On Demand Interconnect to Equinix Fabric
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In this guide:
Overview + Demo
Customer applications
Service details
Creating a connection
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Overview
On Demand Interconnect (ODI) allows customers to connect to Equinix Fabric locations directly from the Colt On Demand platform, via a fully automated real time SDN interconnect.
ODI allows customers that are on the Equinix Fabric to seamlessly connect to 1100+ data centres and 32,000+ enterprise buildings that are directly connected to the Colt fibre network to provide a simplified end-end network experience.
Customers can interconnect to the Equinix Fabric in Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Paris, London, Hong Kong, Singapore and Tokyo. Connectivity is based on layer 2 point to point connectivity (similar to Ethernet or Cloud On Demand connections).
Customer applications
On Demand Interconnect for Equinix provides an enhanced provisioning experience compared to traditional data centre cross connects.
| Provisioning Time | Days / Weeks | Minutes |
| Turn up experience | Usually positive, but issues can occur (e.g. TX/RX ports need to be swapped) | Fully automated |
An example use case is a customer that wants to connect their enterprise office location to their Equinix Fabric port. This customer need would normally be fulfilled via a physical fibre cross connect between dedicated ports on both the Equinix Fabric and service provider platforms within the Equinix data centre.
On Demand Interconnect allows customers to bypass this traditional way of provisioning services, and interconnect with Colt in a seamless manner via SDN-enabled automation.
Service details (Colt On Demand service)
Customers can create layer 2 connections between a physical On Demand port in a data centre or enterprise office location to a virtual Equinix Fabric cloud port. The bandwidth of the virtual cloud port is defined by the initial bandwidth of the Equinix Fabric virtual connection.
Important note:
The bandwidth of the virtual cloud port within the Colt On Demand platform is fixed. The bandwidth is based on the initial bandwidth of the Equinix Fabric virtual connection - i.e. the bandwidth of the virtual connection when the Service Key is generated within the Equinix Fabric portal.
Customers who wish to flex the bandwidth are advised to create an initial Equinix Fabric connection with a bandwidth equal to the upper flex limit. Once the Colt OD virtual cloud port has been created, the bandwidth of both the Colt connection and the Equinix virtual connection can be flexed up to this upper limit. For example, a customer who wishes to flex bandwidth up to 1Gbps is advised to create an initial 1Gbps virtual connection on the Fabric platform.
Where the bandwidth of a virtual cloud port needs to be increased (or, more rarely, decreased) a new virtual cloud port must be created. To achieve this, customers must first delete the Equinix circuit connection via the Fabric portal and the Colt circuit connection via the On Demand portal. Once the two circuit connections have been removed, the virtual cloud port can be deleted a new one created.
Creating a new connection to Colt via the Equinix Fabric
To create a new ODI for Equinix connection, customers need to:
STEP 1: In the Equinix Fabric portal: Request a local intra-DC/ metro connection between the Equinix Fabric port and Colt
STEP 2: In the Colt On Demand portal: Create an Equinix virtual cloud port, and request a connection to the customer data centre or enterprise office location
Requesting a local connection across Equinix Fabric (Step 1)
Customers need to create a new connection, selecting Colt as the Service Provider.
Customers then need to:
- Select one of their existing Equinix Fabric ports in the A side / origin data centre (for example, London LD6)
- For the B side / destination location, select the metro city as the interconnect to Colt (for example, London)
Customers will then be required to select the bandwidth and VLAN details as per the standard Equinix Fabric provisioning process.
Once the connection has been created, customers will receive a service key (this is called a “unique ID” in Equinix Fabric. This service key is then used to create a virtual cloud port in the Colt On Demand platform, and will be completed in minutes.
Requesting a Colt On Demand connection (Step 2)
Prerequisites:
First, customers need to create an Equinix virtual cloud port using the service key. Customers need to select a region and a data centre location (for example, Equinix LD6).
Once the virtual cloud port has been created, an On Demand connection should be created between the remote data centre / enterprise office port and the Equinix virtual cloud port.
Customers need to create a new cloud connection, selecting the Equinix Fabric option. The standard cloud connection provisioning process should be followed, selecting Equinix as the A end port and the customer DC or enterprise office at the B end.
End to End process overview
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