Ian Redpath, Principal Analyst, Network Infrastructure

ian.redpath@ovum.com

Internet content providers, stock exchanges, banks, communications service providers (CSPs), and others are investing billions of dollars to build data centre space. The proliferation of data centres in new geographic locations is fundamentally changing network demands and driving larger volumes of traffic. Data centres (DCs) with thousands of servers will require terabits of optical transport. CSPs have an opportunity to serve these new high-capacity transport network demands.

Data centre headlines and new connectivity required

Data centre investment announcements have been impressive over the past few years. Recent expansion activities include the following:

• Google invested €450m for a DC in Hamina, Finland, 150km from Helsinki
• ATT built a $200m DC in Kings Mountain, North Carolina, 50km from Charlotte
• IBM invested $1.2bn in 15 DCs, including one in Barrie, Ontario, 100km from Toronto
• NYSE built a 400,000-square-foot DC in Mahwah …