multi homing pressure

Wed Oct 19 16:24:34 UTC 2005

On Oct 19, 2005, at 12:08 PM, Elmar K. Bins wrote:

> patrick at ianai.net (Patrick W. Gilmore) wrote:
>
>> For the customer with an Internet "mission critical app", being tied
>> to a Tier 2 has it's own set of problems, which might actually be
>> worse than being tied to a Tier 1.
>
> Please elaborate.

I probably used poor word choice.  The "Tier" of a provider is just  
marketing unless you are talking about the networks in the  
"DFZ" ("SFI club", or whatever).  When I made that statement, I was  
thinking more about the marketing hype, meaning a "tier two" not only  
has transit, but is a smaller, probably regional provider.   
Naturally, a "tier two" might very well be a huge company with  
network assets on multiple continents and 10s of Gbps (or more) of  
traffic.

The problems with a small provider might include:

   * Business viability
   * Global reach
   * Capacity
   * Redundant architecture
   * Etc., etc., etc.

Depends on the customer which of these are important.  The guy with  
10 Mbps of traffic all in Nashville, TN doesn't care about global  
reach or capacity, but might be VERY interested in redundant  
architecture & business viability.  A mom-n-pop shop might not be the  
right choice for him.

The guy with 12 datacenters in 6 states - or countries - might have  
different ideas of what is important.  Maybe he's OK with one site  
going offline one day a year if he can save $10K on transit costs, so  
a mom-n-pop shop would be fine.

Personally, I think if your application really is "mission critical",  
then you _must_ be multi-homed with your own space and own ASN.   
Anything less and you've tied your business to a vendor.  I might  
like some networks, but I don't want my corporate life & death to be  
tied to any of them when I can ensure my independence for what is  
probably a small sum of money in the grand scheme of things.

The question of which providers to use as upstreams is a business  
decision based on the items above, cost, and lots of other stuff.

Sorry if I was unclear before.

-- 
TTFn,
patrick