OCI FastConnect is Oracle’s cloud on-ramp infrastructure for your network routing needs.  Think of this is as the exit off the freeway (global networks) to your specific OCI Tenancy where you house your cloud workloads.  Customers, vendors, partners etc. all need an “exit” path to your OCI environment and Oracle has built FastConnect as an easy method to get there.  Some of the advantages that Oracle Fast Connect provides is the ability to utilize telecom vendors to route traffic into your Oracle Cloud tenancy.  

We’ll go into this deeper as many enterprises today wish to keep their existing on-premise datacenter (maybe for the AppTier or non-cloud native apps) and connect with Oracle Cloud for database or cloud native services.  This requirement ultimately means you must build a private connection from your on-prem datacenter or offices to Oracle.  We’ve designed hundreds of these topologies, and we’ll outline some best practices you can take away or consider in advance and request a FREE design.  

One of the areas that often stomps enterprises is how to establish not only the right connection into Fast Connect, but also understand where the actual data center Oracles Cloud Infrastructure resides.  This is needed because if a vendor must connect both your on-premise and OCI FastConnect they must need the address and locations of each end of the circuit.

Unfortunately, many organizations have deep experience in cloud and other next gen. technologies but might be missing networking expertise. What has become very apparent over the last several years is many of the network engineers in the industry have either fallen off or are not actively involved in cloud projects.  If this is your organization, please do not panic, you are not alone, and it is one of the reasons Macronet Services was formed; to help customers quickly design network infrastructure and voice technologies to support their cloud goals. 

On Prem environments may look like your personal data center or a third-party data center. The challenge here is how do you extend that infrastructure into OCI fast connect? Some of the reasons why customers want to keep an on Prem environment is they may have legacy workloads that are just not cloud ready, or they may want to. Extend their app tier or database tier. 

Areas to consider when it comes to OnPrem to FastConnect

 

#1. What is your latency? And Speed, bandwidth, or routing requirements. 

 

#2. How much are you willing to pay per month for this extended connection? 

 

#3. What is your installation timeline?  Because you can certainly stand up the Oracle tenancy in a matter of minutes. However, sometimes, depending upon the network infrastructure that is available, that may take anywhere from 20 minutes to 20 days to six months. 

 

#4. One of the areas that many organizations don’t fully understand, or grasp is the ability to leverage. Their existing spend within their total architecture today or be able to utilize a third party like a macro net services who sends millions of dollars in revenue to these companies to help with the facilitated connections.

 

Who are the Tier-1 ISPs you should be using into OCI FastConnect?  

We’ve compiled a list of carriers to review, however we STRONGLY recommend if you have not had experience with them, call or email us to discuss the potential design.  Why?  We are unbiased when it comes to the best option to route your traffic into OCI FastConnect.  Some carriers might have limitations or hidden fees we can call out based on where you cloud workload will ultimately reside.  We also will deploy if needed our proprietary Network Design Guide especially if the goal is connect your remote sites and users into OCI.   If your environment is extremely complex, we can run at no cost a mini or large WAN RFP request to all carriers and software define providers in just a week or two.  This would allow you to see service level agreements, pricing, support and much more to compliment your environment.

Network Pricing into OCI FastConnect – How much does is cost?

What if you have MPLS or other WAN services from your premise which must add OCI as a node into the network?  

We recommend putting in a quick ISP Pricing Request in our tool which will provide an anonymous (from the carriers) design and quote using our fiber and output software.

Below is an example how our robust Network Tools can Help you design your OCI FastConnect fiber to your premise such as a datacenter.  Once we have the address of your facility, we’re able to pull up network options under 60 seconds to help design your topology.

Which Carriers can provide network connectivity into FastConnect?

The last step after our automatic output is the cost to connect from your on-premise to OCI Fast Connect.  We will provide you the cost and type of circuit from your datacenter or other on-premise location(s) to OCI FastConnect.  Additionally, we’ll offer multiple provider options if they exist which limits the need for you to have multiple meetings with account teams.  

Here’s an example of the output below you could expect from our tools to plan your OCI FastConenct infrastructure design.  

The “Location Name” is showing the on-premise requirement to connect into a particular OCI region (not shown).

MRC = Monthly Recurring Cost

NRC = Non-Recurring Cost – (think of one-time setup fees)

Type = Cloud is the typical connection unless a client requires DIA

Coming out of this we will equally provide estimated delivery timelines.  Depending on the location especially if it’s between clouds or 3rd party colocation facilities, we can install 1G-100G private connections in an hour.  

If there is a specific build to permanently install a dedicated fiber connection into your data center, here’s what you can expect. 

Pricing:  Pricing for a dedicated connection into OCI FastConnect can range from 1G at 1K MRC and a 10G as low as $2K MRC.  Factors to consider include what fiber, edge equipment and laterals into the building exist.  

Macronet Services has an entire pricing list for common metros and budgetary for remote facilities into FastConnect.  Contact us if you would like to see your specific building.  Due to our benchmark pricing, we’ll be able to help negotiate with the carriers the lowest possible price point as we understand FinOps budgets are tight for on overall compute.   

DataCenter to OCI FastConnect Design and Pricing

Move your DataCenter near OCI – Our DataCenter Matrix of provider.

If you have a commercial grade data center and are looking to move or downgrade, we can explain options and documentation output similar to our Equinix write-up here. 

Latency from on-prem to OCI FastConnect

If you require latency between AWS to OCI or Azure, GCP etc. it’s very easy to calculate.  We have partner nodes in all the CSPs where we can dial up the current statistics and “buffer” between the edge router to the cloud provider.  For example, AWS to OCI latency might be 3.72 ms in a region and we’ll offer guidance on any additional uptick in latency just routing from the edge device to your AWS Direct Connect or OCI DRG.  Rest assured, the latency from the edge router to your cloud instance on either end is very, very minimal.  However we are calling this out in the event your network team asks, we have you covered.  

If you want to see a design, cost and approximate latency from your on-premise location to OCI, please follow here.  Your requirements will enter our Fiber Tool engine and cost process which can provide back you generally in 24 hours.  

FREE ISP Design and Quote to OCI FastConnect