Re: an over-the-top data center

* Patrick W. Gilmore · * Mon Dec 01 14:22:56 2008

On Dec 1, 2008, at 2:05 PM, Jean-François Mezei wrote:

Patrick W. Gilmore wrote:
End of day, an IXP is not some magical thing. It is an ethernet

switch allowing multiple networks to exchange traffic more easily
than

direct interconnection - and that is all it should be. It should not

be mission critical. Treating it as such raises the cost, and

therefore barrier to entry, which lowers its value.

Exchange points are often located in the same building as a carrier

hotel which houses infrastructure for many ISPs and many transit
providers.
If you consider the internet is used only by teenage males to learn

about female anatomy (pictures and movies), then your statement is

acceptable. But with the Internet now used for serious applications,
the

focus point of a carrier hotel and exchange becomes much more mission

critical.
Ane because it is a focus point, it becomes much harder to have

redundancy in the buildings (to provide for disaster tolerance). So
the

natural avenue is to strenghten/re-inforce your one central building.

It is not.
The Internet can be mission critical. (Well, not really, but it's
trying.) And for something mission critical, a single point, no
matter how well reinforced, is not good enough.
The exchange point should _NOT_ be mission critical. As I explained
multiple times in the thread, if that is your only vector, your design
is broken. Period. Care to argue otherwise?
And if the IXP is not your only vector, if your redundancy is greater
than any single building however deeply it is buried, then that IXP /
building / vector is not mission critical. Treating it at such raises
its price, which raises its barrier of entry, which lowers its utility.
Unless you think only NORAD-approved networks should peer?
--
TTFN,
patrick