Datacenter IP Network

IP Network
The IP Network consists of two major components:

1. The Service Provider's network equipment (including routers and switches)
One factor that needs to be taken into consideration is inter-operability. While one component may perform well individually, however, it may not function well when working in conjunction with a component from another vendor. Another factor that needs to be considered is reliability. Data Center facilities should be equipped with redundant switches and routers in every layer of their network. These layers should be able to withstand several failures or one failure in each layer without impacting the customer's server performance. Some data centers have additional backup systems in place consisting of lower capacity equipment but this if during a peak period a failure would lead to poor performance.

2. The Wide Area Network (WAN) connection
The transit links that enter the data center is the 2nd part of the IP network. This part again consists of two separate components. The "transport" is the circuit that carries the data, where as the "transit" is the actual data. Many data centers will claim to offer multiple OC-12s or OC-48s but, fail to mention how much actual transit is available. If all the transit is on a single pipe it is not a reliable. That circuit can have many problems, from having the line physically cut to a misconfiguration. Therefore, a datacenter should have multiple fiber providers and multiple transit providers. Any two should be able to handle the maximum traffic of the network.