Planning Your Virtual Connections

Virtual connections enable exchanging data between two endpoints on Fabric network. You can connect your assets deployed in different IBX data centers, connect to a variety of service providers or any other Equinix Fabric participant. Virtual connections are created in the Equinix Fabric portal or using the Equinix Fabric API.

Connection Types

Customers have access to two types of virtual connections via Equinix Fabric:

  • Point-to-Point VCs – Allow users to set up direct connections between assets in individual locations either within the same metro or across different metros.

  • E-LAN Multipoint-to-Multipoint VCs – Enable users to interconnect their data center assets across many locations through a common network instead of requiring direct connections between individual locations. See Planning Your Networks if your colocation footprint exceeds two IBX data centers and you want to optimize your connections inventory.

Local and Remote Connections

Whether the connection is local or remote is determined by the location of A and Z sides of a connection.

  • Local Connections – Both connection endpoints are located within the same metro. Local connections ensure lower latency so when you're connecting to service providers or other Fabric participants, always prefer local connections over remote.

  • Remote Connections – Connection endpoints are located in different metros. Remote connections have higher latency, but they enable access to a wide selection of service providers.

Virtual Connection Bandwidth Options

You can choose from the available connection bandwidth options in a specific metro. The standard Equinix Fabric VC bandwidth tiers are:

  • 10 Mbps

  • 50 Mbps

  • 200 Mbps

  • 500 Mbps

  • 1 Gbps

  • 2 Gbps

  • 5 Gbps

  • 10 Gbps

  • 25 Gbps

  • 50 Gbps

Note: Connection bandwidth options may be limited based on the metro, port bandwidth capacity, service token, or service provider destination. When creating a Fabric connection, you will be only presented with available bandwidth options.

Redundancy

Virtual connections help cut costs and lower complexity. They also allow companies to implement redundancy, ensuring high availability and business continuity.

Equinix Fabric is operated as a fully redundant platform with Primary and Secondary chassis and customers are able to choose the right level of redundancy in their architecture. Equinix is building redundancy into our backbone by enabling dual NSPs in each remote connection route. The ring shape topology allows us to fail-over to a secondary route when required.

For more information see:

What next?

See Implementing Billing Accounts and Users.