How Do Data Centers Connect to the Internet?

When it comes to data center, the most important thing is how to connect it to the internet. Being the brain of company since it is the place where all the critical processes run, data center does require certain way of work to be connected to the internet. Data center will only be useful once it is connected to internet. Therefore, it is the job of the IT staff to make sure data center connected to internet 24/7.

Here is the method of connecting data center to internet. Before the connection, reliable multiple ISP networks have to be prepared. Only through these ISP networks that the data center will be connected to internet. The networks are necessary to maintain redundancy. Why should the networks be multiple? Well, in case of failures, the data center can be switched to other ISP network to make sure that the service is delivered continuously. Let’s take a look at this process closer.

Data center network can be conceived as series of layers that have data stored at the bottom. The internet is the first layer where it represents the connection to outside world. In the case of data center enterprise, the internet represents the connection to rest of company. If service provider owns the data center and is use to provide services for multiple clients, the internet connection including other connections that link to the clients also sit on outside ring.

IP-based Ethernet devices represent the second layer that is often known as access layer. It includes switches, packet inspection appliances and also firewalls. This layer functions to route the traffic from and to the data center’s core to outside world. This layer is also filled with many web servers that are called DMZ. And the third and layer is the core. It represents the high performance switches that consist of multiple blades which are plugged into the chasses. Each of the blades provides dozen of ports.

The next layer consists of series of switches that functions to distribute data to and also between the available servers. It is necessary in minimizing the load on the core. Meanwhile, the last layer is the main storage. With these layers working together supported with the ISP networks, data centers can be connected to the internet 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Yet, there is still minor issue of disconnection but usually it only last a few seconds.