High speed and low latency are critical requirements for daily connectivity and transit services can be extremely expensive. Leveraging Merit infrastructure and the Internet2 Cloud Connect platform, Merit can provide direct Layer 3 peering and multiple points-of-presence to the community, linking membership to content providers like Amazon Direct Connect, Google Cloud Interconnect and Microsoft Azure ExpressRoute, all with little to no additional fees.
Peering is a process by which two Internet networks connect and exchange traffic freely for mutual benefit. Using two types of peering, public or private, traffic can be networked directly between each organizations’ members instead of having to pay a third party to do it for them.
There are multiple benefits to peering, the most notable being performance.
OTHER FEATURES INCLUDE:
- Lower Costs
- Greater Routing Control
- Improved Reduction of Latency & Jitter
- Increased Redundancy
- Larger Bandwidth Capacity
- Access to 24x7x365 Support
Caching is the process of storing copies of files in a cache, or temporary storage location, so that they can be accessed more quickly. The value of caching lies in the impact it has on systems where the computation of a response is demanding on any resource, CPU, or hard disk. Members can access popular content services easily from within the Merit Network, rather than utilizing commodity internet.
- Reduction in Bandwidth Consumption
- Reduction in Access Latency
- Predictable Performance During Spikes in Application Usage
- Increase in Read Throughput
At no additional fee, Merit Members can take advantage of Layer 3 Merit Peering & Caching and Internet2 Peer Exchange (I2PX) with a typical capacity of 10 Gbps or more (I2PX is across the national Internet2 network).
There are more than 100 Cloud Service Providers available, including; AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google, Netflix, Apple, Facebook, Comcast, AT&T, TelNet Worldwide.
Internet2 Cloud Connect (I2CC) can provide additional direct connection services at a nominal fee. Direct connection services are used when you want to extend a part of your computing infrastructure (servers, compute, storage) so you can run your service in the cloud.
For more information about Merit peering and cloud connections, please read the full peering article here.