Some partners have pre-established connections to Alibaba Cloud Express Connect access points. If your IDC is outside an Express Connect region or does not need a high-bandwidth connection, you can work with a partner to connect your IDC to a VPC.
Background
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The connection between a partner and Alibaba Cloud is shared among multiple tenants.
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A partner is a Network Service Provider (NSP), such as China Unicom or China Telecom, that has established a shared physical connection to an Alibaba Cloud access point.
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Users with a reseller account cannot apply to become an NSP.
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A tenant is the end user who uses a partner's physical connection to connect their on-premises IDC to Alibaba Cloud.
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With a shared connection, the physical link from the partner access point to the Alibaba Cloud access point already exists. The partner only sets up the last-mile connection to your IDC, which shortens deployment time.
Compared to a dedicated connection, deployment for a shared connection typically takes less than one month.
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Alibaba Cloud provides a shared port feature. Instead of pushing a cross-account Virtual Border Router (VBR) to the tenant, the partner pushes a cross-account shared port that the tenant owns.
In the shared port model, the billing items for a shared connection are adjusted as follows:
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Partners are no longer charged the port installation fee, VBR instance fee, or port resource usage fee.
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Tenants are charged a port resource usage fee and an outbound data transfer fee.
Shared connection billing is described in the Billing overview.
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Each shared port supports only one VBR instance, creating a one-to-one mapping between the shared port and the VBR.
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Partners use VLAN IDs for resource isolation. The partner assigns a VLAN ID when creating the shared connection. The tenant must use the same VLAN ID when creating their VBR and cannot change it.
To connect through a partner, you must contract with a third-party NSP. The partner is responsible for the SLA and any issues outside the Alibaba Cloud network.
Shared connection process
To set up a shared connection:
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For a new shared connection, contact a partner and follow these steps:
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For an existing shared connection, your partner converts it to the cross-account shared port model:
NoteResource conversion does not interrupt your services.
Partner Express Connect
Contact your Alibaba Cloud account manager for partner contact information.
Partner availability is restricted. Purchase based on these requirements:
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If your IDC carrier is China Telecom, you can purchase the express connect circuit service only from China Telecom.
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If your IDC carrier is China Unicom, you can purchase the express connect circuit service only from China Unicom.
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If your IDC carrier is CITIC Telecom, you can purchase the express connect circuit service only from CITIC Telecom.
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If your IDC is in a carrier-neutral data center, you can purchase the express connect circuit service from any partner. We recommend consulting your data center provider.
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If you have a self-operated IDC, you can purchase the express connect circuit service from any partner.
Example: Create a hosted connection
In this example, your IDC is in Guiyang, China, and your carrier is China Unicom. You use an Express Connect circuit to connect to ECS, OSS, RDS, and SLB resources in VPCs in the China (Hangzhou) and China (Beijing) regions.
Some provinces in the Chinese mainland do not yet support peering with Alibaba Cloud. Contact your local carrier for hosted connection options.
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Contact China Unicom in Guiyang for a cloud connection plan using an Express Connect circuit. The carrier performs a site survey, confirms resources and fees for the connection from their Guiyang access point to your IDC, and provides a quote.
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China Unicom in Guiyang installs the Express Connect circuit to your IDC.
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Provide your Alibaba Cloud account ID to China Unicom in Guiyang.
Find your Account ID in the Alibaba Cloud Management Console: click your profile picture in the upper-right corner, then click Basic Information in the left-side navigation pane.
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China Unicom in Guiyang creates a shared port for you.
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Log in to the Express Connect console to accept the shared port as described in the Tenant guide.