Selectel, Direct or Global Connect global router?
There are many ways to organize infrastructure. For example, you can combine on-premise with a provider’s server or cloud. Or to collect geographically distributed infrastructure in several regions.
But how to combine different servers and projects into one network? Which service to use: Selectel Global Router, Direct or Global Connect – and what’s the difference? Clients come to us with the same questions. Therefore, we tried to give a guide for choosing a service. About what came of it, we tell under the cut.
When you need network connectivity
First, let’s figure out why network connectivity is needed and what benefits it provides.
Imagine: you have an infrastructure located in one place – a data center or an on-premise site. And all services are hosted on one physical server – all data is stored on it. What are the disadvantages of such an approach?
The main disadvantage of the described architecture is
low fault tolerance
. If your server goes down, you will lose access to data and services. This may entail both time and material costs.
Another downside is lack of flexibility in scaling. If there are not enough resources, you need to build and configure a new server. This requires qualified specialists, the hardware itself and additional funds for the maintenance of equipment.
Moreover, this architecture suboptimal in terms of resources. Services that can be moved to the cloud will consume valuable dedicated server resources. They may not be enough at the time of peak loads. This is critical if these resources are needed for high performance computing.
To avoid costs, some services and data can be placed on separate virtual machines. For example, move databases to the cloud, and files to file storage. After – to organize network connectivity between projects.
Network connectivity is relevant for companies that value a high level of IT infrastructure fault tolerance, rational distribution of computing resources, and flexibility in scaling.
Selectel has several services that can be used to organize network connectivity. Among them are the Selectel global router, Direct and Global Connect. But how they differ and which technology to use depends on the network to be built.
Network based on on-premise and provider infrastructure
On-premise infrastructure is not always profitable for business. It is necessary to independently maintain servers, full-time administrators with a high level of qualification and implement security measures at the request of regulators. Therefore, part of the infrastructure – for example, a database or file storage – is better to be transferred to dedicated or cloud servers of the provider.
If the database is located in a data center and the web server is on an on-premise machine, you should consider the cost of traffic between them.
You can connect on-premise to the Selectel infrastructure using the Direct Connect service.
Direct Connect is a service that allows you to combine any external network infrastructure with the infrastructure inside Selectel. It is especially useful if you want to build a hybrid infrastructure or combine geographically dispersed network segments with each other – through a stable high-speed connection without access to the Internet.
Within Direct Connect, you can link on-premise and third-party data centers with dedicated servers, VMware-based cloud, cloud platform and Colocation in Selectel. If necessary, you can use logical ports and establish a connection between the infrastructure at Selectel and the backbone operator RETN.
Note.
There are several options for connecting an external infrastructure with Selectel via Direct Connect – using L3 VPN and L2 connections. In the first case, we organize a connection through a global router – it is “built-in” in Direct Connect and does not require additional payment. In the second – we stretch and reserve cables.
Network of several projects
The problem of suboptimal resource consumption is relevant not only for on-premise. A data center client can rent a dedicated server with a GPU, but not use its resources to the fullest. For example, if it hosts a file storage, which is better placed on a separate virtual machine. Then it can be combined with a dedicated server using a global router – within a private network.
Using the Selectel global router, you can combine various company services into a single local network. For example, dedicated servers, a cloud platform, a load balancer and a cloud based on VMware.
At the heart of the global router is a set of physically reserved routers located in different pools and combined into one IP/MPLS routing domain.
Note.
The services to be combined can be located in different Selectel data centers – there is no need to connect Direct Connect. A global router will be enough – it is free with unlimited traffic within the region and when using a band of up to 1 Gb / s between regions.
Network for communication with a foreign hypercloud
Let’s analyze the last possible scenario for building an infrastructure: when some part of it is hosted by a foreign cloud provider – for example, AWS, Microsoft Azure or Google Cloud. Such connectivity may be needed if, for example, it is necessary to store data of foreign clients. In this case, the choice is clear: you need to use Global Connect.
Global Connect is a technology that allows you to organize dedicated access between infrastructure in Selectel and foreign cloud providers. Their list includes AWS, Microsoft Azure, Office 365, Google Cloud, Alibaba Cloud, IBM Cloud, Oracle Cloud, Salesforce, Nutanix Xi Cloud and others.
Connectivity is established through the Megaport cloud aggregator, which has a dedicated private connection to global cloud platforms.
As in the case of Direct Connect, the technology uses a global router if you need to connect several services to a foreign cloud – for example, dedicated and cloud servers – within the same network. Then the picture will be as follows: network connectivity with a foreign cloud is organized through a dedicated VLAN, and inside the Selectel infrastructure – through a global router.
Conclusion
There are different ways to set up network connectivity. For example, you can combine a global router, Direct and Global Connect with each other – the choice of solution depends on the task.
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