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Spine-Leaf Data Center Topology

Medium

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Why three-tier fails in data centers

Traditional three-tier (access/distribution/core) was designed for north-south traffic (user → internet). Modern data centers are dominated by east-west traffic — VM to VM, container to container, service to service.

In three-tier, east-west traffic between racks travels up to the core and back down — 4–6 hops with unequal latency paths. Spine-leaf collapses this to a flat, 3-hop fabric.

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