What is Data Interconnection and Why Do You Need It?

No business is an island. Everything is interconnected; by building ecosystems of business partners, companies can create a win-win environment that enriches everyone's ability to service their customers. Find how interconnectivity can give you a competitive edge.

What is interconnection?

Interconnection refers to the use of a connectivity fabric that provides direct, private peering between businesses or between an organization's fabric-connected sites. The fabric is typically available to colocated IT components in carrier-neutral interconnection data center campuses.

Instead of simply connecting point A to point B, a colocation provider offers a central location where networks, clouds and enterprises can host their physical infrastructure and connect with one another over private networks instead of the public internet.

Interconnectivity supports the any-to-any connectivity required in today's digital business environment to facilitate data exchange among partners, customers and employees in different locations. It leverages proximity, direct connectivity and distributed exchange points to improve service quality and security—delivering the highest level of performance and an excellent overall experience.

There are many types of data interconnections, including business to business, business to the cloud and business to service providers (e.g., SaaS). Organizations can also use interconnection to exchange data internally among different locations (e.g., sending data from Singapore to Amsterdam.)

Does your business need interconnection?

An interconnection solution allows you to:

Provide internal private access between racks in different geographic locations.
Access data and applications from a service provider (e.g., a business using Office 365 or a connect to your applications hosted on public cloud infrastructure)
Access information from or share data (e.g., weather data, GIS data) with a business partner directly instead of over an internet connection.

The benefits of interconnection

Data center interconnect (DCI) technologies link two or more data centers with high-speed packet or optical connectivity. A high-performance interconnection with the agility derived from being software defined can give you a competitive edge:

Digital ecosystem density: Interconnection solutions link numerous discrete entities in different ways to form ecosystems or groups of ecosystems to facilitate data exchange. The any-to-any connectivity enables organizations to create values through real-time collaboration and transactions with partners and customers worldwide.
Proximity: Distance can increase latency, which can impact user experience. By having data from different parties (e.g., cloud and SaaS platforms) close to each other, you can optimize performance. Additionally, closer connections that leverage cross-connects or exchange ports are less expansive than connections over long-haul networks.
Direct connectivity: DCI solutions offer direct connections that do not traverse the public internet. They're not only the fastest option but also the most secure. This is critical for companies operating in today's business environment in which both digital borders and vulnerabilities are expanding rapidly.
Globally distributed exchange points: Colocation campuses allow companies, clouds and digital communities to create myriad direct connections, so traffic doesn't need to be backhauled to a central data center. These facilities are also close to dense population centers to minimize latency and optimize performance.
Data sovereignty: A colocation provider with campuses in different countries can help organizations address data sovereignty concerns, as more governments require data generated, used or that pertains to their citizens to be stored in the same locales.

Choosing an interconnection solution for your business

There are many data center interconnect providers, and the quality of their services varies. It's important to choose one that can meet your business needs. We partner with Equinix, a data center colocation and interconnection services leader, to offer the best interconnection solution to our customers:

Global physical reach, virtual infrastructure, edge services and network options: Connect all devices, partners, customers and supply chain ecosystems on a single platform.
A comprehensive suite of infrastructure and connection services: Link partners, employees and customers in real-time to increase your digital advantage.
Proximity to cloud and SaaS platforms, accessible across the Equinix Fabric™
Worldwide locations: Enable the fast deployment of direct, private, secure interconnections to customers, partners, cloud, software and network providers around the globe.
Scalability: Support traffic growth to meet quickly evolving business needs.

Ready to explore data interconnection and how it can support your business growth?

Schedule an Interconnection briefing to learn common cloud connectivity trends and insights, the interconnection and colocation selection process, how to align a strategy to your business-to-business connectivity needs, and more.

Request an Interconnection Oriented Architecture (IOA) Workshop where our experts show you the benefits and savings of an IoA approach, how to deploy an IoA in your organization, and industry standards and best practices.