EdgeConneX® and Electric Lightwave™ have released a case study highlighting the benefits of their long-standing partnership. EdgeConneX purpose-built, proximity-based Edge Data Centers®, combined with Electric Lightwave’s reliable, secure and high capacity fiber network, move Internet content, Cloud and enterprise applications closer to the end-user. The case study examines how uniting Edge Data Centers with Electric Lightwave’s resilient network has created a faster end-to-end solution, while enhancing performance and reducing costs for accessing the Cloud, social media or corporate infrastructure.
Built for enhanced security, speed and performance, EdgeConneX Edge Data Centers enable customers to deliver digital content to any end-user as fast as possible. Each facility is strategically located at the end-user’s nearest point of access to reduce network latency and optimize performance. By virtue of local proximity, the Cloud is also brought to the enterprise, enabling more secure, real-time access to cloud applications and services while offering reduced backbone transport costs.
The partnership between EdgeConneX and Electric Lightwave began in early 2013. Since that time, customers have had access to the most innovative data center ecosystem in the western U.S. The ability for Edge Data Center tenants to tap into virtually unlimited bandwidth and achieve more reliable fiber connectivity, exceptional performance and faster delivery of their content has been a major benefit. Additionally, the enablement of Cloud, social media and corporate infrastructures with new capabilities and opportunities for accessing and transporting digital content has been hugely advantageous.
Other areas in which customers have benefited from the partnership include 4K Ultra HD streaming video. Now available with many popular Over-the-Top (OTT) content providers, including Amazon Video, Netflix and YouTube, it can now be served in new markets through a cost-effective, higher performing technology infrastructure for both creators and consumers.
The case study shows that the rates of content creation and consumption are growing exponentially. In fact, experts estimate that in the next five years, the market will grow from 1.8 billion connected individuals with 4 billion connected devices, to more than 9 billion individuals with 75 billion devices. Sadly, the Internet and supporting infrastructure have not kept pace, leading these same experts to predict a drop in user satisfaction, which will slow the adoption of new technologies that help drive enterprise revenue and efficiency. The solution is the combination of a resilient, high-capacity fiber infrastructure and a localized data center platform near end-users. According to Gartner’s Edge Manifesto, these increased workloads require “the use of smaller, distributed, connected data centers, closer to concentrations of users and generators of content.”
“Partnering with Electric Lightwave was a natural choice because they own and operate one of the most extensive and diverse fiber networks in the western U.S.,” said Clint Heiden, chief commerce officer, EdgeConneX. “They also had an established business with a large roster of enterprise customers. Given that proximity is so important for our customers, it was serendipitous that Electric Lightwave had a very similar footprint as ours. Our business model relies on proximity and when we realized that Electric Lightwave already had an established presence in many of the same metro areas where we were building new Edge Data Centers, it was clear that our vision for the future of the Internet’s infrastructure mapped perfectly with their vision,” continued Heiden.
Dan Stoll, president, Electric Lightwave had this to say: “Electric Lightwave and EdgeConneX are aligned on the mission of enabling Internet innovation at the Edge. Electric Lightwave offers high-capacity Wavelength and Ethernet access technologies to enable the fastest and most secure content delivery possible from each Edge Data Center. It is uniquely gratifying to find a partnership with a company whose cultural ethos matches ours, in placing a premium on delivering the exceptional end-user experiences that our customers demand.”
To view the case study in its entirety, click here.