colocation & outsourcing
The edge is a place
Until now, the data centre industry
has been concentrated in clusters
such as LINX (London Internet
Exchange) in London, or AMS-IX
(Amsterdam Internet Exchange)
in Holland. As connectivity was
a large cost for websites, being
close to plentiful and economical
connectivity made sense, and that
meant colocation in a data centre
close to an Internet hub.
While this strategy worked well,
in the last 10-15 years, customer
habits and needs are changing
drastically. Also, costs and the
industry itself are constantly in flux.
The price of IP transit has
plummeted to the point where it
is now a tiny part of the cost of
a data centre deployment and
enterprises are more and more
comfortable with running their
networks over IP.
Edge data centre providers
are essentially building in tiertwo markets – smaller hubs in
places that don’t already have
data centres but are becoming
increasingly bandwidth hungry.
These hubs are where the players
in the long chain of delivering
content or services to customers
interconnect and exchange traffic.
If you are just browsing the
Internet for general tasks, it is hard
to notice whether you’re near or far
from the edge. But for any kind of
mission critical or real time traffic
like video, cloud based applications,
or gaming, the extra latency can
significantly degrade performance
and increase security risks.
For enterprises demanding
faster access to applications and
ever more processing power, there
are a range of benefits of storing
data in an edge data centre.
1) Direct access to major regional
networks – Colocating in an
Internet hub means direct access
to the major regional networks.
2) Less expensive – It is much less
expensive to store data in an
‘edge’ location than a traditional
data centre.
3) Improved security – The close
proximity to the peering points
and content gives a greater
ability to isolate the network from
DDoS attacks.
4) Fewer restrictions – The location
often means not having to adhere
to the same space and power
restrictions seen in places such as
central London.
5) Better access to cloud services
– Cloud ecosystems develop
around Internet hubs, which means
customers can have quick and
easy access to public clouds,
CDN, security services and other
similar services.
Delivering data
hungry content
Content providers – including media
companies, retailers, financial services
firms and sports leagues – are racing
to keep pace with the explosion of
Internet video and mobile devices.
Edge data centres are being
driven by the need to deliver high
definition video to end users. When
YouTube first reached 1 billion
views for a single video, end users
based in Phoenix, Arizona, hit major
performance issues, including
inconsistent UX (user experience) and
slow download times. This was due to
the fact that every time the video was
requested by the end user, the file
had to be pulled from downtown LA –
over 500 miles away. As a result, and
in order for the video to be streamed,
local network providers had to move
it to their own network, resulting in a
cost of millions of dollars.
Bringing the Internet
closer to users
The first rule in colocation is ‘follow
the end user’. For the last 20 years
that has meant serving rich data from
key strategic locations across the
Internet, be it peering exchanges,
hubs or points where multiple carrier
networks meet.
Edge data centres are an
excellent solution for businesses with
a presence in less well served towns,
cities, regions and countries where
speed is essential for the running of
core applications.
The use of edge data centre
services can make any individual or
businesses, wherever they are in
the world, feel as if they are working
on the same system, with the same
performance and functionality.
With data growing at an
astonishing rate, and showing no
signs of slowing down, the demands
on infrastructure are also growing.
Inevitably, this means the edge
of the Internet spreads wider and
wider, moving ever closer to its final
destination at home.
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