Patent ID: 8880739

Claim:
A computer-implemented method of connecting computing devices, comprising: under control of one or more computer systems configured with executable instructions, grouping a plurality of switches of a network deployment into a plurality of deployment units, each deployment unit structured as an individual highly-connected network comprising a first tier of edge switches each connected to each of a second tier of spine switches, each edge switch being further connected to a respective set of host computing devices, the edge switches and spine switches being connected using only connections between tiers; connecting each of the deployment units to an external network using a common backbone tier comprising a plurality of backbone switches, connections for network traffic between the host computing devices and the external network being only between-tier connections; and connecting all of the plurality of deployment units using a logical interface on each of the backbone switches within the common backbone tier, wherein the logical interface enables one or more host computing devices of any deployment unit to communicate with at least one host computing device in each of all other deployment units using only between-tier connections according to conventional routing protocols, such that at least a portion of the network traffic between the host computing devices and the external network is routed along a path that enters the host computing devices of at least two of the plurality of the deployment units by using the logical interface.