What is Multihome and why would I need it?
The term multihome refers to two or more redundant network connections that allow a myriad of beneficial configurations. Customers with multihome configurations have two or more Internet Service Providers (ISPs) ensuring mission critical business operations continue if one provider goes down. Multihome is useful for colocation and point-to-point connections using autonomous systems with Border Gateway Protocol (BGP). Utilizing BGP, the routes are advertised to various ISPs providing redundant network connections over fiber lines. Multihome is also useful for businesses that need direct access to their equipment or require point-to-point connections between multiple offices.
How does multihome work?
Webservio’s data facilities offer multihome configurations for your company’s colocated equipment. This means your organization can have bandwidth connections with two or more providers. If the primary provider goes down, the secondary provider connection will automatically take over so your equipment stays online. This automatic failover is managed by Webservio’s enterprise BGP settings which broadcast the IP address(es) for your equipment over the available networks.
Most Common Multihome Configuration
2 Providers + 1 Office Location
This diagram depicts a typical multihome connection setup with two providers and a single office location. The connections are engineered to accommodate direct access to colocated equipment in the data center.
Benefits of Multihome Configurations
Multihome configurations maximize uptime for your business-critical equipment. If you already have your own autonomous IPs, our expert engineers can add them to our systems and work with you to establish the proper configurations among various providers.
If your office location has connectivity established with one of our providers, you can connect to your colocated equipment from your office with no latency. The connection never has to leave the provider backbone and never has to squeeze through any other carriers’ peering interfaces.
You can also combine multihome with point-to-point connections to give your office location(s) redundant, private, secure connections to the data center.
Contact us today to learn more how Webservio’s colocation and data services can help your business:
- Maximize business-critical system uptime.
- Establish fast, secure, redundant fiber connections.
- Maximize the lifetime of your valuable equipment by housing it in an environment conducive to reaching and maintaining optimal performance levels.
