An Education Outlook: Indirect Benefits of a Private Fiber Network

05/08/2012 by Leave a comment

Schoolboy in Library In a past post, we discussed the distinctions amongst private and traditional wide area networks (WANs). While it is frequently easy to spot some of the direct advantages of a private network, the indirect outcomes often go unnoticed. This week we bring to you inside insight from the education sector regarding these “indirect” benefits.

When asked to write a blog on K-12 districts and our WAN service, I spent some time reflecting on the numerous deals we’ve completed and our reasons for success. After taking some Aleve for my headache, I decided to recount a conversation I had with an IT Director who recently retired from one of the earlier and larger school districts that we service. I met him at another function where he told me of his recent retirement party and some of the accolades he received from his peers. I thought he was going to wax poetically that with the new capacity our network provided, the district was able to enhance the school’s distance learning capabilities, improve efficiencies of the administrative staff and teachers’ information systems, and provide more applications for the students. Understandably, I was a little thrown when he told me of the sincerity and well wishes he received from the staff of the Attendance Office and how they had thanked him for his efforts. Read more of this post

Filed under Customer, Education, Erate, K-12, Managed Services, Technology, Telecom, WAN, Wide Area Networks

Least Cost Alternative for your Private Fiber Wide Area Network

04/24/2012 by Leave a comment

You’ve compared traditional and Private Fiber WANs, choosing Private Fiber. Now you must decide between purchasing a managed private line Ethernet service or licensing dark fiber, which requires managing the services yourself. Dark fiber may be viable if your bandwidth requirements remain fairly stable for a period of years and you can leverage your existing network support resources. But, will it really cost less from a purely financial perspective? Each case is different.

One way to decide is to prepare a total cost of ownership (TCO) analysis. TCO is a financial estimate of all direct and indirect product costs. Although useful for financial analysis, it doesn’t address the philosophical questions. TCO accounts for all capital expenditures (Capex) made at the beginning of a service period as well as the direct and indirect operating expenses (Opex) foreseen during the period.

Read more of this post

Filed under Business, Dark Fiber, Managed Services, Telecom, WAN, Wide Area Networks

The Juggle between Dark vs. Lit

04/10/2012 by 1 Comment

Dark vs. Lit FiberThere are not too many of us left. The Metro Dark Fiber providers are a dying breed in many markets across the country.

Through industry consolidation and evolving business plans, many of our peers have shifted their focus to lines of business that have taken them away from the model of consistently selling dark fiber to other carriers. This has opened up opportunities for those of us still willing to offer metro dark fiber to carriers; while at the same time, pressuring us to highlight our private line Ethernet offering to prevent high bandwidth enterprise customers from evolving away from our network. Read more of this post

Filed under Carriers, Customer, Dark Fiber, Managed Services, Telecom, WAN, Wide Area Networks

Face-off: Private Fiber vs. “Traditional” Wide Area Networks

02/28/2012 by 2 Comments

There are basically two types of wide area networks available today:  private fiber networks and what we’ll refer to as a “traditional” network for this discussion.  In a private fiber network, all buildings in the network are connected via a dedicated fiber optic link.  A “traditional” network, on the other hand, connects each building to one another through the public cloud.  Of course, there are advantages and disadvantages to each network.

Security

  • Private fiber WAN
    • Dedicated physical infrastructure ensures internal data does not pass through any public infrastructure, virtually eliminating any security threat.
    • Network architecture allows for a single gateway to outside services such as voice, internet, etc. limiting external security risks.
  • Traditional WAN
    • All data, including internal data, passes through public switches.  VPNs and other security techniques must be relied on to protect data integrity.
    • Often, each location is a separate gateway to the public network enabling the possibility of outside security threats. Read more of this post

Filed under Fiber Optics, Infrastructure, Managed Services, Technology, Telecom, WAN, Wide Area Networks

All Aboard the Dark Fiber Train

02/14/2012 by 1 Comment

When asked to describe a private fiber wide area network (WAN) and particularly dark fiber WANs, I like to use the analogy of a train system. In this analogy, you have:

  • Data or content being transmitted:  People or freight
  • A variety of speeds and protocols available:  Engine and car type such as freight, standard or bullet trains
  • Various nodes or destinations:  Stations
  • Distribution hubs:  ex:  Penn Station, NYC and,
  • A system of pathways and switches that the data traverses:  Railway tracks and switches

In a standard managed network, you have little control over anything but the content you are transmitting; and for various content types such as voice, data, etc. you need separate services. In our analogy, you must then purchase separate tickets for your voice passengers and your data cargo which will be loaded onto a local train, with everyone else’s passengers, to stop at each station on the route. This of course introduces opportunities for lost passengers, overcrowding, and nefarious characters looking at your laptop screen along the way. None of this is necessarily a bad thing; most systems do a fair job of weeding out nefarious characters and provisioning enough trains to handle the traffic at a reasonable price for the level of service. Read more of this post

Filed under Dark Fiber, Fiber Optics, Managed Services, Telecom, WAN

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