What is a Carrier Neutral Data Center? Explained Simply

As far as firms are concerned about hosting vital servers, applications, and databases outside their office premises, they usually tend to go for professional colocation centers. Yet, not all data hosting centers have the same level of network guidelines. 

While some of the data centers are owned by one particular telecom service provider, restricting the options on the network side, others offer independence of choice for telecom providers, among many other features. This is where one needs to learn what is carrier neutral data center infrastructure.

What is a Carrier Neutral Data Center?

As opposed to a data center owned by a telecommunication carrier or ISP, which obliges the client to choose only one network provider as the means of data transfer, a carrier-neutral data center provides access for several network carriers, fiber-optic companies, and cloud providers.

A traditional data center implies customers’ dependency on the network provider who possesses that particular building and exposes them to high prices and potential failures. 

In contrast, a Carrier Neutral Data Center operates in a manner similar to that of an airport terminal, where different airlines are able to use one hub.

How Carrier Neutrality Is Practiced

Such data centers serve as giant nodes of connectivity where different carriers can connect their networks all under one roof. The system works in the following way:

• Different Carriers

  Dozens of different local, national, and even international carriers deploy their fiber optic lines directly in the data center. It offers their customers a large number of competitive options, improved global coverage, better routing opportunities, greater price negotiation power, and flexibility to design their complete connection structure according to performance parameters.

• Meet Me Rooms (MMRs)

  In these special rooms situated in the center, businesses are provided with the possibility to connect their servers with various carriers through physical or virtual connections.

  This ensures fast exchange of information with low latency, simplified cabling solutions, direct cloud access, and strong security procedures securing all key connection points from any outside interference.

• Simple Cross Connection

  If it is necessary for a business to switch carriers or establish new connections, it will not take much time to do this kind of work without moving any hardware around. Thus, this will save time, decrease the cost of technical work, and facilitate enterprise scalability.

Advantages of Using a Neutral Facility

Some of the numerous advantages that can be derived from the usage of a neutral colocation data center include the following. 

Cost-saving due to vendor competition, high network uptime, scalability, access to cloud ecosystems, and the flexibility of switching telecommunication vendors without any fear of disrupting your business or facing downtime.

• Freedom and Flexibility

  The company is not restricted to working with a single service provider, so in case of price increases or problems with one of the telecommunication companies, changing the service provider is very easy.

• Reduced Latency

  Due to the presence of several telecommunication companies in one place, the speed of data transfer will be increased significantly because of a shorter distance.

• Reliability and Redundancy

  If there is an outage in the Internet network on the part of the main provider, switching to the second service provider occurs immediately.

Why Companies Use Neutral Locations

Modern companies, banks, and cloud service providers use neutral locations to meet high-availability needs. Having equipment in locations where several cloud providers and carriers converge allows building hybrid cloud networks at high speed, connecting directly with partners worldwide, and scaling bandwidth without facing any infrastructure problems.

Also Read: Data Center Architecture Explained: Design for Maximum Efficiency

Conclusion

The use of neutral locations has revolutionized the way organizations think about network architecture. Being able to choose any provider and manage network costs and performance is an entirely new possibility that gives control over connectivity. 

To avoid downtime, increase transfer speeds, and reduce telecoms costs, looking for carrier-neutral data center solutions becomes straightforward.

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