Services and Solutions

Our approach is straightforward and starts with always keeping the Customer's end goal in mind. We are ready to engage with you on your requirements.

What is Metro DCI?

The tremendous increase in the inter data center traffic and the unique demands posed by the operators have prompted the optical hardware vendors to rethink the problem from a data center operations model perspective. This requires small hardware footprint, very low power consumption, and simplicity of deployment and usage. The culmination of this exercise has resulted in the birth of the Metro DCI.

The key features of Metro DCI hardware platform are the following:

• Hyper-density (400Gbps or more in a 1-RU chassis)

• Flexible client interfaces (10/40/100 GE)

• Low power consumption (< 1 Watt / Gbps)

• Up to 80 km without any intermediate line amplifiers

• Rapid bandwidth and low latency

• Security integration (Layer-1 encryption)

• Easy management (multiple API support)

• Simple deployment

Network (Line) Interfaces

Two interfaces each operating at 200G for a total of 400G

• 2 x 200Gbps (16 QAM) coherent transmission

Client Interfaces

Services can be mixed and matched up to the line rate of the network interfaces

• 4x 100G Ethernet (100GBASE-R4); QSFP28

• 10x 40G Ethernet (40GBASE-R4); QSFP+

• 40x 10G Ethernet (10GBASE-R)

Metro DCI Management

There are multiple ways to interact with the Metro DCI platform.

• Web-based User Interface (Web UI) via encrypted Transport Layer Security (TLS) or HTTPS

• Command Line Interface (CLI) via secure shell (SSH)

• Authentication via Terminal Access Controller Access-Control System (TACACS+) or Remote Authentication Dial-In User Service (RADIUS)

• Local and remote logging using Syslog

• Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) v2c, v3

• Open YANG model based APIs:

• CLI, REST, NETCONF

Why should I consider the Metro DCI?

Traditionally, enterprise customers leased metro wavelength services from the telecom carriers or service providers to interconnect the data centers. However, enterprises have now started to reevaluate this strategy and are exploring the option of leasing dark fiber and building their own high capacity, fault-tolerant networks - a move that is expected to yield significant savings on the monthly recurring charges and reduce the overall telecom spend on the services used to interconnect the data centers.

A self-managed Metro DCI network strategy becomes compelling if an enterprise customer's bandwidth needs are increasing at a fast pace. For example, if the bandwidth is doubling every 24 - 36 months and the customer needs to provision extra bandwidth rapidly without having to wait weeks or months for the service provider to install the new circuit. The breakeven period for such an investment could be as little as one year or less and generate tremendous savings on a multi-year basis.

Metro DCI platform allows connectivity between multiple type of locations:

1. Data Center to Data Center

2. Enterprise location to Data Center

3. Enterprise location to Enterprise location

The main advantage of the Metro DCI platform is the reduction in the price per bit with a leading transport capacity and density built into a 1RU platform.

What is Metro DCI Turnkey Solution?

The turnkey solution involves three components:

1. Metro dark fiber between the Customer’s facilities

2. Optical Metro DCI hardware

3. Network monitoring & management of the Metro DCI hardware and the metro dark fiber

How can we help? We bring all these three pieces together in order to help the Customer make a decision. LNK GROUP is uniquely qualified to help design your optical Metro DCI network. Each network architecture and design project engagement include the following series of steps:

• Identify the business applications driving the project - First we learn about your environment and determine how to leverage optical metro DC platform to meet your business goals

• Current configuration - Document the details of the existing network configuration including bandwidth, equipment handoffs, terminating equipment, etc.

• Identify the business applications driving the project - Understand the actual applications on the network and their latency and bandwidth requirements

• Determine redundancy and failover requirements

• Research metro dark fiber connectivity options - Generate a fully diverse, physical infrastructure solution connecting the customer's facilities. List the telecom carriers that can provide the dark fiber and meet the diversity requirements

• Optical Metro DCI hardware - Present options that meet the requirements and the pros and cons of each solution. Compare and contrast the solutions of the Metro DCI hardware vendors

• Network Management Options for the Metro DCI hardware - (Self-Managed versus Metro DCI hardware vendor managed solution)

• Cost comparison - Calculate costs of each option and compare it to the traditional solutions to understand the ROIt

Key Features of Dark Fiber

Is your data growing at greater than 50% per year and leasing wavelength over wavelength from carriers becoming very expensive? Dark fiber is the answer for you! Choose from Metro to Regional dark fiber routes.

You can use dark fiber to connect your offices, as well as your data centers.

Infinite Bandwidth
Access to unlimited bandwidth - the only limiting factor is the electronics at the end of the fiber spans

Superior Performance
Low latency solution - subject only to the fiber distance between the locations

Inexpensive
Fixed cost - regardless of the number of the bits transmitted. On a price per bit basis, dark fiber offers the lowest cost solution for many enterprise companies as the amount of bandwidth justifies the cost

Security
Private network - provides unparalleled security as the Customer's traffic does not traverse any service provider's data networks

Network Reliability
Solid reliability with a path diversity network design

Flexibility
Adjust your bandwidth up or down based on your needs. No need to engage the service provider

Africa and India Network Connectivity

Sourcing solutions to Africa and India can be a daunting task as it involves extensive research and information gathering which is necessary for vendor assessments, pricing exercises, and technical solution reviews. All this data must be gathered to ensure that the solution meets the business objectives.

We can shoulder the responsibility and help you by covering all aspects of the procurement process; we work with global network operators with extensive domestic footprint within these regions and thus can ensure that the solution meets the technical and pricing requirements as well as ensuring that the projects remain on schedule. We compare and contrast solutions from competing vendors and illuminate all the options that are available to the Customer for making a sound decision; thus, allowing the customer to focus on the big picture - larger initiatives driving the project.

We can help with the following:

• International network connectivity to the African continent (MPLS, IP, TDM, Ethernet IPL)

• Domestic network connectivity within the African continent (MPLS, IP, TDM, VSAT, Ethernet)

• Data Center Colocation within the African continent

• International network connectivity to Indian sub-continent (MPLS, IP, TDM, Ethernet IPL)

• Domestic network connectivity within India (MPLS, IP, TDM, Ethernet)

• Data Center Colocation within India

How can we help?

We will perform the following:

1. Identify the best technical solution, list the providers, compare and contrast the technical and pricing solutions

2. Negotiate contracts

3. Project manage the solution to ensure a smooth implementation

4. Coordinate a smooth cut-over to the new environment

Contact us and discover how we can benefit you and shorten the entire sales and implementation cycle.

Need Help with Cloud Migrations?

“By 2018, 50% of the applications hosted in the public cloud will be considered mission-critical by the organizations that use them”, according to the research firm Gartner. Need help with security, compliance, and monitoring?

LNK Group LLC partners provide a white glove service that addresses all that scope plus so much more. The following areas are addressed:

• Design

• Monitoring

• Recovery

• Patching

• Tech Support

• Back-ups

• Security

This allows your IT resources to focus on higher priority business requirements and grow your business.

Contact us and discover how we can benefit you and shorten the entire migration cycle.

SD-WAN

The promise of cost savings, a significant improvement in performance, high availability, Cloud-readiness, and better security – features that are being touted by 30+ plus SD-WAN vendors. Where do you start in such an over-crowded vendor space? Who is the right fit for your network?

LNK Group LLC can guide you through the necessary steps required to reap the benefits of SD-WAN as well as choose the right SD-WAN solution for your networking environment. Traffic analysis on your network is required upfront to ensure that the correct solution is tailored to your business requirements.

As part of a consulting engagement, LNK Group LLC will conduct a Netflow analysis of your network and provide a break down on how the Wide Area Network (WAN) bandwidth is being consumed on a per-application basis and also identify the critical applications that are latency sensitive. This analysis identifies the QoS categories that would be required on the MPLS network. The analysis also highlights the appropriate sizing of the MPLS circuits and what applications can be off-loaded to Dedicated Internet Access (DIA) circuits for Cloud connectivity in a Hybrid network design. The Netflow data will be utilized to create a WAN bandwidth profile on a per-site basis – this forms the foundation for research into SD-WAN vendor solutions and the SD-WAN design that will be created.

Contact us and discover how we can benefit you and help you migrate to the world of SD-WAN.