Meet Me in Santa Clara

Part of a series of articles published in FATPIPE magazine from 2003-2005 examining carrier interconnection options in major North American cities. This article was published in the June 2004 issue. To download the complete series as one consolidated PDF (2.7 MB), click here.

California here we come. The West Coast has an interesting interconnection landscape. Between the older and more developed international Layer 2 TDM (time division multiplex) transport bookends of Los Angeles and Seattle lies one of the most IP-centric corridors in the world. This IP runs at Layer 2 first, of course, so therefore needs solid physical layer interconnection points. But where are the neutral sites with the greatest carrier density?

Santa Clara is one of a few popular regions for connectivity in this sector, as there are several "known" properties that house carrier networks within close proximity of each other. This proximity of brand name facilities makes finding the right one for core network interconnections at the physical layer challenging. The challenge is that you trust the brand, as you should, but what really is there, in that particular site?

The same checklist points apply here as they do anywhere else in regard to the facility infrastructure and interconnection rules, but the key to carrier access is the carriers actually present.

The service that is in the greatest demand in this area is IP transit, due to the number of businesses that use the public Internet as a platform for commerce. That differs from the international gateways of North America, which have more of a "service demand" mix. So, if you are seeking neutral, multi-carrier, multiprotocol Layer 2 and 3 services in Santa Clara, here's one possibility.

eXchange @ 1100 Space Park Drive is owned and operated by the eXchange @ 200 Paul team, which specializes in developing and managing the leading carrier hotels in the San Francisco Bay Area. It has developed facilities that are recognized throughout the world for their strategic locations, access to key fiber routes, scalability, security and quality. eXchange sites are directly on or near major fiber routes and urban local loop fiber rings and thereby provide unprecedented access to local, national and global networks in a financially stable environment.

The 1100 Space Park Drive facility is a marketplace that combines premier carrier hotel, collocation and interconnection facilities for network providers and enterprises in the Santa Clara region. This facility, with its developed meet me room, minimizes local access charges and capital costs for both carriers and enterprise network operators by bringing each into the facility directly. This creates an efficient environment for access to every type of network service, reducing time-to-market and increasing profitability for its tenants.

One key feature of this site is that it is home to a Tyco Telecom International transport gateway with direct access to Asia and the rest of the world. By the end of this year the owners of 1100 Space Park plan to provide low cost, virtual cross connections between this site and their 200 Paul facility in San Francisco.

For more information on eXchange @ 1100 Space Park Drive, contact Cliff Dillingham, carrier services manager at (415) 508-2866 or [email protected], or visit www.e200paul.com.

Originally published in FATPIPE magazine, June 2004.

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