How do data centers connect to the internet?
In order to understand how data centers connect to the internet, you need to understand how the internet works.
There isn’t a company that has a special plug that creates the internet out of nothing. Rather, the internet has culminated from years of people wiring the globe together.
What is an ISP?
An internet service provider (ISP) is an entity that is able to connect to the backbones of the internet and distribute it to users.
Originally, the ‘backbone’ was a network of wires created by The Advanced Research Projects Agency Network. (ARPANET) This project spanned across the United States and allowed early adopters to connect and expand the world wide web.
Nowadays, ARPANET is no longer relevant, and what was once wires connecting major US cities now spans throughout every ocean and into every country. Still, it takes special expertise to connect and distribute data on this network, so most people have it done for them through ISP services.
So in essence, an ISP makes it easy for you to connect into the web of wires that carry data across the world.
Do data centers use ISPs?
People who own and operate data centers have the capital and expertise to be their own ISP. Still, depending on the situation, it can be more economical for an ISP and data center to collaborate with each other.
For instance, Google provides ISP services, but also has 499 peering agreements with companies who cooperate in distributing information. Unfortunately, it would be too complicated to specify the duty of each peer without investment in research.
If you want to get a better idea on how data arrives to you, there is a quick command prompt function that allows you to see the path.
Simply open command prompt and type: “tracert google.com.” In my case, there are 13 different locations that data passes through before it arrives to me from Google.
How do data centers connect to the internet?
Just like any household, a data center connects their modems to the internet via a coaxial or fiber optic cable. The wires that a coaxial cable connects to run through the data center and under the ground, usually in bulk.
Technically, all wires are interconnected in some way, but their direct destinations may vary. For example, a data center’s cables may run to a nearby ISP data center, which then runs wires to local neighborhoods.
All data centers need to do is use top quality equipment to connect into the global network of cables that creates the internet.
