I would like to ask a question. Is there any wat to acquire IP, independent of provider?
Can I buy IPs and use them in different data centers? We have physical servers in the united states and germany. Is it possible to buy IPs and use them in datacenters?
I believe it is not possible, because of routing/BGP and so on.
Thank very much
Can I buy IPs and use them in different data centers? We have physical servers in the united states and germany. Is it possible to buy IPs and use them in datacenters?
Technically, yes, definitely. You can:
get IP addresses the way ISPs get them, through direct membership in your region's Internet Registry (e.g. ARIN, RIPE, LACNIC); or
get IP addresses through an assignment from an existing RIR member (e.g. some ISPs and/or datacenter operators might offer this service); or
these days, for IPv4 – purchase someone else's address block in one of the "second-hand IPv4 markets".
In all cases you'll be able to get just the addresses, independently from a connection.
But in practice, IPv4 might cost you a lot, as there are simply no more addresses left to assign from the regional registries – only bought "used" from the IPv4 brokers. (IPv6, on the other hand, is fairly cheap and in some cases outright free.)
I believe it is not possible, because of routing/BGP and so on.
BGP is exactly what makes it possible – however, you need to arrange its use with each datacenter's operators, so that you could announce your own IP ranges through BGP to the Internet.
Note that for IPv4, a /24 (i.e. a block of 256 addresses) is the smallest announcement that most network operators will accept – a single IP address won't do – and getting a /24 will cost you quite a lot, these days.
(As mentioned, the Regional Registries have no more /24's to hand out to members, so you'll usually need to get one from a "used IPv4" broker. As of today [2023-12], the market price seems to be about $9,000–$12,000 for a single /24 block.)
This means that even if you do manage to get this done, you might need to share one /24 across all your datacenters, which would require ordering some sort of L2VPN service (or setting up GRE tunnels) to relay packets from one datacenter to others (site A receives all packets, some of them go to local servers at A, others are tunneled to sites B and C).
On the other hand, for IPv6, the smallest range is a /48, and that's very easy to obtain, even for individuals. (RIR membership gives you a /32 to begin with.)
Yes, you can. Provided that the subnet length is <24, data centres will quite happily allow you to use your own. How you connect to them is another question, and will either require you to supply router function, or have the dc do that for you.
The reason for the minimum subnet length being 24, is to try and keep the routing tables small.
