Oracle Fast Connect within OCI is their cloud on-ramp allowing organizations to establish routing from their WAN (Wide Area Network) or another public cloud providers into their regions. Many companies are taking advantage of moving their Oracle Database out of the datacenter into OCI for a myriad of positive reasons. However, often the last step and one overlooked is how to route their corporate WAN to OCI.
It enables customers to connect their environment directly into OCI virtually such as dedicated, private or virtual connection options. Port speeds vary however Oracle keeps the costs very low and predictable monthly vs. other public cloud providers. Think of FastConnect as the exit off the highway from your network to their infrastructure.
MPLS into FastConnect
Depending on the MPLS provider, many core carriers have a pre-built partner options built into Oracle FastConnect. However, there are a few considerations you must understand first.
Steps to connect your MPLS network into FastConnect
- Identify which OCI regions your will need your private VRF to connect to. This is important for both latency and governance.
- Is your telecom carrier an approved FastConnect partner with OCI? If you are unsure, please contact our Architect Staff, we can send you the most updated list and provide any background on how they deliver the connection into OCI.
- Timing – Typical provisioning of a FastConnect is minutes, however most carriers will take 30+ days for the MPLS node to be operational. Why? The ordering process is more in-depth, physical.
- Do you have a redundant network to MPLS which must be considered? Some clients we work with have dual WAN environments for backup and with OCI there are advantages to reduce complexity and cost on the secondary WAN.
- Do you have other Public Cloud providers such as AWS, GCP or Azure which connect to your WAN? If so, this can still work with OCI and there are lower latency options between OCI and other public cloud providers we can discuss.
- Carrier Discussions: You must absolutely engage your Solution Architect from the MPLS vendor with Oracle to discuss how your environment will extend into FastConnect. Macronet often helps bridge the organizations together based on our hundreds of FastConnect deployments. Many MPLS vendor teams do have repeated weekly migrations into FastConnect as Macronet does, so please lean on our experience to ensure all parties work in a cohesive manner!
Checkout our Blog on 5 Ways to connect to Oracle FastConnect
SDWAN Replacement of MPLS and will it work with Oracle Cloud?
The answer is yes, SDWAN can extend into OCI FastConnect similar to MPLS. However, as SDWAN gains deeper in popularity, it’s important to understand what solution a customer is using.
- Is it carrier-based support and with whom?
- If you are using SDWAN over public internet
MPLS replacement option, check out Teridion who can deploy in OCI
How much does the OCI FastConnect cost:
This is a moving number answer and not because of Oracle, it’s due to how you plan on establishing your WAN environment which is not on them.
- Connection Method – Direct private circuit (will require a cross-connect into OCI and possibly handoff verifications)
- Ingress/Egress Charges – The good news, unlike other public cloud providers there isn’t an ingress/egress complicated calculation. Here’s a real-time breakout of FastConnect Pricing.
Big providers have jumped on board to support FastConnect
ATT first announced back in 2017 they would extend their Netbond VPN option into Oracle FastConnect which is important for many enterprises. Most likely, if you are using a tier one carrier MPLS, they are built into FastConnect and your implantation (fingers crossed) should be rather easy. Contact Us for the latest vendor environments supported into FastConnect and we can equally provide a free review of your design.
Happy connecting!