DMaaS Connect

Use Case:
Increasing Backup Security and Reliability with Pink Elephant and NL-ix via DMaaS Connect

Pink Elephant, a provider of advanced backup services, teamed up with NL-ix to tackle a specific customer challenge: the need for reliable, predictable data transfer over the Internet. Many of Pink Elephant’s customers, or Pink in short, sought an alternative to the inherent unpredictability of standard Internet paths when transferring backup data. They needed something more stable and faster without sacrificing the openness and flexibility of the Internet.

To address this, Pink explored ways to enhance the performance of Internet-based data transfers without completely overhauling its infrastructure. Creating a dedicated infrastructure for each customer would require a massive investment of hardware, time, and resources. That’s where NL-ix proposed a solution that allowed Pink’s customers to leverage a dedicated personal exchange as part of the Internet—DMaaS Connect—providing a more reliable, secure, and efficient path for backup and recovery operations.

Challenges Faced:

1. Dependency on Public Internet:
   Pink’s backup service, while robust, relied on the standard Internet infrastructure, which meant both Pink and its customers were subject to variability in Internet performance. This could introduce delays during data transfers, which were particularly problematic during critical restore operations. Slowdowns caused by Internet congestion or outages could lead to operational disruptions, making faster recovery times a critical need.
2. Infrastructure Complexity for Direct Connections:
   Setting up direct connections to each customer would require Pink to develop and maintain its own infrastructure, including complex routing and hardware configurations. This would result in high costs and logistical challenges, especially as Pink’s customer base grew.

Solution: DMaaS Connect

Rather than bypassing the Internet altogether, Pink partnered with NL-ix to create DMaaS Connect, a solution that leverages a dedicated, personal Internet Exchange within the Internet itself. This approach allows Pink customers to benefit from a reliable and controlled connection between the customers corporate network and Pink’s DMaaS Backup.

DMaaS Connect enables customers to send backup data via a direct path that utilizes NL-ix’s infrastructure as an intermediary, giving them faster, more secure connections without the unpredictability of public Internet routes. This service effectively acts as a "fast lane" within the Internet, reducing congestion, ensuring more predictable performance, and providing better control over data transfers.

Key Benefits of DMaaS Connect:

1. Optimized Internet Performance via Dedicated Exchange:
   Unlike standard Internet paths, DMaaS Connect offers Pink’s customers a dedicated, personalised exchange through NL-ix’s network, which still operates as part of the Internet. This means customers can take advantage of the best characteristics of the Internet—such as its openness and widespread accessibility—while enjoying a more controlled and optimized route for data transfers. This dedicated path ensures faster and more reliable performance for backup and restore operations.
2. Minimizing Delays and Downtime:
   By utilizing a personal exchange, DMaaS Connect helps to minimize delays caused by typical Internet fluctuations. Faster and more predictable data transfer speeds are crucial for reducing downtime during system recovery, enabling businesses to restore their operations quickly after a failure. This leads to improved business continuity and less disruption.
3. Simplified Setup:
   Customers can access a dedicated, high-performance route without needing advanced network expertise or complex setup.
4. Enhanced Monitoring and Troubleshooting Capabilities:
   Since DMaaS Connect provides a dedicated path through the NL-ix exchange, it also enables enhanced monitoring and troubleshooting. Both Pink and its customers can have better visibility into the performance of data transfers, with the ability to track metrics such as latency, packet loss, and throughput in real-time. This level of control is difficult to achieve on the standard Internet but is possible with a dedicated exchange.
5. Failover via Public Internet:
   While DMaaS Connect provides an optimized route through a personal exchange, it includes a failover mechanism that defaults to the public Internet if needed. In case of any issues with the dedicated path, the system automatically switches to the public Internet as a backup, ensuring continuous service availability for Pink’s customers.

Outcome:
Through DMaaS Connect, Pink’s customers now enjoy a more predictable and secure backup process without sacrificing the Internet's flexibility. They can transfer their backup data over a dedicated, optimized route, leveraging the benefits of a personal exchange within the Internet. This solution has streamlined the backup process, making it faster, more reliable, and easier to manage.

Moreover, DMaaS Connect’s failover mechanism ensures that, even if the dedicated connection encounters issues, Pink’s customers can still rely on the public Internet to keep data flowing, providing peace of mind and operational continuity.

Availability:

DMaaS Connect is available to all Pink customers as of today. For more information on how to implement DMaaS Connect, please contact NL-ix or Pink Elephant.

Conclusion:

Pink’s partnership with NL-ix has resulted in the creation of DMaaS Connect, a specialized solution designed to enhance backup security and reliability by leveraging the power of a dedicated personal exchange within the Internet. This approach allows Pink’s customers to enjoy more predictable performance and faster data transfers without needing complex setups or losing the flexibility of the Internet. By combining NL-ix’s network expertise with Pink’s backup services, DMaaS Connect offers a hybrid solution that delivers the best of both worlds—high performance and internet openness—ensuring businesses can restore data quickly and confidently.

DMaaS Connect is Pink Elephants name for the Private Interconnect Service with Pink Cloud Services and is based on the NL-ix SaaS Connect Service.