross connect between the two organizations.

Learn more about peering.

Wide area network (WAN): A network that extends over a large geographic area. Typically, a WAN refers to an organization’s network for connecting employees, customers and partners in different sites. There are several noteworthy technologies commonly used in enterprise WANs. For instance:

• Leased lines from a network service provider (NSP) used to create a private network—sometimes called “dark fiber”
• A packet-switched WAN such as a multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) network, which is a private WAN technology that uses label-based routing
• SD-WAN: A software-defined or cloud-based overlay for private and public connectivity that centralizes network management and can be particularly helpful in multicloud environments
• Internet or VPN-based WAN, leveraging internet-based connectivity and secured by virtual private network devices
• Dedicated cloud interconnects that either physically or virtually provide direct access to major public clouds

Learn three ways to modernize enterprise WANs.

Software-defined networking (SDN): A flexible networking approach that uses software to abstract and centrally control a network’s control plane (the decision-making part) separately from the data plane (where actual data movement happens). With SDN, a programmable controller provides visibility of the network and manages the flow of data to and from devices along the fastest route.

Network as a Service (NaaS): A cloud-delivered model where network infrastructure and services are delivered on a subscription basis. NaaS is closely linked with SDN and offers the benefits of reduced CAPEX, greater agility to scale resources on demand and simplified management.

Equinix Fabric® is our Network as a Service solution that allows companies to connect physical and virtual infrastructure—everything from data centers to clouds, partners and customers.

Learn more about programmable networks.                      

Network functions virtualization (NFV): An approach that involves replacing network hardware like firewalls, routers and load balancers with software running on virtualized servers. The functions that this hardware would traditionally perform can instead run as virtualized network functions (VNFs). While it might be confusing at first, NFV refers to the architectural approach, whereas VNF refers to the actual software implementations of specific functions. Using VNFs can reduce costs and improve flexibility and agility.

Learn about Equinix Network Edge, our VNF as a Service solution.

While much more could be said about the pros and cons of different connectivity options, this list represents the varied connectivity solutions you’ll find inside Equinix data centers. Learn about other data center industry terms by visiting the How to Speak Like a Data Center Geek landing page. And find out the benefits of optimizing your network using Equinix hybrid multicloud networking solutions by downloading our brief Optimize your multicloud networking.