Four bits of colo and related news worth noting from the start of the week:
Fresh off of launching its new TJ1 facility in Tianjin, Chayora has revealed a bit more of how it plans to take on the Chinese data center market. This week they announced a strategic partnership with Beijing Sinnet Technology. As a local company, Sinnet will use the company’s hyperscale campus to expand its colo business and will be able to deliver network and cloud services for Chayora customers.
On the Jersey shore, NJFX has achieved a key new certification. Yesterday they announced that the facility has achieved HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accounting Act) certification, and is the first cable landing station on the continent to do so. Such a move is necessary for facilities that hope to get any traction at all within the healthcare vertical. Not many CLS facilities are doing that, but NJFX’s blend of colo directly alongside submarine cables is a unique case.
eStructure’s recent expansion of its facility in Vancouver was just their first move in the city for the month. Yesterday they announced plans to build a second one as well. VAN-2 will add another 54,000 square feet of space and 30MW of power to the company’s portfolio. A dedicated fiber ring will connect to VAN-1 as you might expect. Phase 1 is expected to be available in Q4 of this year.
And Digital Realty is expanding its IX platform, known as DRIX. The internet exchange services will be available in Ashburn and Chicago, expanding out from the existing NYC, Atlanta, Dallas, and Phoenix footprint. The IX landscape is getting more crowded every day now it seems, although given that Digital Realty bought Telx a few years ago, they aren’t exactly new to the market but rather they are approaching it from a new angle.
If you haven't already, please take our Reader Survey! Just 3 questions to help us better understand who is reading Telecom Ramblings so we can serve you better!
Categories: Datacenter · Interconnection
Join Our LinkedIn Group
Well, bless their heart.
Digital Realty is expanding on the booming success of their IXes in Phoenix, Dallas, and New York by building IXes in Chicago and Ashburn.
(Using PeeringDB numbers)
1) Phoenix has 7 networks, while competitor Phoenix-IX has 53.
2) Dallas has 6 networks, while competitor DE-CIX has 48.
3) New York has 68. 68 seems not bad, but DE-CIX has 190, NYIIX has 173, Equinix has 121. So fourth place. No doubt it’ll deteriorate over time.
4) They’re not doing too bad in Atlanta. They have 133, while SNAP only has 23.
5) In Chicago, Equinix has 235, CHIX has 31, AMS-IX has 31, Coresite has 11. Megaport seems to have given up on theirs as it isn’t on PeeringDB. We’re kinda there too.
6) In Ashburn, Equinix has 305, LINX NOVA has 42, Megaport has 20, Coresite has 19.
Nothing screams “ME TOO!” than DRT building two more IXes when you really only have one that’s successful.
If you are DRT, you probably feel like you have to include these baseline things if you want to attract certain clientele, even if its not a runaway success. Running a regional small IX, you probably know better than most that ultimately the big players go where there is bang for your buck, and that means an IX, and preferably with density.
Also, when you say DRT IX or CX, shouldn’t that be well understood to be the Megaport platform? Its generally understood DRT invested in them in exchange for them running their interconnection.
In Chicago, DRT already has an IX present in their 350 Cermak facility. If they wanted something in Elk Grove, I’m sure ChIX would have been open to that with proper incentives.
In NOVA, if any of their facilities are multi-tenant focused as opposed to wholesale, I’m sure LINX would have entertained expanding beyond the one they’re already in.
If networks want an IX with density, the only place they’re going to choose DRT is Atlanta. There are better options everywhere else on their footprint. That’s not to say that DRT won’t muscle their way in with ports cheaper than cross-connects and all that jazz.
The DRT\Megaport deal meaning Megaport is running their IXes is interesting given that MegaPort effectively backed out of their US IXes, giving them to AMS-IX. None of the MegaIX locations that remain in the US really have anyone on them. Their competition is also in more locations.
DRT would have been better off strengthening their existing relationships in those markets than “Me too”.
Actually, there is no requirement nor any process for certification under HIPAA. Some companies simply boast that they hired a company to audit and “certify” their HIPPA compliance, even though HIPPA is not a standard for data center providers or other intermediaries.
To clarify, I’m referring to certification for entities which do not directly collect and store health-care data (such as data centers and cable landing stations). While it’s certainly conceivable that a facility could be operated in a way which would cause all customers to fail to meet HIPAA requirements, there is no positive certification process for these entities.
Agreed, the idea that a cable landing station needs to be HIPAA-compliant is absurd. However, many of these regulatory schemes have brought it on themselves to make it more of a marketing ploy than anything serious, by not being more explicit about what the objective is. They could declare certain categories out of scope easily, but the vagueness of the laws ensures lots of great consulting gigs to “interpret.”