Skip to main content
Cloud Links provide private, high-performance connectivity between your physical ports and a public cloud provider. Use them to:
  • Establish private, low-latency paths between your network and a public cloud (AWS, Azure, GCP).
  • Build a resilient, scalable foundation for hybrid and multi-cloud architectures.
  • Bypass the internet to provide enhanced security, reliability, and performance.
Cloud Links come through your provisioned ports and leverage the Zayo DynamicLink fabric for reliability, performance, and security.

​
Core concepts

  • A-side / Z-side: A connection links two sides. The A-side is your initiating port; the Z-side is the destination.
  • Bandwidth: You allocate bandwidth for the connection. Ensure both ends have sufficient available capacity.
  • VLANs: VLANs segment traffic on a port. Each connection uses selected VLANs to isolate and identify the connection.
  • Status lifecycle: Ordering, Pending/Provisioning and Available/Active. Status is visible in the portal and (for clouds) within the provider console.
  • BGP: For cloud connections, BGP enables dynamic route exchange once the NNI is established.

​
Design guidance

  • Redundancy: Build dual links on separate ports/locations for high availability
  • Capacity planning: Size bandwidth to peak traffic; monitor and adjust as needs evolve
  • Segmentation: Use distinct VLANs per environment or application to simplify operations
  • Observability: Enable monitoring to track utilization, latency, and loss end-to-end

​
Connection types

​
Port-to-cloud connectivity

Connect directly to public cloud providers via Network-to-Network Interface (NNI):
  • AWS Direct Connect: Create the connection in DynamicLink portal, then approve it in the AWS console.
  • GCP Cloud Interconnect: Start in the Google Cloud Console to create the interconnect and obtain a pairing key. You will use this key to create the connection in DynamicLink.
  • Azure ExpressRoute: Create the circuit in Azure to obtain a service key. You will use this key to create the connection in DynamicLink.

​
Bandwidth options

AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud allow the following bandwidths:
  • 50 Mbps: Suitable for small workloads and testing
  • 100 Mbps: Good for development environments
  • 200 Mbps: Appropriate for small production workloads
  • 300 Mbps: Medium-sized applications
  • 400 Mbps: Larger applications with moderate traffic
  • 500 Mbps: High-traffic applications
  • 1 Gbps: Enterprise applications
  • 2 Gbps: Large enterprise workloads
  • 5 Gbps: High-bandwidth applications
  • 10 Gbps: Maximum hosted connection bandwidth

​
Cloud-to-cloud connectivity

You can create a Layer 2 virtual circuit between two cloud locations or two different cloud providers. This is useful if you need Layer 2 connectivity rather than Layer 3 connectivity (such as with Cloud Routers). Multi-cloud network fabrics allow AWS, Azure, and GCP resources to communicate as if on the same Layer-2 domain. This unified approach enables true workload portability across providers, removing the need for repeated reconfiguration.