Why the IXP is the IT Asset to Watch — And How Best to Leverage It
June 29, 2021In the digital business landscape, one of the most prized facets of any IT framework has always been the data center. Selecting and utilizing these facilities is a necessary part of any enterprise digital transformation, and having a robust, highly secure and geographically strategic data center is invaluable. But in the race to the lowest latencies and highest levels of speed and mobility, are those tried and true pillars of data center provider selection enough?
Organizations’ data and applications are only as good as their underlying connectivity. The ability to keep data flowing through all the necessary nodes and platforms that businesses are consuming — and move that data to and from the end user as well — is a prerequisite for powerful IT outcomes. This is a task that’s only becoming more complex as business footprints expand and incorporate new tools, partners and platforms. Subsequently, it’s time we redefined what strong connectivity looks like in the business IT architecture and reevaluated the data center selection process as a result.
The State of Data Center Connectivity
Few would be surprised at the idea of connectivity being one of the most important aspects of data center consumption. It’s assumed that as business locations, clouds and key markets grow in number for expanding global enterprises, the need for thorough connectivity grows in tandem.
Today, data center connectivity services often come in the form of a private, high-speed network between the provider’s facilities. The individual provider’s portfolio of location dictates the size and scope of connectivity in these cases, but these connections remain vital for reliability, disaster recovery, geographic reach and more. Then there’s cloud connectivity that enables businesses to easily reach their private or public platforms, and there’s often the ability to reach strategic IT partners through the data center network as well. But as we assess this topology of connections, one kind of hub stands out from the rest.
In the new era of truly liberated data, the Internet Exchange Point (IXP) is at the forefront as a key enabler. These nexuses of connectivity have proliferated similar to how data centers have — in fact, the data center and the IXP are often described as having a symbiotic relationship. The data center serves as the home of the IXP, and as data centers have expanded in number, the availability of the Internet Exchange has grown parallel. Each depends on the other to strengthen and build the fabric of connectivity we now rely on.
The peering that takes place at these exchange points — the act of directly connecting networks to exchange traffic without the need for third-party transit providers — is vital for keeping latencies and costs low while delivering greater traffic control, agility and mobility. It’s here that content providers, network service providers and beyond create a mutually beneficial ecosystem that broadens the horizons of network reach for all.
Still, the question remains: As organizations look to extract the value of these exchange points as part of their connectivity strategy, how can they ensure they’re getting the best option?
Simplicity as the Key to IXP Success
A core pillar of digital transformation success is agility and speed to innovation, and that essential agility often hinges on ease of IT service consumption. What organizations truly need in order to get ahead of demand is more than the physical connectivity and IXP access — it’s the ability to get the most value out of a single partnership.
Simplicity is one of the most valuable assets a business can build as it grows its IT framework and looks to take on more complex market requirements. As such, having a digital transformation partner that can do it all is the enterprise’s greatest advantage. It’s for this reason that TELEHOUSE America data centers seamlessly blend with TELEHOUSE’s NYIIX peering exchange offering. This enables clients to leverage end-to-end customer lifecycle management advantages and enjoy a strategic gateway to digital transformation.
As one of the largest neutral internet exchange points in the world, the value of the NYIIX peering exchange is particularly advantageous within the company’s Staten Island (Teleport) data center. As the home to this Internet Exchange, clients can trust they’re getting the best of data center services, connectivity and beyond with the added synergies of a single, end-to-end partner. To further enable access to these vital solutions, TELEHOUSE America is currently offering two free months of colocation to new tenants of the Staten Island data center.
The ways in which connectivity is being built and consumed is growing more complex — there’s no denying that. However, with the right partner on board and the right connections on hand, organizations may find that their transformations can be easy and intuitive without sacrificing high levels of capability.
To learn more about TELEHOUSE America’s Staten Island data center, its IXP capabilities and more, click here.