Why Diverse Connectivity is So Important for Your Data Center

By Chris Kenney | December 16, 2014

When you’re operating a data center, you know that the biggest threat to your bottom line is unexpected downtime. Quite simply, if you can’t access your information, you can’t function. That’s why finding a reliable facility that offers diverse connectivity should be the top priority for your enterprise.

Here at Markley Group, using industry-leading data access technology and infrastructure we’ve built the safest, most secure facility in New England at One Summer Street in Boston. From a network perspective, we’ve gone to great lengths to make sure that One Summer Street is far and away the region’s most diversified data center.

How Diverse Connectivity Protects Your Data

Diverse connectivity delivers the greatest possible protection for your critical data. It guards against unplanned service interruptions and latency by delivering optimal redundancy for your data transfers through multiple, unique carriers and network providers. Think of each carrier as an extra layer of protection for your data center. The greater the number of network providers, the better protected your information will be.

We all know how vulnerable electrical service to the suburbs can be – each storm season, New Englanders brace for the inevitable blackouts and the massive inconvenience that comes with interruptions to suburban utility services. The same thing can happen to data centers that use facilities that are not diversified; without diversity, data centers are vulnerable to a host of costly interruptions.

With a diversified connection, if the conduit for one carrier is damaged at some location on their network (by an errant backhoe, natural disaster or even a system failure), the other carriers within the facility can quickly accept data transfers. This virtually eliminates any latency or downtime within the amalgamated, diversified network.

At One Summer Street, we’ve protected our customers against connectivity as well as power outages through diversity.

The Distinct Difference Between Multiple Connections and Multiple Diverse Connections

Enterprise customers need to be aware that there’s an important distinction between facilities that offer multiple connections and those with multiple diverse connections. When comparing facilities, it’s not just the number of connections that matters; it’s the number of unique connections.

Why? While having lots of connections can often improve the data transfer speeds of a facility, numerous connections don’t necessarily equate to greater protection for clients.

Multiple connections that enter the telecommunications facility at a single access point, or worse, in a single conduit, are vulnerable to physical damage and system interruption – it’s the digital equivalent to “putting all of your eggs in one basket.” While that basket might be perfectly serviceable right now, as soon as it develops a crack, you have a real problem on your hands.

Here at Markley Group, our facility has eight unique points of entry for our fiber networks. We house over 80 domestic and international network providers, making Markley Group the diverse connectivity provider of choice among leading financial, educational and government clients throughout New England.

To learn more about how we can provide you with secure, reliable data center and cloud solutions, call 617-451-6464 or email us at info@markleygroup.com.