Partner POV | 7 Scenarios Where Private Connectivity Beats the Internet

Article contributed by, Nicholas Hollings, Global Principal Solution Architect, Equinix. 

Data is a vital resource in modern business, and companies have a wide variety of networking options to help them put that data to work. Those choices can positively or negatively affect business operations, costs, security, and customer and employee experiences.

Widespread use of the internet as an enterprise networking solution isn't surprising, given that it's inexpensive and widely available. However, there are situations where the internet isn't the best tool for the job and more specialized solutions are needed. In such cases, companies need to explore alternatives that offer better performance, security and observability.

Private connectivity solutions like dedicated cross connects and virtual interconnection can provide guaranteed bandwidth, low latency and more predictable performance than the internet, as well as enhanced security and privacy. This can be especially important for companies in heavily regulated industries like healthcare and finance that have sensitive data they must protect.

Whether you're connecting physical infrastructure or digital assets, it's important to understand when a workload could benefit from private connectivity. Let's take a closer look at seven scenarios in which private connectivity solutions can provide better outcomes than the internet.

1. When you need to create resilient physical availability zones

When companies are designing their networks for resiliency, they're often concerned with how to protect themselves against the complete failure of one facility. Geo-redundancy, or putting infrastructure in different geographical regions, is one component of a business continuity strategy. But you can further increase resiliency with local redundancy in the same data center or metropolitan area. In larger metros with a campus of connected data centers, you can deploy in multiple facilities and use campus cross connects for high-speed networking between them. With this strategy, you're essentially creating a physical availability zone with independent power, cooling and networking infrastructure to maximize resiliency. A financial services company, for instance, might deploy in multiple data centers in each metro to ensure payment services continue to run even in the event of a failure in one facility.

2. When you need to privately exchange data with ecosystem partners

Connectivity to business partners, service providers, suppliers and vendors is essential. If the data you're exchanging with partners includes sensitive information, you can't risk exposure on the internet. Moreover, the internet sometimes isn't reliable enough for mission-critical data exchange, since it doesn't offer performance guarantees. Private interconnection solutions provide stable, consistent, high-speed connectivity that reliably delivers transactional throughput when it matters. For example, large banks that need to connect with hundreds or thousands of mortgage brokers in real time can use virtual, private interconnection to securely connect with brokers while ensuring regulatory coverage.

3. When you need to connect two or more data centers

As the world pivots toward data- and AI-driven outcomes, it's increasingly important for companies to be able to connect large data hubs. Data gathered and stored in silos isn't very useful, and you can waste a lot of time and resources provisioning dedicated links that don't scale well. Using on-demand private interconnection services for data center interconnect allows you to have your cake and eat it too. With access to high bandwidth between data centers, you can replicate or migrate data with ease, as well as keep important compute hubs connected.

4. When you need to augment your MPLS backbone

Multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) is a longstanding, trusted technology for enterprise networking, but large companies may be motivated to augment their MPLS backbone to address costs, flexibility, scalability or network resiliency. If you're looking to create network redundancy or simply add capacity to satisfy project requirements, private connectivity solutions can help. Private connections with clouds and service providers, as well as private data center interconnect, can complement MPLS networks and increase business agility and resiliency. Plus, with a virtual networking solution for your secondary or tertiary network, you can spin up new connections quickly.

5. When you need network aggregation hubs

When moving data from one network to another, it often makes sense to create an aggregation hub that allows you to deploy network observability and security functions. You might do this to satisfy security and regulatory requirements, or it may be a result of needing to aggregate traffic between regions. For instance, a retailer onboarding a new acquisition could quickly connect their networks using an interconnection hub, without having to overhaul any existing networks. Building dedicated hubs in multiple regions can help defray costs and meet obligations. In private data centers, you can place high-speed, high-capability infrastructure at the network hub to meet your security, regulatory and privacy requirements.

6. When you need better multicloud connectivity

Most enterprises use multiple clouds and SaaS solutions, and need to efficiently connect them while meeting performance requirements. The internet can lead to an inferior user experience, but private connectivity provides better visibility, consistency and performance, enabling best-in-class user experiences.

7. When you want to optimize cloud costs

In the cloud, everything has a cost, including moving data between systems. When people think of egress, they're typically focused on the cost of internet access or data leaving the network. In reality, the aggregate costs across the data chain from database to user are often orders of magnitude higher. Instead of just using the internet to transfer data out of the cloud, you can implement dedicated, privately owned infrastructure to optimize egress costs. For instance, a SaaS provider might consolidate some network and security functions using private connections to reduce duplicate costs in their cloud service.

Explore private connectivity at Equinix

Colocation facilities, which focus on bringing together business ecosystems and serving as a neutral place for partners to exchange value, offer a wide range of private connectivity solutions. At Equinix, you can find physical and virtual private connectivity solutions to address unique scenarios that aren't well served by internet connectivity. These include:

• Cross connects for point-to-point fiber connection between partners and service providers in the same Equinix data center, or between buildings or floors on the same campus
• Equinix Fabric for on-demand, software-defined connection between partners and service providers including clouds, SaaS solutions, network services and more
• Equinix Network Edge virtual network functions that can be deployed instantly to support flexible, scalable network services