In Asia-Pacific, Pacnet opened a new front in Northern China. They’re building a data center in the Wuqing business district of Tianjin in partnership with the district’s government there. The district is outside of Tianjin to the northwest, which means it’s almost in nearby Beijing as well, and hence is effectively local to an immense population. The new $72 million facility will be capable of hosting 2,000 racks and should be open for service a little over a year from now.
Also in the Far East, Reliance Globalcom continued to announce upgrades to its submarine cable infrastructure. This time it’s the terrestrial backhaul links for the Flag North Asia Loop (FNAL) that are getting new gear. Ciena’s coherent 40G and OTN technology are now in place, helping to handle the ongoing surge in regional traffic. It brings the backhaul capabilities inline with last year’s upgrade to the subsea part of FNAL.
The UK’s Geo Networks announced the completion of its East-West ring, which in the context of the UK means hooking up Ireland. Working with the Irish infrastructure firm ESB Telecoms and leveraging the FibreSpeed network across Wales and the new fiber system across the Irish Sea, they have brought Dublin as close to London in terms of raw, diversely routed fiber count as Amsterdam and Paris have long been. Geo’s profile has been rising in the UK’s fiber markets of late.
And also in Europe, Interoute continued to develop its cloud portfolio by introducing new managed security capabilities. They claim to be the first to offer a live, full visibility nextgen firewall, allowing enterprises to see in real time what is happening to their network and therefore potentially respond much more efficiently and effectively to threats.
Rob Powell is founder & editor of Telecom Ramblings, which was set up in 2008. The website is dedicated to discussing trends and developments in the telecom industry.