If there were just one comparison to understand the difference between transit and peering: transit is like sending a confidential letter through the postal service; peering is handing it directly to the recipient.
For your most sensitive data, this difference is strategic.
When a company connects to the Internet, it has two ways to exchange data:
- Transit: Your data leaves your network and reaches its destination, but you have no control over the path it takes. You don’t know which intermediate networks are used, who they are, how many there are, or where they’re located.
- Peering: This is the direct path between two networks, you know exactly which network is being used. The result: greater security, because there are fewer points of exposure. In the case of private peering between two partners, data doesn’t travel over the public Internet.
But it also comes down to latency. A shorter path is a faster path. For real-time applications, financial transactions, and services that depend on responsiveness, this difference is measured in milliseconds. And in certain industries, milliseconds have real economic value.
The question your organization should be asking: “Am I comfortable with this data traveling across the Internet, or do I want to control its path?”
Peering isn’t reserved for telecom operators. It’s a data sovereignty tool accessible to any organization that has decided to take ownership of its connectivity.
If you have partners with whom you exchange sensitive data, the question of peering is worth raising. France-IX can help you assess what it would concretely change for your organization.
Why peer?
This news was first published on LinkedIn. To comment or share it, head to the original post. → See the post