A few months ago we indicated we were expanding our network again and asked for feedback from customers to choose between short-listed sites. Decisions made, contracts signed, and we’re pleased to announce our new site will be Equinix LD4 in Slough.
Highlights:
- – Slough is 27 miles from London Docklands providing essential separation from our Telehouse site.
- – Equinix LD4 is just 0.6ms from Telehouse being close enough to provide expansion.
- – Like all Simwood sites it will be fully routed and therefore independent from others.
- – Like all Simwood sites it will have connectivity back to two others for resiliency. It will be connected up to Manchester and across to Telehouse.
- – Our national MPLS ring will effectively become a figure-of-eight, now with two similar length paths around England.
- – We will introduce Level 3 IP Transit to the network in Slough to compliment TiNet (connected in Telehouse and Manchester) and our extensive peering.
The build has already started and this new site will be live on the network in July.
Colocation orders being taken
Our network was built for voice and is repeatedly the network of choice for other operators requiring a home on an IP network which respects the performance demands of voice traffic; we now have necessary additional capacity to meet that demand and are taking orders for independently lockable co-location units of quarter-rack and upwards.
IP transit improvements
Adding Level 3 into the mix will greatly enhance our own IP Transit offering. Level 3 are the largest Tier 1 operator in the market, and in 2011 acquired the number 2 – Global Crossing.
For customers wishing to interconnect directly with TiNet or Level 3 this can now be offered in any of our sites. We provide a transparent dedicated capacity connection across our network to the Tier 1 of your choice.
Carrier Ethernet improvements
This new footprint West of London greatly expands our direct reach to provide a cost-effective fibre connection to our network. We can now reach premises in Surrey, Berkshire and West London without an intermediary network – contact us for a quote!
Keep in mind we can provide private LAN-like connectivity across our network between any points on-net and including off-net points we can reach. That includes co-located or virtualised equipment.
Virtualisation
Our vSphere stack has until now been centred in Manchester and a major driver for Slough has been our need to provide total site redundancy for our own applications and those of customers. Slough will therefore also feature a Infortrend SAN as we have in Manchester and each site will have additional expansion modules to replicate the other site’s backups. Virtualisation will be available in both sites, which coupled with our Carrier Ethernet can deliver some very potent solutions to clients. Please contact us to see how this will impact on your existing solution or to discuss your requirements.
Voice
Last, but by no means least, this new data centre is going to greatly enhance our voice offering. At the most basic level it will provide improved connectivity to other operators in and around London. The combination of all of the above gives us the foundation for something very, very exciting. More later!
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We hope you share our excitement at this development and, naturally, please contact us with any queries.
