Creating Unprecedented Connectivity with a Robust Ecosystem
Traditionally quiet places that are seldom visited, the Cable Landing Station (CLS) is supposed to serve one purpose: a point where several hundred million dollars’ worth of subsea cable projects, representing more than 90% of the world’s internet traffic, convert to a terrestrial cable that then provides connectivity to major population centers. Normally, this traditional terrestrial cable has two routes to ensure uptime to the hub, designed that way in case one is compromised. Once it reaches the hub, it fans across an entire continent. That concept worked for decades. But today’s CLS can no longer be a passive location. It must be more than just a landing point that allows connection to a faraway hub for carriers. Today, we are building cable landing station campuses that ARE the hub itself.
There are just a few unique places on the planet with direct CLS access to both multiple subsea cables and multiple backhaul routes. One is in Marseille, France. Another is NJFX at the Jersey Shore, which is rivaling Marseille in terms of the number of subsea and backhaul routes.
Because of its location on the edge of domestic and international networks and subsea cables, NJFX enables enterprises, financials and carriers to utilize direct routing, eliminate single points of failure and avoid typical network congestion points.
“By being a part of the NJFX ecosystem, we are able to extend our connectivity solutions for Latin America, as well as the Caribbean,” comments Luciano Salata, president and co-founder of Neutrona Networks. “This is especially important for financial firms as well as enterprises who are looking for managed connectivity to public clouds and can easily leverage our SDN-ready network. We are thrilled to be a part of the innovative spirit NJFX has created by enabling real solutions and innovative approaches with its partners.”
It is crucial to have clarity in global connectivity. In order to do that, there are now multiple terrestrial options to the CLS and then multiple subsea networks to route across oceans with diverse landings in the next continent. The availability of multiple routes both subsea and terrestrial is crucial to become a true CLS hub. A cable system cannot land at a site and be stranded with one backhaul provided. Multiple backhaul routes create truly diverse options, which in turn can allow both for collaboration, as well as competition. If one carrier is not providing necessary interconnection, with a robust ecosystem, there are half a dozen other choices.
“The carrier-neutral model at the cable hub itself is the way to move forward, in my opinion. NJFX is one of the few leaders globally with this new model of connectivity at the cable landing site. On the Nordic side, we have built the same neutrality so carriers can interconnect freely,” states Peder Naerbo, Bulk Infrastructure. “In addition to that, data center colocation facilities are very suited to being at the cable landing points as opposed to further inland. As part of the Havfrue subsea cable consortium, Bulk Infrastructure, this year, announced the launch of the Nordic Gateway at the NJFX CLS. This on-ramp solution accessing high capacity fiber networks unlocks the Nordic’s ample supply of sustainable energy, for the data center industry and bringing expanded capabilities from Northern Europe into the US.”
Positioned at the easternmost edge of North America, NJFX’s HIPAA-compliant facility is the centerpiece of the very first Cable Landing Station colocation campus in North America. This location provides direct access to four unique subsea cable systems bypassing New York City and Miami, interconnecting North America, South America and Europe. Having a leading carrier-neutral colocation facility at the cable landing site has not been replicated elsewhere on the Eastern seaboard where cables land. The NJFX Tier 3 carrier-neutral colocation campus located at the CLS does something that no other facility can: provide a viable alternative for carriers and large organizations to design resilient network architectures at a secure location and further ensure global networks stay operational.
When the latest upgrade of cable systems was completed nearly 20 years ago, smartphones barely existed. It is important for bandwidth players to have enough redundancy built across these cable systems to support their massive bandwidth needs.
“Aqua Comms focuses its skills, talent and capital to develop submarine cables, where it often works with other large private users who seek to own modern, high-capacity, trans-oceanic fiber pairs,” states Nigel Bayliff, CEO. Aqua Comms is part of the consortium of the new trans-Atlantic cable system, which traverses the North Atlantic to connect mainland Northern Europe to the U.S. Aqua Comms is the operator and landing party in the U.S., Ireland, and Denmark, where the company will market and sell capacity services and raw spectrum on its portion of the cable system under the brand name America Europe Connect-2 (AEC-2).
NJFX provides additional connectivity options via two campus Meet-Me-Rooms, generating a high-resilience, fully redundant, low-latency network with direct interconnection options for service providers, enterprises, carrier-neutral operators and cable companies. Its colocation customers pay no recurring fees on cross-connects and are provided full access to subsea capacity via four independent cable systems. Cloud access is available via AWS, Oracle, Alibaba Cloud, IBM Cloud, Azure and Google Cloud Partners. Dark fiber is offered by Zayo, Zenfi, Windstream Wholesale and Altice. SDWAN/NFV provides orchestrated flexible networking solutions using services provided by Epsilon, Tata Communications, and more. IP Peering is offered by NetIX, which this year launched in North America at NJFX.
NJFX Founder and CEO Gil Santaliz puts it in simple terms. “We facilitate the party, and everyone can come to the party. Our goal is to make sure everyone knows they’ve been invited!”
