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DCI (Data Center Interconnect): Data Center Interconnect (DCI) is the use of a combination of technology and systems to enable computing inside a data center to be physically separate from one another and interconnected over short to long distances. DCI connections allow data transfer, replication of resources, application support on multiple sites, business continuity and reuse of resources with business continuity, scalability and reuse of resources.
Data Center Interconnect Essentials
DCI is valuable to enterprises that leverage more than one data center or operate in a hybrid cloud environment, with the following components:
High Bandwidth Links: For sending traffic through between sites.
Ultra Low Latency: Critical for data synchronization and real-time applications.
Scalability: The extent to which system can handle growing amount of data while continuity in performance.
Protection: Making guarantee the integrity and confidentiality of the transmitted data.
This highly integrated system enables data centers to be operationally efficient enabling many different types of business use cases and disaster recovery options.
Data Center Interconnection Options
When it comes to a data center interconnect (DCI), organizations have many options and each delivery method has different advantages:
Dark Fiber - Organizations can rent dark fiber cables and then light these components with their own lighting equipment for maximum control and scalability.
Wavelength Services - Service providers lease optical wavelengths, which deliver highcapacity connections without requiring the owner to maintain physical facilities.
Ethernet - Integrates easily and seamlessly into networks on a layer 2 level.
IP/MPLS Networks - Layer 3 services offer IP/MPLS based IP service with flexibility and scalability and supports multiple applications.
VPLS(Virtual Private LAN Service) - The best of Ethernet and MPLS, puts the LAN in a wide-area network.
Choices between these alternatives are based on factors such as distance, bandwidth, budget, and application.
Core challenges of DCI networks
There are a number of challenges to address when implementing and operating DCI.
Complex: Multisite requires a high level of complexity for planning and implementation and often demands specialized knowledge and resources.
Expense: High-capacity links and networking equipment that such links require is very expensive for long-distance connections.
Latency and Performance: Managing low latency and peak performance over long distances is critical for certain applications.
Security: Data security is the highest priority so strong encryption and security protocols are required when transferring data between data centers.
Scalability: As data needs are constantly growing, the ability to scale the infrastructure without interrupting the service is becoming more and more important.
Benefits of DCI
Despite this, DCI offers numerous benefits:
Business Continuity - Business continuity is what provides disaster recovery and failover by replicating data and apps between sites.
Resource Utilization - Reducing latencies and load balancing across multiple datacenters also allows efficient resource usage across all the datacenters.
Scaleability - Enabling the easy scaling up and down of IT to meet business growth and contraction.
Flexibility - Our solution is applicable to mixed cloud strategies and dynamic assignment of workloads.
Improved Performance - Optimize data paths to improve application responsiveness and user experience.
Conclusion
Data Center Interconnect (DCI), as a part of IT infrastructure today, allows enterprises to deliver high availability, scalability and resource efficiency across multiple sites. By exploring all available options and challenges for each, organisations can develop data center interconnect strategies that meet their business requirements and support future business growth.
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