Businesses, ISPs, carriers and ICT companies face three alternatives to address the ever growing demand for data centre space to house burgeoning IT and networking equipment. They can build or expand their own data centres; they can outsource their data centre needs to a carrier owned data centre; or they can outsource to a carrier neutral data centre, which is not owned by, or aligned to, a carrier or internet service provider. (More specifically, a vendor neutral data centre is not just carrier neutral but outsourcer neutral i.e. it is operated by a company which provides no services except the data centre itself.)
An International Perspective
This isn’t new. Across the world, operators (carriers, ISPs etc.) offer data centre solutions to clients buying other services from them. Many companies are happy to buy, for example, their hosting including bandwidth, from one service provider. But to those other companies which require independence and flexibility, the carrier neutral data centre sector has provided an ideal solution. The sector has grown at a dizzying rate.
Telehouse opened the world’s first vendor neutral data centre in London’s Docklands in 1990. There are now several million square metres of carrier neutral data centre space around the world offered by global groups such as Equinix, Telehouse, Telecity and many others. In Europe, there is now more carrier neutral data centre space than carrier owned space*, which reflects the changing patterns of customer demand.
“Ensync, a managed MPLS network provider, realised the potential in the flexibility and scalability offered by a carrier neutral colocation facility and has seen the need for this in the SA market for some time now. Teraco offered exactly that and it simply makes sense to partner with Teraco as it offers customers the freedom they require and the quality few other service providers can compete with. Moving our business to Teraco offers both Ensync and our customers access to a world class facility and high speed access is available at a fraction of the cost previously offered” Eduard du Plessis CEO, Ensync
* In 2009, Broadgroup estimates there is 606,000sqm carrier neutral data centre space and 470,000sqm of carrier owned data centre space across Europe] Ensync, a managed MPLS network provider, realised the potential in the flexibility and scalability offered by a carrier neutral collocation facility and has seen the need for this in the SA market for some time now.
And South Africa?
Until Teraco opened its doors there was no carrier and vendor neutral space in South Africa. Teraco remains the only provider. Operators such as carriers, service providers and systems integrators offering data centre services seek to bundle their data centre service (or colocation) with their other core business services such as bandwidth, interconnect, managed network services etc. In fact, the norm internationally for carrier-owned or systems integrator-owned data centres, is for the data centre service to comprise just 10-20% of the revenue the operator seeks to derive from its customers in that centre.
“Our business demands uptime, all the time.
Relocating our hosting operations into the
neutral Teraco centre was an easy decision.
Teraco controls the environment for our
equipment, ensuring optimum cost efficiency and 100% availability. This gives us peace of mind and allows us to focus on our core business. Furthermore moving from an ISP’s data centre into Teraco has greatly increased our interconnect options which will enable us to continue driving our bandwidth up and our prices down.”Matt Tagg CEO Web Africa
Absolute Focus
Carrier Neutral data centre companies such as Teraco focus on the data centre service part alone. Teraco’s business is about being the best at just that, leaving the other services to its customers. This ensures there is never a conflict of interest with its customers, as they seek flexibility in choice of carrier and service provider in the future.
Some questions to consider when selecting your data centre provider:? Once located within the provider’s data centre, how freely can you change carrier or service provider?
? Will you be charged a cross-connection fee for connecting to a competitor of that operator? Might this be increased,
or even prevented in the future?
? Can you just buy collocation from your provider and shop around for all other services, or must you take over
services from that provider as well?
? If you are a service provider, will the operator you locate your equipment at offer some of the same services as you?
If so, might there be conflict?
? A carrier neutral data centre will actively market its clients’ services to each other (for example Teraco
communicates all carrier and service provider products,
offers and promotions to all of its clients). Would a carrier-
owned data centre promote special deals offered by its
competitors?
? How critical is your business to the operator? Is the data centre service offered to clients a major component of
that operator’s business, or would its network come first
in the case of a problem?
Carrier Neutrality
Most companies with a network in Europe know, or have a point of presence in, Telehouse. The Telehouse East data centre now houses over 400 carriers and ISPs and offers the widest network choice, interconnection and flexibility available. It is host to the London Internet Exchange where among the largest volumes of internet traffic in the world are exchanged. Expanding its carrier neutral business model to South Africa, Telehouse Europe in Dec 2009 opened a facility within both Teraco Cape Town and Teraco Johannesburg data centres.
Telehouse in South Africa
In Summary
Many businesses, and even smaller ISPs, prefer the simplicity of a one-stop shop, even with the reduced options and potential restrictions that may present. For those that require independence and options, it is certainly worth reevaluating network and service design, around truly neutral data centres. Teraco data centres are situated on the fibre rings of all carriers so, whichever service provider or carrier solution you are evaluating can also be delivered to your equipment at Teraco.
Teraco
In February this year, Teraco Data Environments opened its first vendor neutral data centre in Cape Town. Teraco’s second data centre, in Johannesburg, opens in January 2010. Teraco describes its data centres as the only carrier and vendor neutral data centres in South Africa. Teraco data centres are situated on the fibre rings of all carriers so, whichever service provider or carrier solution you are evaluating can also be delivered to your equipment at Teraco.
PO Box 23706, Claremont, 7735, South Africa.
Teraco Data Environments (Pty) Ltd • Registration Number 2007/004268/07
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