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356

answers:

5

Jeff Atwood talked about doing an ISP-to-ISP file transfer:

http://friendfeed.com/e/63fb9e72-6cd5-a8ac-88dc-02ce720033f9/wow-just-did-an-isp-to-isp-file-transfer-650mb-in/

What is this? I tried Googling for it, but couldn't find anything. We have a need to transfer large amounts of data between two data centers, and this sounds interesting.

+6  A: 

He just meant he was transferring data between 2 servers behind large internet connections (OC-1, etc). Particularly between 2 datacenters which usually have internet connections in the measured in gbits.

I don't think he meant he was using some sort of special connection made. Just using the large bandwidth ports provided with the server to transfer the data.

Chad Moran
A: 

See also his recent blog post on The Economics of Bandwidth.

It basically means using the main internet backbones, rather than going through the standard channels.

Zhaph - Ben Duguid
A: 

FTP can be used to directly transfer data from one server to another, if the servers allow it. It is called proxy FTP or third-party FTP.

starblue
If it is "directly", then, by definition, there is no proxy or third party.
bortzmeyer
That is what it's called, I didn't choose the names. I can't explain "Proxy FTP", but for each client to server connection the other server is the third party.
starblue
A: 

FXP might be what you are thinking. The idea is your FTP client tells "FTP Server A" to go fetch a file from "FTP Server B". Great idea in theory, but it is pretty insecure and thus you never find an ISP with FXP enabled.

Cory R. King
+1  A: 

You should look into using a UDT/UDP based delivery solution to shift the data between a couple of locations..

http://udt.sourceforge.net/

Pro2col