Ordering your First Network Edge Device

In the previous two discussion posts (which can be found here and here) we painted a picture of how an Administrator might structure their organization operationally and explained Users, Resources, Projects, Organizations, and all of the other nuts and bolts that make up our IAM System.

Here's a quick rundown of everything you'll need to know and/or have from an operational standpoint to empower your users to go forth start deploying Network Edge Devices 

Checklist

Before ordering your first Network Edge Device, here are some things to complete/have handy

• Vendor Specific License - This can also be applied post-deployment, but throughput on devices will be limited until then. Some of these will be "Bring your Own License" or "BYOL", while others are offered with a subscription model at the time of deployment (vendor specific). Take a look here for more info about Network Edge Licenses.
• Resource Info - Take a look and explore performance options and see what the best fit is for you.
• Software Version - The version your new device will deploy with "out of the box", this can be updated manually as well by the customer post deployment. Software versions available for specific vendors can be found here. 
• User Account – A user account with the appropriate roles to order said Network Edge device, in this case "Network Edge Device Manager". 
• Billing Account – A billing account to complete the order with, either specific to the country the device is being deployed in or a global billing account.
• SSH Key Pair – An SSH Key Pair that will be uploaded/applied to the device, allowing you to securely connect with and configure the device via CLI.
• High Availability - Network Edge offers two options for High Availability, click here to learn more about the differences between how we treat active/active and active/standby deployments and how they behave and perform.
  
  

Here I've included a short video demonstrating how to add the "Network Edge Device Manager" role:

Ready to Order?

If you feel prepared to place your first Network Edge Device order and you'd like to watch along, here's a video in which I've gone through ordering a Cisco 8000V, and even included the SSH Key Pair creation process with PuttyGen, followed by accessing the device via the public interface: 

Hopefully this discussion post and the included video primers were able to help you get your organization's first Network Edge Device order submitted and provisioned! As always please feel free to leave any comments or questions down below!

Reference Documentation:

Equinix Product Documentation

Equinix Fabric

Equinix Network Edge

About Identity and Access Management (equinix.com)