A large-scale data center is based on orthogonal connectivity of a distributed single-stage connector, having a large number of disjoint primary switches, to a large number of access nodes and a large number of secondary switches. The secondary switches are coupled to a large number of servers forming a server farm. The orthogonal-connectivity scheme yields a contiguous network providing single-hop paths from each access node to each other access node, from each secondary switch to each other secondary switch, from each access node to each secondary switch, and from each secondary switch to each access node.