Overview of solutions for connecting an on-premises data center to Alibaba Cloud-阿里云帮助中心

Use VPN Gateway, Express Connect circuits, or Smart Access Gateway to connect your on-premises data center to Alibaba Cloud. This establishes network connectivity between Alibaba Cloud services such as Data Transmission Service (DTS) and your on-premises databases.

Overview

Use products such as VPN Gateway, Express Connect, Smart Access Gateway, Cloud Enterprise Network (CEN), and Database Gateway to build a private connection between your on-premises data center and an Alibaba Cloud virtual private cloud (VPC). This connection enables network communication between Alibaba Cloud services such as DTS and your on-premises database. You can also seamlessly extend your on-premises IT infrastructure to Alibaba Cloud. You can use Alibaba Cloud's vast computing, storage, network, and CDN resources to manage business fluctuations and improve application stability.

Connection solutions

Solution	Description
VPN Gateway connection	Use an IPsec-VPN connection through a VPN Gateway to connect your on-premises data center and a VPC. By default, a VPN Gateway includes two gateway instances in an active-standby configuration. If the primary node fails, traffic automatically fails over to the secondary node. VPN Gateway communicates over the Internet. Network latency and availability depend on the Internet connection. If you do not have high requirements for network latency, use VPN Gateway. For configuration details, see Connect an on-premises data center to Alibaba Cloud using a VPN Gateway.
Express Connect circuit connection	Express Connect circuit connection Connect your on-premises data center to an Alibaba Cloud access point over an Express Connect circuit to establish a high-quality link. Express Connect provides Express Cloud Connect, a one-stop service for connecting to the cloud, and also supports connections over self-managed Express Connect circuits. An Express Connect circuit provides good network quality and high bandwidth. If you have high requirements for network quality, use an Express Connect circuit. For more information about the configuration method, see Introduction to cloud connection solutions over Express Connect circuits. Redundant Express Connect circuit connection Use redundant Express Connect circuits to connect your on-premises data center to Alibaba Cloud. This establishes a high-quality, reliable private connection between your on-premises data center and a VPC on Alibaba Cloud. Alibaba Cloud supports up to four Express Connect circuits for equal-cost multi-path (ECMP) routing. For more information about the configuration methods, see Connect an on-premises data center to the cloud over active/standby redundant Express Connect circuits and Connect an on-premises data center to the cloud over load-balanced Express Connect circuits. Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) active/standby link connection Use Express Cloud Connect or a self-managed Express Connect circuit together with Cloud Enterprise Network (CEN). This combination lets you connect your on-premises data center to the cloud over active/standby links and interconnect with VPCs in different regions. For more information about the configuration method, see Solution for connecting an on-premises data center to the cloud over BGP active/standby Express Connect circuits.
Smart Access Gateway connection	Smart Access Gateway is a one-stop solution from Alibaba Cloud for quickly connecting to the cloud. Enterprises can use Smart Access Gateway to establish encrypted connections to the nearest access point over the Internet. This provides a more intelligent, reliable, and secure cloud connection experience. Smart Access Gateway is simple to configure and cost-effective. To connect multiple local branches to the cloud, use Smart Access Gateway. For configuration details, see Connect to the cloud using a single SAG device and static routing and .
Cloud Enterprise Network connection	Cloud Enterprise Network (CEN) lets you quickly build a global network for hybrid clouds and distributed business systems to achieve global network interconnection. Attach the network instances that you want to interconnect to a CEN instance to enable network communication. For configuration details, see CEN tutorials overview.
Database Gateway connection	Use Database Gateway to connect an on-premises database or a third-party cloud database to Alibaba Cloud at a low cost, without opening any ports to the Internet. For configuration details, see Connect an on-premises data center or third-party cloud database to Alibaba Cloud using Database Gateway.

References

Data Transmission Service (DTS) supports using a self-managed database as the source or destination database for data transmission. You must complete different preparations based on the scenario. Then, select the corresponding instance type when you configure the task. For more information, see Overview of preparations.