 Data centers serve as the underlying infrastructure for communications and these days there are more compute demands than ever before. The world has increasingly become data hungry and the demand for processing power, storage and the infrastructure to support it all is high. Hardware is becoming smaller, faster, and designed to improve latencies so that it can keep up with the increases in bandwidth requirements. In addition, more and more organizations are moving workloads to the cloud. IDG’s Cloud Computing Survey reported that nine out of ten companies in 2019 are expected to have some of their applications or infrastructure in the cloud. This year, we will also start to see more multi-cloud deployments - so it’s not a choice of whether to use the cloud or not, but more about how many clouds to use and for what purposes. With all of these developments, there is still a need for a place to securely house the equipment, networks and the cloud infrastructure to support them.
As a Los Angeles data center provider, West 7 Center offers secure colocation for organizations that require low latency connectivity - and has ample space to accommodate large footprints; a rarity in Los Angeles! West 7 Center is a carrier-neutral site with access to multiple telecom carriers and cloud service providers and can support an organization’s core operations or backup configurations. Our highly reliable, Tier III data center has 348,000 sq. ft. of space across three underground floors and offers nine floors of above-ground office space. High Power. Highly Reliable: · 22MW of total power, 16.9MW of Generator-backed power · Supported by two central plants with redundant backup power and cooling capacity · HVAC Plants are designed and operated to an N+1 redundancy · Ample fuel to support 120 hours of uninterrupted power at full load · 24/7 on-site engineering and security support Be sure to check out additional resources including: West 7 Center Guide: Not all Data Centers are Created Equally, How Secure is Your Data?
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 Every week, three million more people move to already bustling metropolitan areas, according to the International Organization for Migration. The United Nations predicts that, by 2050, the world’s urban population is likely to double. Those are important statistics because they answer the “why” behind the burgeoning smart city trend that’s cropping up around the world.
It’s a trend that JLL’s Executive Vice President, Darren Eades, explores in his recent Pipeline article, “Bright Lights, Smart City.” And it’s a trend that’s gaining steam fast. In two years, smart cities will become a $1.5 trillion global market, Frost & Sullivan says. A National League of Cities survey reports that two-thirds of U.S. cities are investing in smart city technology, while a quarter of those without any smart city systems are exploring future implementations. Smart cities will require an ecosystem that will develop in increments and rely upon layers of technology, some existing and some emerging. Let’s take a quick look at a few of those technologies.
That’s where West 7 Center comes in – we can serve the requirements of smart city IoT network and application environments, as well as their end users. The City of Los Angeles in the process of teaming up with several major carriers to help realize the ambition of making LA one of the smartest cities in America through improvements in traffic control, public safety, air quality and digital infrastructure. Colocation data centers located in the heart of LA (like West 7 Center) are needed to provide:
Learn more about smart cities and how West 7 Center is helping to transform LA by reading Darren Eades’ full article here.  Recent headlines say it all - the next wave of digital transformation is upon us and 5G will play a big part of it. Carriers and telecom providers are vying to lead the charge and are mobilizing to quickly align with the advancements. By 2022, 60% of the global population will be internet users and 82% of all IP traffic will be video, as reported by Cisco’s latest Visual Networking Index. Carriers will have to transport 136 exabytes of traffic a month by 2024 - delivered into 1.5 billion 5G terminals. This is a fivefold increase in mobile data, as noted in Ericsson’s 2018 Mobility Report. In addition, North America and major regions across Asia will greatly surpass Europe in terms of 5G connections over the next five years.
5G potentially offers huge benefits over existing 4G networks in some of the following ways:
And to throw one more fun fact in there from Cisco: internet traffic is slated to reach 4.7 zettabytes by 2022 - which is more than the entire history of the internet combined. These are amazing stats and point us forward to the future and a continuing wave of digital transformation. 5G will allow telecoms to innovate and grow - bringing a myriad of opportunities. It will make significant impact on our capabilities, economy, and deliver undeniable benefits for end-users. It will be exciting to see the developments near-term and into the future. Stay tuned for more!  Submarine Cable Map, courtesy of TeleGeography. Subsea cables are the underpinning of global communications. Cables traverse the seas and ultimately connect to terrestrial networks at Cable Landing Stations (CLS) on-shore where they interconnect to data centers. Not much wider than a garden hose, these systems power the internet and support all of the bandwidth needed to fuel our smart phones, applications, social media, data, video and all of the new technologies currently in development. In the past few years, we have seen a wave of new projects and systems led by traditional carriers, as well as new entrants in the market. Last year alone, over 62k miles of submarine cables were added globally, as reported by SubTel Forum.
Web giants, hyperscale cloud companies and content providers, are building out their own systems to capitalize on new technologies, increase capacity, realize greater efficiencies and control the massive amounts of data that flows from continent to continent. The US West coast - around LA and surrounding areas in particular - is experiencing a boom of subsea cable builds, the most activity in over 15 years, with cable systems such as:
Experts predict that, by 2019, the Asia-Pacific region will generate the most web-traffic in the world – double the volume generated in North America. As a result, data centers like West 7 Center serve a critical role as reliable colocation partners, providing mission-critical infrastructure and support for the flow of data from the US across the Pacific Ocean. West 7 Center located in the heart of downtown LA, and provides a secure juncture point for organizations that not only require large colocation footprints, but also want low latency connectivity. Our location provides the added advantage of proximity, which is essential for content delivery, IoT applications, mission-critical workloads, finance and media. Telcos can establish backhaul from West 7 Center to other CLS and the many infrastructure nodes in the region. With 16 global and domestic carriers on-site and 172,000 square feet of space available, West 7’s Tier III facility offers an attractive and reliable gateway to Asia and can be a reliable and secure point across the end-to-end infrastructure that is needed on the terrestrial side of the subsea cables. We can expect to see more capacity projects and growth in this arena as global telecom operators try to keep pace with the incredible demand for internet, data and voice traffic – coming from Latin America, Asia and Europe, into the US.  When we think of threats to data centers, images of hackers infiltrating a complex network to breach firewalls to steal or damage data often come to mind. But as the wildfires in California demonstrate, there are a number of physical security threats caused by natural disasters that need to be addressed by the data center industry.
The damage produced by the recent wildfires in California is nothing if not staggering. With nearly 1.7 million acres that have burned across the state, the devastation may be heartbreaking, but long from being fully assessed. Time will tell just how destructive these fires were for the properties and the lives impacted by this tragedy. As we enter the Thanksgiving holiday, we’d like to take a moment to say thanks to the brave individuals who risk their lives to fight wildfires like those taking place currently in California. Their bravery and commitment to this ensuring the safety of others does not go unnoticed in this difficult time. The selflessness found in their service to their communities is nothing if not consistent with the spirit of giving that is central to the upcoming holiday season. While these fires may not reach the centers of metropolitan areas like Los Angeles, they do give us the opportunity to reflect on how important physical security is to the entire data center industry. As we’ve outlined in our recent ebook on data security, facilities like our West 7 Center can be designed to mitigate the negative impacts that disasters like wildfires may have on infrastructure, offering security in even the most precarious of circumstances. By housing data centers underground, many of the physical threats are eliminated. Although underground data centers and colocation facilities may have been a trend throughout Europe for quite some time, West 7 Center’s choice to design its facility with physical security best practices in mind demonstrates how we place a premium on meeting the needs of our clients. From multiple 24/7 guard stations to sorting mission-critical infrastructure underground, we’ve designed our facility to protect against the most threatening disasters, whether they be man-made or natural. As the California wildfires continue to be addressed by emergency personnel, we hope that our clients can rest assured that their data is in good hands by being placed in a state-of-the-art, secure underground facility in metro Los Angeles. |
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