Bandwidth is Crucial … but Don’t Lose Sight of the Big Networking Picture

As we sit in our home offices, with one eye on the work laptop and the other on the cable news channel, we see the stories about the new mobile workforce and the stress it is putting on the Internet globally.  

If you look to Europe as a leading indicator of what may be ahead for the US, Spanish carriers are reporting a 40% spike in network traffic attributed to COVID-19, while mobile use was up 50% for voice services 25% for data.  Italy has seen an increase of 30%. 

Also in Europe, Netflix, YouTube and Amazon agreed to reduce bandwidth of streaming services to prevent overwhelming Internet networks as citizens flock online during the COVID-19 outbreak.

In response, enterprise and government organizations are understandably evaluating and upgrading Internet bandwidth and ramping up their remote workforce strategies. 

The Big Picture

For savvy enterprise and government organizations, it is about much more than bandwidth. As we adjust to the “new normal”, the smart organizations are looking for solutions to manage additional stress on their infrastructures as they sign up more customers and rely more on network connectivity to drive profits. Everything from Internet connectivity, redundancy requirements, cloud access, dark fiber and lit services, access to subsea cables, peering and interconnection. For the digital business, which now means nearly every business, scale and resiliency are absolute necessities.  

As a result, organizations are increasingly outsourcing their IT infrastructure to colocation providers that can provide the networking expertise, flexibility, redundancy and scale required to power their next generation business and consumer facing services.  

The Data Center as a Connectivity Hub

Data centers are often confused with simply providing data storage but today's data center offers so much more. The modern data center is a connectivity hub, providing colocation customers with incredible possibilities when it comes to building their networks and is the only place on the planet where all seven layers of the OSI model come together. And this means nothing unless you have scalable, redundant multi-service connectivity available to you.

QTS’ connectivity solutions are designed for automation and integration, and tap into an expanding ecosystem of software-defined data centers, public clouds, carriers and internet exchanges with ease. 

Networking Roadmap Checklist

Organizations seeking to develop global infrastructure and associated services should evaluate and be prepared to deploy any or all of the following as part of their overall networking roadmap:

1. Cloud Access - Scalable, Rapid Deployment to the World’s Leading Clouds

o   QTS’ SDP enables seamless, self-service provisioning to a multitude of destinations, from a single dedicated port.  This includes self-provisioning of direct connectivity AWS, Azure and Google Cloud. Transparent, consistent, competitive pricing across all QTS data centers.

2. Dark Fiber and Lit Services

o   All of QTS’ data centers offer direct access to multiple dark fiber networks lit services delivering high capacity, low latency and redundancy. Point-to-point and multipoint configurations.  This includes direct connectivity to some of the worlds’ lowest latency, highest capacity subsea cables.

3. Internet Access

o   Managed service provides fully redundant internet service via two or more backbone Internet Service Providers with dual, diverse entry points at every data center. 

4. Community Internet Exchanges/Peering Exchanges

o   QTS hosts 10 vital community Internet Exchanges in key markets such as San Francisco, Chicago, Dallas, Atlanta and Miami. Customers with ASN’s gain cost savings and  resiliency associated with access to these carrier-neutral peering networks.

5. Subsea Cables

o   QTS has created network access points (NAPS) where data center, subsea fiber and terrestrial networks converge. QTS offers direct, dark fiber access to cable landing stations of trans-Atlantic and Pacific subsea cables landing on the east and west coasts.

6. Fiber cross connects

o   Physical cross connects are easy to order via our software-defined platform and provide secure connection to an extensive array of partner-neutral internet exchanges and carriers or to business partners within a QTS data center.

Big Picture and the Bottom Line

QTS’ fully digitized, API-driven Service Delivery Platform provides flexibility to remotely provision services and capabilities that are aligning with the requirements of an expanding remote workplace. This includes remote provisioning of multi-cloud and site-to-site connectivity (Switchboard) and real-time bandwidth management, viewing and managing real-time power utilization (Power Analytics), full visibility of customers’ inventory of assets within the data center (Asset Manager) and executing online ordering, and (Remote Hands) services that reduce risk by providing immediate onsite response for emergencies, maintenance and repairs around the clock.

During these uncertain times, leading organizations remain focused on optimizing IT infrastructure to power critical business and consumer facing services. Networking is a critical element requiring a comprehensive networking fabric, flexibility and redundancy, and ability to scale.

Redundancy via access to multiple carriers and transport services

QTS data centers feature a robust and flexible set of networking technologies and access to hundreds of carriers across our carrier-neutral US and European data centers, enabling connections to the top providers of dark fiber, transport, IP transit, peering and SDN.

Flexibility via Carrier Neutrality

QTS’ carrier neutral data centers allow customers to choose the specific cable, route, and application set that best addresses their needs. All wiring routes and electronic services are available to a company at any time. This increases flexibility by allowing customers to pick and choose as they need to scale.

Scale

QTS customers can access hundreds of networks offering connectivity options across all domains - at scale and are rapidly expandable. Connectivity is delivered from an integrated fabric of data centers encompassing 7 million square feet and 650+ megawatts of powering software-defined mega data centers delivering innovative hybrid colocation and hyperscale solutions.

For more information check out the website here and see what Gartner says about QTS.