Exciting developments at 1623 Farnam’s interconnected edge data center, including a $40M facility-wide upgrade and expansion and a whole lot of activity on the carrier and cloud front. Recently, President Todd Cushing had a virtual chat with industry veteran, David Liggitt of dataCenterHawk to discuss what’s new and what lies ahead.
“I’m super excited about what we have going on here. If you pick an alphabet of hyperscale companies and went through and picked some companies within that, in Omaha there is every vertical you can imagine as you work through that.” – Todd Cushing, President at 1623 Farnam
Big Time Interconnection
As noted by dataCenterHawk, “connectivity has become an important factor in the last 5-10 years as businesses have learned to create mature IT infrastructure that ultimately allows their business applications to work more efficiently.” 1623 Farnam’s centralized location makes it a great home to seven of the top thirteen IP transit providers in the world, along with 50+ carriers with local national and international reach. The data center is also host to Omaha IX, the most geographically centered Internet Exchange in the US.
“1623 Farnam has become a crucial part of connectivity growth in the Midwest. The company is focused on a better network, lower latency, and faster connectivity. The growth of fiber in Omaha is a big reason why 1623 Farnam has put so much of their focus on connectivity. With the fiber infrastructure continuing to grow they see it as an opportunity to control fiber access in Omaha.” – noted dataCenterHawk
“We are finding that the growth is going to continue. I don’t see any stop in fiber. I don’t see any stop in content. I think you’re going to see more and more data aggregate in places that are on the edge,” Cushing explained to HawkTalk’s David Liggitt. As the digital economy bloomed in the 1990s carrier hotels became practically vital and financially valuable infrastructure, with meet-me rooms and network connections forming the foundation of digital business activities.
If low latency is important for your applications, Check 1623 Farnam out: Why Low Latency Matters
Why The Omaha Data Center Market is Growing
Much of the growth in the Omaha region has come from hyperscalers, including content providers, social media companies and search engines. For Cushing, the need to boost the flow of data between content specialists, network operators, and carriers has increased in recent years, as cloud campuses spread to more remote areas of the country. Large urban centers like Dallas or Chicago, he said, already provide homes for the colocation industry, but that’s starting to change: “We’ve seen people go out of those traditional spots. We’re going to see more of that here in Omaha, as well. I think you’re going to see other cities that aren’t on the map today start to show up as on the map because they’re going to have content as well.”
Cushing added, “There’s a lot more peering going on. We like to think we’re building an ecosystem, so we’re an interconnection facility.”
Things are Taking Off
All the relationships that grow alongside when big social media and search engine companies come to town create the opportunity for diverse and exciting relationships. “We can help them, they will help us, and we can grow something that’s really special and unique,” says Cushing, “I think that’s what’s going to happen and I don’t think it’s going to be unique to Omaha.” By the sounds of it, things are really taking off.
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