Amito implements key network upgrade
Published 15th July 2020
A £2.5m network upgrade by Amito has further strengthened the Reading based data centre operator’s integration with all the key London based colocation ecosystems, adding significant new capacity and enhanced diagnostic capabilities.
Despite the challenges of the Covid19 lockdown, the new infrastructure went live in May and is now already in use, attracting new customers seeking to use Amito’s Reading data centre, especially clients looking for seamless dual-site data centre deployments.
Amito’s Original Network
Amito is fairly unique amongst the London colocation market in both operating its own data centre and lighting its own dark fibre ring which neatly ties the 1000 rack, 6.5 MVA Amito Reading data centre with both the Equinix Slough campus and to London Docklands, the historic heart of the UK’s Internet connectivity, where Amito also runs some 80 rack spaces.
The original network routes were based on a diverse dark fibre ring, with the North leg using KCOM fibre going via Equinix LD5 and the South leg using SSE fibre directly into Telehouse. Within central London a further dark fibre ring provided by euNetworks connects Amito’s presence in the four Telehouse buildings with Digital Realty’s Sovereign House, Equinix’s LD8 (formerly Telecity HEX) and the two Global Switch buildings adjacent to Telehouse.
In Reading, the focus is on great value colocation services in a Tier3 aligned facility combined with superb onsite support, with the Amito management team able to offer a wholly outsourced solution avoiding the need for almost all client data centre visits.
In Slough and London Docklands Amito continues to provide part rack colocation in the form of secure quarter racks, offering cost effective access to these important colocation ecosystems and Amito’s network provides the underlying fabric to connect these two very different propositions.
The old network was lit to provide 10Gbs wavelengths and had reached some 250-300Gbs of lit capacity on each long haul route.
Significant new capacity to 16Tbs and enhanced diagnostic capabilities
Due to increasing demand, particularly from clients using Amito’s Reading data centre as a diverse location to central London (Reading is 50 miles west of Docklands) Amito has installed over £2.5m of new equipment to implement a significant upgrade to both overall potential capacity and added much improved diagnostic capabilities, thus making fault resolution, should any issues occur, much quicker.
The benefit of the enhanced diagnostics quickly came to the fore even during the installation phase. Amito engineers were able to quickly identify where an issue was affecting the light on the new implementation, down to the exact point on its pathway far quicker than the underlying carrier partners. Once pinpointed, a poorly delivered cross-connect was removed and corrected. With so many individual components involved in the delivery of an optical network, the historic method of working through each piece in turn with a pair of engineers would have resulted in a far longer resolution, which bodes very well for any future issues.
The new Amito network platform can now offer total capacity of up to 16Tbs per route, with an initial 600Gbs in use initially and support Ethernet, FiberChannel, and other waves at speeds of 100Gbs, 40Gbs and 25Gbs waves, as well as continuing to offer 10Gbs, with latency of under 1.2ms on the most direct route from Telehouse to Amito Reading, ideal for active/active dual site deployments.
The combination of the Tier 3+ Reading data centre, flexible colocation solutions from ¼, ½ and full racks, together with the integrated network platform has the effect of fully embedding the Amito Reading data centre with extensive points of presence in all the key London colocation ecosystems, thus making dual site solutions extremely easy to implement.
Allied with the superb onsite support available in Reading many London based clients are now realising with the right partner they don’t need to visit their diverse location, all they need to do is open a support ticket.
Amito continues to be a large buyer of colocation in third party data centres and is one of the biggest cross-connect users in the London market as their quarter racks are especially popular with smaller network operators who simply need a small point of presence to interconnect with other parties such as LINX or partner carriers. In Reading the Amito data centre offers a superb value proposition, combining an ultra-efficient Tier 3 aligned facility with onsite support from a hugely experienced team.
Tim Anker, Director of Colocation