Telia Carrier Now the EdgeConneX Connection
EdgeConneX and Telia Carrier have entered into a strategic partnership that will ultimately bring the latter's networks to each of the former's edge data center sites, currently 30 globally. The move is recognition that more data is being pushed to the edge, both for hyperscale companies and enterprises, says a key EdgeConneX executive. (See EdgeConneX, Telia Carrier Create Strategic Partnership.)
Phill Lawson-Shanks, chief architect and vice president of innovation at EdgeConneX, tells Light Reading in an interview that Telia Carrier has already "popped out to" a few of his firm's data centers -- in Detroit, Santa Clara and Portland -- and its customers are pushing for more.
"Telia is one of the largest Tier 1 providers, and as they are rolling out their connectivity to the hyperscale and the large enterprises, they are seeing more and more need to pop out to our buildings," he says. "That is the lowest latency point to the majority of the enterprises in the regions we are servicing, and it is where the hyperscalers are asking them to be, to offload and to fulfill their network needs."
The move is aimed at combining Telia Carrier's backbone network with EdgeConneX data centers to enable service providers to reach enterprises -- EdgeConneX doesn't sell directly to that market -- as well as to enable over-the-top content providers to cache their stuff closer to their customers.
Telia will deliver the connectivity in waves, Lawson-Shanks notes, doing a group at a time with the likelihood all will be connected in the next year or so. Of course, the work may be never-ending -- EdgeConneX continues to build out its edge data centers and to make them bigger.
He notes EdgeConneX initially was building its data centers with up to 8 megawatts of usable power, but that number is now 40 megawatts, and its newest Amsterdam facility will open with 70 megawatts of usable power available. In addition, the company has half a dozen or so new centers in progress.
"We build quickly and we don't pre-announce," Lawson-Shanks says.
— Carol Wilson, Editor-at-Large, Light Reading
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