Carrier Neutral Data Center Facilities

June 15, 2016

Why Carrier Neutral has evolved into Provider Neutral in Colocation

Today’s Colocation Center is more than just 4 walls, power and cooling. It is the intersection between service providers and businesses. The Data Center has evolved beyond Carrier Neutrality into the realm of Provider Neutrality. Why? Because businesses demand specialties they themselves may not have in-house. Now they have more choices.

The original Carrier Hotel concept

When Telehouse first opened its doors 26+ years ago, the interaction between service providers was limited and mainly within carrier hotels. They were places where the traditional telcos around the world “shook hands” to extend their networks. The arrangement allowed businesses to extend their networks globally. For businesses taking advantage of the arrangement this was a premium and costly service due to the limited providers.

The ultimate deregulation of the telco’s both in the US and globally opened the door for competition, and presented tremendous value for the business critical environments of Data Centers. The enterprise customer base along with incumbent service providers and global sites positioned Telehouse as a global pioneer in carrier neutrality that customers still recognize today.

Giving the customer a choice

Over the next several years, Colocation Centers partnered with a wider source of telecom carriers—making them in effect, carrier neutral data center.

While in the Colocation Center, a company now had a wider choice of network service providers. The options empowered customers to solicit bids from a variety of network service providers and choose the carrier that best met the requirements. Most importantly, this extended savings to the customers.

Today: Why Provider Neutral is the New Carrier Neutral

Because customers are using many third party specialty providers for security, disaster recovery, cloud and various managed services, the Multi Tenant Data Center has now become a marketplace where enterprise customers have not only a variety of carriers to choose from but a variety of solution providers. The consolidation and efficiency of servers has expanded the profile of Telehouse customers. Today, customers can connect with network service providers as well as providers specializing in solutions across every layer of a customer’s Data Center environment.

Now we have many types of Service Providers:

Network Service
Managed Service
Cloud (Private, Public, or Hybrid)
Back-up & Disaster Recovery
VoIP/SIP
Security

Service Requirements are not one size fits all

Service Provider Neutrality is essential for customers who recognize the value of off premise sites, owning and managing their equipment, and access to a variety of solution providers. In a Provider Neutral facility, customers can “shake hands” with as many of those providers as needed under a single roof, and use that competitive advantage to save money. Often, the Data Center team has strong relationships with these providers and can advise customers in selecting the right vendor.

Service Provider Neutrality is good business

Having your choice of Service Providers under one roof is convenient—and necessary. Our New York Colocation sites boast dozens of carriers and service providers. This creates opportunities for customers to connect with every major carrier as well as provider partners giving them a crucial business edge.