Overview

Scenario

Direct Connect establishes a dedicated, secure, stable, and high-speed network connection between your on-premises data center and VPCs. It works together with an enterprise router to build a large-scale hybrid cloud network.

Enterprise Router helps choose the fastest possible route dynamically and switch between Direct Connect connections. It balances the load among connections and fully uses the network bandwidth. This makes network transmission faster, more reliable, and better performing.

In this example, you can use an enterprise router and two Direct Connect connections to set up a hybrid cloud network.

You can share an enterprise router with different accounts to attach VPCs of these accounts to the same enterprise router for communications.

If you need to set up a hybrid cloud network, it is recommended that you use Enterprise Router and Direct Connect Global DC Gateway. For details, see Setting Up a Hybrid Cloud Network Using Enterprise Router and a Pair of Direct Connect Connections (Global DC Gateway).

From May 2024, Enterprise Router and Direct Connect Virtual Gateway cannot be used together to set up a hybrid cloud network. Existing networks that are set up using Enterprise Router and Direct Connect Virtual Gateway are not effected.

Architecture

To improve the performance and reliability of the hybrid cloud network, your enterprise uses two Direct Connect connections to connect your on-premises data center to the VPCs. The two Direct Connect connections work in load balancing mode. When both connections are working normally, network transmission is greatly improved. If one connection is faulty, the other connection ensures the normal running of the hybrid cloud network and thereby prevents service interruption caused by a single connection.

The two VPCs can communicate with each other and communicate with the on-premises data center over two Direct Connect connections and an enterprise router.
When one Direct Connect connection is faulty, the two VPCs can communicate with the on-premises data center over the normal connection.

Figure 1 A hybrid cloud network that you set up using an enterprise router and a pair of Direct Connect connections

Advantages

Enterprise Router enables two Direct Connect connections to work in load balancing mode. This improves the network performance and reliability of hybrid cloud networking and prevents service interruptions caused by the failure of a single connection.