Here’s a quick look at some developments in the metro/regional networking world that are worth a look:
Southern Light is leveraging some new SaaS capabilities to better bring its regional and metro fiber to the marketplace. They have implemented Connected2Fiber’s platform, including the Building List Manager and Building Intelligence modules, to better manage and share information about the company’s reach. Southern Light operates 6,000 route miles of fiber in the southern US, mostly in the cities along the Gulf Coast, and has so far stayed out of the M&A spotlight and focused on organic growth. The technology from Connected2Fiber will help them spread the word accurately to potential customers and partners.
MRV has won a new regional network operator over to its OptiDriver metro optical gear. Syndeo has picked MRV’s WDM technology upgrade its infrastructure, which spans some 21 counties in northern Illinois. They had maxed out the capabilities of their legacy network, and the upgrade will lower costs as well as space and power requirements as well as add 100G to the mix. Syndeo also owns DeKalb Fiber Optics, which installs fiber across the region.
VeloCloud has a new service provider partner for its SD-WAN technology. Global Capacity will be using VeloCloud‘s capabilities to roll out managed SD-WAN services. Global Capacity’s offering will leverage its One Marketplace platform, blending interconnection across multiple access platforms and network types into a hybrid WAN. SD-WAN is definitely looking like one of the year’s big deployment stories across the industry.
And it looks like we have a management shakeup over at Zayo. The Boulder-based fiber network operator has hired Andrew Crouch as its new COO, while its current president and COO, Chris Morley, will be leaving after a transition period. Crouch will join the company on April 27, moving on from Level 3 in advance of the CenturyLink deal. Yep, if you thought there were already enough Level 3 alumni spread around the sector, you ain’t seen nothing yet.
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Categories: Jobs · Metro fiber · Software · Telecom Equipment
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The bulk of the DeKalb Fiber Optic network (pre-Syndeo) came from a round 1 BTOP grant to DeKalb County, IL. There were some portions that came from the local school districts and some portions that were independently built.
Syndeo also recently acquired the NITT (Northern Illinois Technology Triangle), a network built by the same people that built NIUNet as NIU couldn’t really sell services to non-GovEd type clients. The NITT never went anywhere useful, so it was destined to fail.
Syndeo is also a service provider partner on the iFiber network (a round two BTOP grant to NIU).