Has anyone had any experience (good or bad) with their exchange at any of
their major datacenters, especially Great Oaks? We're wondering if people
really love or hate it.
-shac
Equinix does a fair job running 7 layers , however the layer8 and layer9 seem the lacking part
which could have been improved greatly. in Great Oaks / SJC , they seem to be the largest IX
per
so being there while you are in that location seems good, and they are reliable.
mehmet
What are the layer 8-9 issues?
Drive Slow,
Paul Wall
politics, finance...
8 users
9 politics and policies
Paul is pretty clueful; I think he was asking for specifics as to what
the layer 8/9 issues are at Equinix, rather than an explanation of
what layer 8 and 9 means.
"Fly Fast",
-r
Justin Horstman <justin.horstman@gorillanation.com> writes:
I would like to know the issues as well because we are looking to going
into at least 4 of their centers.
Cheers
Ryan
I haven't had any specific problems with them but they are a bit
retentive when it comes to doing certain things. There was the RMA
module that arrived one day. You have to initiate a "shipping ticket"
when you think something might arrive. In other words, you must open a
ticket with them BEFORE something arrives there which can sometimes be a
bit difficult when you are building out a new facility as you have no
idea who is going to ship what when. They have eased up on that a
little in the past few months, at least at 11 Great Oaks. Not a
showstopper, just a bit of a pain in the hips, one more little thing
that needs doing and is easily overlooked.
After I replaced that module I went to drop it off at the shipping area,
it came with a return shipper so there wasn't really anything needed
beyond them handing the box to the UPS guy next time he came by ...
another remote hands ticket required for me to hand them a box and for
them to hand the box to someone else. I suppose I could have dropped it
off myself at a UPS bin on the way home.
BUT, I am overall very pleased with the facility and the operation.
There are little quirky things that make it somewhat of a pain but in my
experience each provider has their own quirks. At least I can take my
modules in there in the cardboard box, unlike Savvis at 4700 Old
Ironsides where they have a box cop who won't allow a speck of cardboard
past the sign-in window.
From: Ryan Finnesey [mailto:ryan.finnesey@HarrierInvestments.com]
Sent: Friday, November 19, 2010 7:42 PM
To: Robert E. Seastrom; Justin Horstman
Cc: Mehmet Akcin; nanog@nanog.org
Subject: RE: experience with equinix exchangeI would like to know the issues as well because we are looking to
going
into at least 4 of their centers.
Cheers
RyanFrom: Robert E. Seastrom [mailto:rs@seastrom.com]
Sent: Friday, November 19, 2010 3:30 AM
To: Justin Horstman
Cc: nanog@nanog.org; Mehmet Akcin
Subject: Re: experience with equinix exchangePaul is pretty clueful; I think he was asking for specifics as to what
the layer 8/9 issues are at Equinix, rather than an explanation of
what
layer 8 and 9 means.
"Fly Fast",
-r
Justin Horstman <justin.horstman@gorillanation.com> writes:
> 8 users
> 9 politics and policies
>
>> From: Paul WALL [mailto:pauldotwall@gmail.com]
>> Sent: Thursday, November 18, 2010 10:55 AM
>> To: Mehmet Akcin
>> Cc: nanog@nanog.org
>> Subject: Re: experience with equinix exchange
>>
>> What are the layer 8-9 issues?
>>
>> Drive Slow,
>> Paul Wall
>>
>> >
>> >
>> >> Has anyone had any experience (good or bad) with their exchange
at
>> any of
>> >> their major datacenters, especially Great Oaks? We're wondering
if
>> people
>> >> really love or hate it.
>> >>
>> >> -shac
>> >
>> >
>> > Equinix does a fair job running 7 layers , however the layer8 and
>> layer9 seem the lacking part
>> > which could have been improved greatly. in Great Oaks / SJC ,
they
>> seem to be the largest IX
>> >
>> > per
>> >
>> >
>>
https://www.peeringdb.com/private/exchange_view.php?id=5&peerParticip
>> an tsPublicsOrder=Sorter_policy&peerParticipantsPublicsDir=DESC
>> >
>> > so being there while you are in that location seems good, and
they
I haven't had any specific problems with them but they are a bit
retentive when it comes to doing certain things. There was the RMA
module that arrived one day. You have to initiate a "shipping ticket"
when you think something might arrive. In other words, you must open a
ticket with them BEFORE something arrives there which can sometimes be a
bit difficult when you are building out a new facility as you have no
idea who is going to ship what when. They have eased up on that a
little in the past few months, at least at 11 Great Oaks. Not a
showstopper, just a bit of a pain in the hips, one more little thing
that needs doing and is easily overlooked.
I have found that you can (if you call the NOC rather than using their
portal) explain "We're expecting a whole lot of stuff from the following
vendors over the next <n> days." and that works just fine for the
shipping ticket problem when you're building out a new facility.
Trying to do this through their portal, well, down that path lies
madness.
After I replaced that module I went to drop it off at the shipping area,
it came with a return shipper so there wasn't really anything needed
beyond them handing the box to the UPS guy next time he came by ...
another remote hands ticket required for me to hand them a box and for
them to hand the box to someone else. I suppose I could have dropped it
off myself at a UPS bin on the way home.
Depending on the type of UPS call tag, uh, yeah... Maybe.
Yes, Equinix is anal about wanting a ticket for everything. This isn't a
bad thing in a datacenter provider IMHO. It means nothing falls through
the cracks because you have a record of everything you expected them
to do.
BUT, I am overall very pleased with the facility and the operation.
There are little quirky things that make it somewhat of a pain but in my
experience each provider has their own quirks. At least I can take my
modules in there in the cardboard box, unlike Savvis at 4700 Old
Ironsides where they have a box cop who won't allow a speck of cardboard
past the sign-in window.
ROFL Yep... It's even more annoying when you know why.
Owen
I have found that you can (if you call the NOC rather than using their
portal) explain "We're expecting a whole lot of stuff from the
following
vendors over the next <n> days." and that works just fine for the
shipping ticket problem when you're building out a new facility.
And that is exactly what ended up happening. But it turns out that we
probably weren't the only ones and they have since modified their policy
somewhat to be more accommodating.
Trying to do this through their portal, well, down that path lies
madness.
Yeah, that thing can put you into a region of twisty turny tunnels.
Depending on the type of UPS call tag, uh, yeah... Maybe.
It wasn't a "call tag", it came with a completely filled out shipping
label. I could have simply dropped it off. But not really a big deal, I
just happened to be in a hurry that day and learned only at the last
second that I needed to open a ticket. Just a little frustrating under
the particular circumstances of that particular day. Not a big deal.
ROFL Yep... It's even more annoying when you know why.
They cite some issue with the "fire marshal" but don't all the data
centers in the region have the same fire marshal with the same fire
regulations? Why they behave differently, I have no idea. It isn't
that hard to put a trash cart in the facility where people can dispose
of the packing material after installation. It can get worrisome when I
have several modules exposed on a cart. If one falls off it can be an
incident costing many thousands of dollars depending on what it is.
Would it be fair to say they run most of the peering points within the
States? I find that peering within Europe is much more open than in the
States. Does the group feel that is because most of the exchange points
are run as nonprofits?
According to pch they don't run most of them. I would say they run very few compared to how many there actually are.
I was getting my info from peeringdb I have not yet looked into PCH yet.
Uhh... Reality check, with the S&D acquisition Equinix controls the VAST
majority of the IX traffic in the US. The only other IX's doing anything
even approaching interesting traffic are NOTA (in Miami), NYIIX (in New
York), SIX (in Seattle), and the former AtlantaIX (now Telx TIE) in
Atlanta. All are regional players, with very incomplete coverage of the
important regions in the US, so if you're peering in the US you're
almost guaranteed to be dealing with Equinix. Nobody else is even
noteworthy, you can probably do more traffic than the "other" IX's by
leaving a bit torrent client running overnight.
Anyone can throw a Linksys switch in their basement and call themselves
an exchange point, but that doesn't mean anyone is going to show up and
peer there.
I might not state things quite as strongly as RAS, but yes, in essence, that's how things stand. There's a very long tail to the IXP curve, but nearly all of the traffic volume in North America is going through Equinix-operated facilities, at this point. RAS has mentioned the main other ones, and I'd probably only add Toronto and CoreSite to the list.
-Bill
The only thing I would change is that Any2 has at least one exchange with traffic (Los Angeles) and is distributed throughout the country.
But the vast majority of traffic exchange over IXes in the US is over Equinix/PAIX switches. And a very large amount of traffic over private interconnects is also done in their buildings.
Woops, yes I forgot Any2 (how'd that happen? :P). Like Telx they've
recently deployed a bunch of new exchanges "all over", but there is
really only the one that does any traffic. 
For comparison purposes:
http://www.seattleix.net/agg.htm
http://www.nyiix.net/index.php?core=statistics.php
http://tie.telx.com/usage.pl
http://www.coresite.com/peering-any2charts.php
I don't think the combined Equinix / S&D numbers are published publicly
anywhere, but I'm sure it's north of a terabit.
Even combined, no. It's north of 700 Gbps though. I am assuming they have combined S&D into the graph, though:
<https://ix.equinix.com/peeringstats/userHome.do?action=home>
Given that Any2 is in the 200 range, Equinix is clearly more - more than all four combined.
But all the traffic on every Equinix and PAIX switch combined, is still lower than the traffic on any one of the three large exchanges in Europe. It really is all about the PNIs.
I was actually quite surprised that, when the merger of Equinix and S&D was
announced, no competition commission woke up and regulated it. An order
could have been for example the independence of the former PAIX exchanges.
I don't think in Europe a merger of AMSIX, LINX and DECIX would be accepted
by the EU competition commission. Though these three exchanges are not for
profit, which is, of course, another background.
Fredy K�nzler
Init7 / AS13030