The Independent Data Center: Carrier Customer, Channel, Competitor?

B. Washburn

Summary Bullets:

• Despite providing advanced services to an enterprise base, FiberMedia executives note that carriers can have trouble seeing the carrier-neutral data center provider as an important customer.
• tw telecom stands out as explicitly interested in end-to-end networking into third-party data centers; other big providers may choose to do so, but have not gone public with their plans.

Though they can be a significant draw to network revenue, service providers seem mixed on their ties with third-party data center partners.  Take FiberMedia Group, for example; it is a carrier-neutral, independent data center/cloud services provider mostly in the New York City area, with six facilities and 140,000 square feet of floor space.  Like its peers, the company is working to increase data center value per square foot.  The company is strong in storage, disaster recovery, and business continuity; it sells private and public cloud services, the latter built with vendors such as VMware, HP, Dell, and IBM.  FiberMedia makes ongoing investments in tools in its customer-facing management portal.  The company also has added metering equipment, providing options such as metered electrical billing for larger customers.