When Selecting a Data Center Provider, Keep an Eye on the Edge

Ethernet services, data center interconnects, and cloud providers. Your data center isn’t a closed building. In fact, a good data center partner provides interconnects, good Ethernet services, and a way to actually integrate with other cloud providers. That said, some cloud and data center providers already offer some type of CDN services: Amazon, Azure, Internap, Level 3, Rackspace, and several others. Furthermore, your telco can help you with CDN as well. BT Group, AT&T, NTT, Telefonica, Telus, and Verizon all offer ways to create CDN capabilities. You can also create your own CDN platform by leveraging systems like OnApp, Aryaka, CloudFlare, and others. However, you need to work with a data center provider to ensure your data can be distributed economically and cached effectively. Just being able to can send data across into another data center isn't enough. Work with your data center provider to ensure that CDNs are (or at least can be) built into the contract.

Looking into edge and CDN capabilities. As mentioned earlier, there are already data center providers who can offer very powerful CDN options. Amazon CloudFront, for example, has servers located in Europe (United Kingdom, Ireland, The Netherlands, Germany, Spain), Asia (Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan, Taiwan and India), Australia, South America, as well as in several major cities in the US. The service operates from 55 edge locations on five continents. Similarly, Microsoft Azure CDN has 38 points of presence worldwide. From there, you can create your own management capabilities. When working with a CDN provider or partner – make sure you can control the data that’s flowing in and out. In some cases, native CDN management might work. If that’s not enough, look for technologies which offer easy management integration via methods like REST APIs, for example. Similarly, you’ll also find powerful management options with open source code available in C#/.NET, Python, PHP, Java, Ruby, and others.

Creating optimization around heavy data distribution. If your data is heavily distributed, don’t work with a data center partner that has only one or two locations or a fledgling CDN offering. It’s critical for you to deliver the data as efficiently as possible while still keeping costs down. Remember, CDNs are designed to help businesses operate better and to improve overall user experiences. Furthermore, it all heavily depends on the type of content you’re trying to deliver. For example, platforms like Yottaa are designed for web and mobile data services optimization. Others, like Aryaka specifically aim to create powerful WAN optimization solutions aimed at data delivery and distribution. The point here is that technologies around data delivery and CDN offerings has grown. Depending on the level of distribution, the size of your organization, and your overall requirements – selecting the right data center provider will always revolve around three specific points: your users, your business, and your data. If you have a global organization, work with a data center provider ready to take on massive data distribution requirements. However, if you’re a smaller or mid-market organization working in specific regions, work with a data center provider that can deliver data to your markets.