Express Connect partners provide Express Connect circuits that are already connected to the access points of Alibaba Cloud. After you connect your data center to an access point that is deployed in a point of presence (PoP) of an Express Connect partner, the Express Connect partner allocates an Express Connect circuit to your account. You can use the allocated Express Connect circuit to connect to Alibaba Cloud. In this case, the Express Connect circuit is shared among multiple tenants. This topic describes how to use a shared Express Connect circuit to connect to Alibaba Cloud.

Background information

In most cases, hosted connections can be established within one month, which is shorter than the time required to establish dedicated connections.

Express Connect circuits provided by Express Connect partners are already connected to the access points of Alibaba Cloud. You need only to connect your data center to an access point of an Express Connect partner. This saves the time for connecting your data center to Alibaba Cloud. Hosted connections are suitable for services that have a high requirement on time efficiency.

For more information about Express Connect partners, see NSP partners.

Hosted connections over Express Connect circuits

The following workflow shows how to connect a data center to Alibaba Cloud through a hosted connection over an Express Connect circuit.

Procedure

Connect to Alibaba Cloud by using an Express Connect circuit established by an Express Connect partner

The following example shows how to connect to Alibaba Cloud by using an Express Connect circuit established by an Express Connect partner such as China Telecom or China Unicom.

Your data center is located in the China (Guiyang) region. The network carrier of the data center is China Unicom. You want to use an Express Connect circuit to connect to Alibaba Cloud so that you can access Elastic Compute Service (ECS), ApsaraDB RDS, Object Storage Service (OSS), and Server Load Balancer (SLB) instances in the China (Hangzhou) and China (Beijing) regions.

Network topology
Note Some provincial regions in mainland China do not support connections to Alibaba Cloud. If you have questions about the Express Connect circuits provided by Express Connect partners, submit a ticket to Alibaba Cloud. Submit a ticket.
  1. Contact China Unicom in the China (Guiyang) region about leasing a shared Express Connect circuit. Then, request China Unicom to perform a pre-installation survey. Confirm the resources that are required and the fees that are charged for connecting your data center to an access point of China Unicom in the China (Guiyang) region.
  2. Wait for the network carrier to complete the installation in your data center.
  3. Provide the network carrier with the ID of your Alibaba Cloud account.
    You can log on to the Alibaba Cloud Management Console, click the user avatar in the upper-right corner of the page, and then click Security Settings in the left-side navigation pane to view Account ID.
  4. China Unicom in the China (Guiyang) region provides you with unique VLAN IDs and IP addresses that do not conflict with each other. The IP addresses are provided for the gateway on Alibaba Cloud and the gateway in the data center. Then, China Unicom creates a virtual border router (VBR) for the connection.
  5. Log on to the Express Connect console. You can check whether the VBR runs as expected in the console.

Connect to Alibaba Cloud by using ECX

The following example shows how to connect to Alibaba Cloud by using Equinix Cloud Exchange (ECX).

Your data center is located in the Equinix DC11 data center in the US (Virginia) region. The network carrier of your data center is Equinix. You want to use ECX to connect your data center to the access point of Alibaba Cloud in the US (Virginia) region. In addition, you want to use a cloud service to connect to resources such as ECS, ApsaraDB RDS, OSS, and SLB instances in the China (Beijing) region.

Network topology
Note Express Connect partners provide ECX connections of different bandwidth limits. For more information, consult an Express Connect partner.
  1. Contact Equinix about leasing a shared Express Connect circuit. Ask Equinix to perform a pre-installation survey. Confirm the resources that are required and the fees that are charged for connecting your data center to the ECX platform.
  2. Wait for Equinix to connect your data center to the ECX platform.
  3. Provide Equinix with the ID of your Alibaba Cloud account.
    You can log on to the Alibaba Cloud Management Console, click the user avatar in the upper-right corner of the page, and then click Security Settings in the left-side navigation pane to view Account ID.
  4. Equinix provides you with unique VLAN IDs and IP addresses that do not conflict with each other. The IP addresses are provided for the gateway on Alibaba Cloud and the gateway in the data center. Then, Equinix creates a VBR for the connection.
  5. Log on to the Express Connect console. You can check whether the VBR runs as expected in the console.