Peering Ahead!

In today’s digital landscape, efficiently and securely exchanging data with partners is pivotal for fostering collaboration while simultaneously driving innovation. There are many ways to exchange data and traffic with other entities in both private and public fashions, including interconnection, IP transit, IP peering (public and private), and even software-defined connectivity.

In this article, we will focus on the concept of private peering, which helps facilitate the efficient movement of large amounts of traffic between entities. Enterprises can extend their services across partner networks by leveraging one-to-one peering relationships for easier consumption and ecosystem expansion. This private exchange of traffic ensures low latency with reliable and secure connectivity between two agreeing parties to help facilitate the mobility of dynamic workloads in today’s digital world.

What is peering?

Organizations can exchange traffic over the internet through three primary methods: IP transit, public peering, and private peering. Peering refers to the concept of mutually exchanging traffic between two networks or entities using a direct connection, bypassing the need for third-party transit.  

IP transit

To fully understand the concept of peering, let’s first cover a more common type of connectivity solution for reaching the internet. IP transit involves paying an entity such as an internet service provider (ISP) to route traffic and transit their upstream network for a simple and hands-off approach for small amounts of traffic. While IP transit is common and convenient for enterprises exchanging lower volumes of data, organizations needing to on-load and off-load traffic at scale must use a more efficient and cost-effective way. This is where introducing the concept of peering can be technically and economically beneficial.

Public peering

Public peering, conducted via Internet Exchanges (IX) or Internet Exchange Points (IXPs), enables participants to directly exchange traffic with peers for fewer network “hops” to destinations while circumventing costs associated with IP transit bandwidth. Public peering can be achieved in a multilateral manner, enabling participants to connect and exchange traffic with multiple peers.

Private peering

Private peering can be accomplished with a bilateral agreement, where there is a single peering relationship with one other participating entity through different mediums such as dedicated interconnection, service fabrics, or Internet Exchanges. Peering can optimize both cost and efficiency, enabling networks and enterprises to scale reliably.

Why is peering beneficial?

Peering offers numerous benefits for organizations seeking to optimize the exchange of traffic. While convenient, IP transit connections across the public internet often expose a wider attack surface area, making it more susceptible. Peering can help streamline traffic flows to reduce potential threats while maintaining access to networks, content providers, and exchange participants. In addition to fostering a better security posture, private peering provides reliable low-latency connections that ensure optimized routes, reducing the physical distance traffic must travel to reach its destination. This provides enhanced performance while providing more control and predictability over latency.

Bilateral agreements between organizations through private, dedicated peering can scale to high bandwidths at a lower cost compared to public peering. Peering offers many benefits for reliable, cost-effective traffic exchange and can be a true differentiator for connectivity offerings.

Announcing the Flexential and Wasabi peering agreement

Through continuous collaboration and development, we are excited to announce private peering between Flexential and Wasabi, which will provide mutual customers with enhanced value and simplified connectivity without needing access to an Internet Exchange. This bilateral peering agreement with Wasabi is automatically integrated into the Flexential blended internet solution, IP Bandwidth.

Through the extension of private peering, customers can access Wasabi storage environments over their standard IP Bandwidth connection, bypassing the public internet. Using our software-defined interconnection platform, Flexential Fabric, customers can spin up dedicated virtual connections for IP Transit services, segmenting their normal internet traffic from their storage traffic to further enhance their performance and manage their usage.

This simplified approach delivers optimal performance that is not offered by third-party ISPs and ensures customers have no additional steps for implementation when peering with Wasabi. Peering relationships have been deployed in Ashburn, VA; Plano, TX; and Hillsboro, OR, covering all of Wasabi’s major metros in the United States.

Flexential continues to stand out by developing a highly connected ecosystem of partners, ensuring easy access to a vast community of solutions and destinations. Our unique peering arrangement with Wasabi sets us apart, delivering unparalleled performance and a seamless interconnection experience.

Ready to revolutionize your interconnection services? Learn more about IP Bandwidth and Flexential Fabric and see how we can transform your connectivity strategy today!