Cloud Connect

AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud and Oracle Cloud are only present in a few datacenters in Europe. Since NL-ix has a presence in those datacenters, we can transport the data from any of our 100+ datacenters (PoPs) to the datacenters of Cloud Service Providers over a private fiber optic Ethernet line (VLL and/or VPLS) using the NL-ix high-speed bandwidth network . NL-ix provides the last mile to get the Cloud Provider port closer to the customer, so the customer does not need to invest in or manage this part of the infrastructure (i.e. (fiber) connectivity) to his own datacenter.

Microsoft Azure

The order and provisioning process for Microsoft Azure ExpressRoute contains the following steps:

1. The customer creates an ExpressRoute resource in their own Azure domain, which generates a service-key which is shared with NL-ix
2. NL-ix uses the service-key to 'accept' the ExpressRoute on our ports and state which VLAN is used for this connection
3. The VLAN information is configured on the relevant (customer) ports and the information is shared with the customer.
4. The customer sets up the correct BGP peering in order to create a working connection.

Oracle Cloud FastConnect

The order and provisioning process for Oracle Cloud FastConnect contains the following steps:

1. The customer orders a FastConnect in the Oracle Cloud domain, which generates a OCID which is shared with NL-ix
2. NL-ix uses the OCID to 'accept' the FastConnect, state to which Oracle Ramp-up port this FastConnect is connected and determine the transport VLAN.
3. The VLAN is configured on the relevant (customer) ports and the information is shared with the customer.
4. The customer sets up the correct BGP peering in order to create a working connection.

AWS Direct Connect

For AWS, NL-ix serves as the transport provider for the Direct Connect service. In short the process is like this:

1. The customer orders a Direct Connect at AWS, stating to which AWS locations they want to connect. For each Direct Connect, the customer gets a LOA.
2. The LOA is sent to NL-ix, which we sent through to the relevant datacenter to connect to our infrastructure.
3. NL-ix makes sure that a VLAN is configured over the created connection, from the demarcation with AWS towards the customer port.
4. The customer sets up the correct BGP peering in order to create a working connection.