A cross-connect is a physical cable, usually fiber and sometimes copper, that a data center operator installs between your equipment and another party’s equipment in the same facility or campus. The other party might be a carrier, a cloud provider’s on-ramp, an internet exchange point (IXP), a business partner or your own equipment in another part of the building. Cross-connects are the basic building block of interconnection in colocation.
At a glance
- A cross-connect is a dedicated physical cable between two parties’ equipment inside a data center or campus.
- The data center operator usually installs it, and typically charges a setup fee plus a monthly fee.
- Most cross-connects pass through a meet-me room or patch panels rather than running directly between cabinets.
- Ordering one normally requires authorization from the party you are connecting to.
What problem it solves
Being in the same building as a carrier or a cloud provider does not connect you to it. Something has to physically join your equipment to theirs. Running your own cable through a shared facility is generally not allowed, for safety, security and record-keeping reasons. A cross-connect is the operator’s managed way to make that link: documented, tested and supported.
The result is a short, private path with no third-party network in between. That is how a business in a carrier-neutral data center picks up internet service, private lines, cloud connectivity or a direct link to a partner without building any outside plant.
How it works
Ordering. You place the order with the data center operator through its portal, naming the two endpoints. If the other party is a carrier or cloud provider, it gives you a letter of authorization, often called an LOA/CFA, identifying the port or patch panel position where the cable should land.
Cabling. Operator technicians run the cable from a patch panel serving your cabinet or cage, through the building’s cable pathways, to the meet-me room or directly to the other party’s patch panel. The cable type (single-mode or multimode fiber, or copper) and connector must match both ends.
Testing and handoff. The operator tests the circuit, records it, and gives you a circuit identifier for support. You or the other party then bring up the service on the connected ports.
Variants. Campus cross-connects link buildings on the same campus. Virtual cross-connects, offered by some operators and network providers, use a software-defined fabric: one physical port, many logical connections ordered through a portal.
Billing and records. Each cross-connect is usually a line item on the monthly bill. Disconnecting one you no longer use often requires a separate order, so cross-connects that outlive the service they supported are a common source of waste.
For help planning connections to carriers and clouds, see our Interconnection solution page.
When it matters for buyers
- Moving into a data center. Budget for the cross-connects you will need on day one: internet, private lines, cloud on-ramps and any partner links.
- Adding or changing a carrier. A new carrier’s service is not live until the cross-connect is installed.
- Connecting to the cloud privately. Cloud on-ramps in the building are usually reached by cross-connect or virtual connection.
- Auditing costs. Reconcile monthly cross-connect charges against what is actually in use.
Questions to ask vendors
- What are the installation and monthly charges per cross-connect, by cable type?
- Are campus or inter-building cross-connects priced differently?
- What is the typical provisioning time once we submit a complete order?
- Do you offer redundant cross-connects on separate paths or meet-me rooms?
- Do you offer a virtual cross-connect or fabric option, and what does it reach?
- How are cross-connects tested, and what support is included if one fails?
- How do we disconnect a cross-connect, and when does billing stop?
How it differs from an internet exchange point (IXP)
A cross-connect is a private, one-to-one physical link between two parties. An IXP is a shared switching platform where many networks exchange traffic through a single port each. You often need a cross-connect to reach the IXP’s port in the first place, after which that one port can carry traffic to many networks that agree to peer with you.