5 Reasons Why We Like Peering

As we all know, the internet is made up of a vast network of providers. This network essentially creates an interconnected web of independent networks that communicate with each other by exchanging routes and allowing traffic to pass and be routed to the appropriate destinations. So how does one independent network communicate with the 52,000+ other networks on the web? One of the ways is through peering. This is a benefit to where ‘networks’ meet ‘eyeballs.’ Not to mention a huge benefit to our customers!

Peering is an agreement between two independent networks to exchange their routing information. It’s that simple.

So why does Pacific Servers like to Peer?

1. Speed and Reduced Latency

When a request originates from our network and the destination is on the peer’s network, the request can travel directly between the two networks without any intermediaries. We are now peered with CloudFlare which hosts over 2,000,000 websites, therefore any website, application, or request coming from a server in our network destined for a user requesting data through CloudFlare is given a direct link to the data and the request is delivered many times faster.

2. Improve Network Quality

We have more direct physical routes to networks all across the Internet, allowing for quicker paths to destinations, lower latency, and no contention for the best routes. This is a HUGE benefit if you run a gaming server, video, VOIP, remote desktop, and other various applications. They can all be very sensitive to the quality of the network.

3. Control of Traffic

Having direct links to our peers, allows for the direct exchange of traffic with nobody else in the way. Fewer hops from source to destination means better connections and faster speed as well.

4. Reduce Costs

Peering is normally cheaper than buying ‘IP transit’ from an upstream. This cost savings can be directly passed down to our customers with cheaper bandwidth costs.

5. Diversity and Resilience

By having dedicated peering links, it gives our network another route for traffic to follow. It essentially spreads the load across many links and provides further redundancy.

If you have any comments about this article, feel free to have your say below.

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Dan Schwartz

Dan Schwartz is passionate about data security and network reliability. He's been involved with data center management for over 10 year and wants to share his knowledge and experience with the world.

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