What is OVHcloud Connect?

OVHcloud Connect is a dedicated, private network connection between your infrastructure and OVHcloud. Instead of routing traffic over the public Internet, OVHcloud Connect establishes a direct link that offers better security, lower latency, and guaranteed bandwidth.

Who is it for?

OVHcloud Connect is designed for organisations that need:

• Reliable connectivity for business-critical applications (ERP, databases, backups).
• Enhanced security by keeping traffic off the public Internet.
• Predictable performance with dedicated bandwidth (no shared bottlenecks).
• Multi-cloud or hybrid-cloud architectures connecting on-premises data centres, different cloud infrastructures, or WAN networks to OVHcloud.

How does it work?

OVHcloud Connect links your network to OVHcloud through a Point of Presence (PoP) — a physical location where OVHcloud has networking equipment. You can establish this link in two ways:

Layer 2 (L2) service - OVHcloud Connect Direct only

OVHcloud Connect L2 links your infrastructure to OVHcloud services at the data link layer (Layer 2). It allows you to extend your private network to OVHcloud datacenters, creating a seamless bridge between your local network and cloud resources, no routing involved. As opposed to Layer 3 service, it is transparent to VLANs (802.1q).

Key points:

• It is a strict point-to-point link (one PoP and one AZ only).
• Redundancy is possible via link aggregation (LACP) on the same PoP.

Potential use cases:

• Simple hybrid topologies
• "Lift & Shift" migrations without IP changes
• Applications requiring L2 adjacency or VLAN transparency

Layer 3 (L3) service

OVHcloud Connect L3 links your infrastructure to OVHcloud services at the network layer (Layer 3). It allows routing and requires routes exchange.

Once the physical link is established, routing is configured using BGP (Border Gateway Protocol), and the connection is associated with your vRack — OVHcloud's virtual private network — so your OVHcloud resources can communicate privately with your external infrastructure.

Key points:

• It is supported by a Full Mesh architecture allowing multiple PoPs and availability zones (AZ) to be interconnected within a region.
• Network resilience can be created via BGP sessions (multi-peers) and ECMP, with the possibility of automatic failover between multiple PoPs.

Potential use cases:

• Enterprise WAN integration (Cloud as a Branch)
• Critical multi-PoP architectures
• Large-scale complex deployments.

To configure L3 routing, see the Configure OVHcloud Connect L3 with BGP guide or the Configure OVHcloud Connect L3 with static routes guide.

Architecture overview

What's next?

• Review the Glossary to understand key terms.
• See the list of Providers available for managed connectivity.
• Read the prerequisites and limitations to verify whether OVHcloud Connect meets your use case.
• Jump to the Quick Start guides: Direct to get connected.
• Jump to the Quick Start guides: Provider to get connected.

Go further

For training or technical assistance implementing our solutions, contact your sales representative or visit our Professional Services page to request a quote and have your project analyzed by our experts.

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