Businesses are reconsidering the value of traditional locations for their data center assets. Large CSPs and content providers driven by cost evolution and competitive forces are now asking themselves if purchasing high density core or prime wholesale data center space is still an effective investment of resources.
There’s wisdom in this line of business thinking. Why should CSPs and content providers accept the high costs and rigid control of traditional data center environments? And why pay the premium price for large deployments in major metropolitan areas when land outside these areas is abundant and affordable?
Through experience with core data centers, many of the businesses asking themselves these questions have gained an understanding of the margin models, cost implications, and the technical capacities such as cooling which are required for an effective data center environment. Armed with this understanding, they are also realizing they can utilize new connectivity technologies and methods to leverage an edge data center.
Companies can also leverage edge data centers to maintain the reliable and low-latency connectivity needed to serve mission-critical applications from the cloud. By putting data and application deployments in regionalized or edge data centers these companies can utilize fiber that extends back to their both their headquarters as well as key facilities in core markets. For this cloud strategy to work, a robust fiber network is required both for connectivity between the enterprise and the edge data center, as well as between the edge data center and facilities in core markets.
Enabled by Dark Fiber
Shifting workloads to edge environments requires dark fiber to enable secure and reliable connectivity between the enterprise’s data center and third-party data centers. Leveraging dark fiber reduces a company’s high-density data center footprint and replaces it with an increased footprint in edge data centers.
Dark fiber and deployment to hybrid cloud environments is an evolution of data center networking. Data centers no longer must be located in large metro areas. Performance is enabled by connectivity between edge data centers, enterprise data centers, and core data centers.
FiberLight’s Network
Taking advantage of the shift into localized, regional data centers also requires an optical network with metro reach to connect with abundant and affordable enterprise data center locations.
FiberLight owns and manages over 1,700,000 miles of fiber in markets including Atlanta, Houston, and Miami, as well as Washington, D.C., and Ashburn, Virginia, where capacity is quickly filling up and driving substantial price increases. We continue to invest and can “edge out” and expand our reach to connect businesses seeking to reduce costs. Other network operators are not as well-positioned by their dark fiber networks to edge out with their customers.
As seen in the D.C. and Ashburn areas, the trend of enterprises taking greater control of their data center environments to deal with rising costs will continue in metro markets across the U.S. As the digital transformation of business continues, dark fiber will become an increasingly vital element of enterprise data center strategy.
