> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.zayo.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Cloud Links Overview

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](l2-l3) (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.