Harm Joosse, Global Head of Strategy & Business Segments, Service Providers, Digital Realty

August 28, 2023

When a company is considering outsourcing its data centers or using a service as an interconnection hub, there are numerous providers to choose from. During this selection process, one important concept often encountered is 'carrier neutrality,' also called a 'carrier-neutral data center.' Pay attention when you hear carrier neutrality in a conversation about a data center. Choosing a carrier-neutral facility is essential in choosing the right business for your outsourcing.

What is carrier neutrality and a carrier-neutral data center?

Carrier neutrality refers to carrier-neutral data centers, or data centers that allow interconnection between many interconnection providers and colocation customers. Carrier-neutral data centers are not tied to any one service provider (telecommunications, ISP, or other), providing diversity and flexibility for the client seeking service.

Carrier-neutral data centers are data centers that interconnect with a large range of connectivity suppliers. By using this type of data center, businesses can outsource costly IT processes, freeing teams up to concentrate on other tasks.

When searching for data centers, companies should check if they can interconnect with customers and partners, have access to the preferred carriers, and check the availability of other network providers in case of service expansions.

A carrier-neutral data center with a high density of networks can offer options based on your company-specific requirements.

What are the benefits of a carrier-neutral data center?

Efficiency

In a non-carrier-neutral environment, a customer will often only have one or few options for connectivity services. Consumers in this situation can easily fall victim to high prices, limited bandwidth, and lack of competition because they’re at the mercy of the provider the data center is tied to.

Carrier-neutral facilities are cost-efficient as they are located in areas with high competition and connectivity, which reduces prices and improves service. The absence of a single service provider encourages all local providers to offer better value and efficiency, resulting in superior customer products. Additionally, the enhanced flexibility and opportunities in colocation and interconnection at carrier-neutral facilities lead to long-term customer benefits compared to non-carrier-neutral data centers.

Dependability

Companies using carrier-neutral data centers benefit from a much more dependable service, protecting their revenue and reputation.

In a modern, connected world where uptime is critical, carrier-neutral colocation facilities give businesses peace of mind. Customers can connect to other suppliers with agreed SLAs, benefiting from 99.999% uptime. By combining multiple ISPs and network providers, carrier-neutral colocation data centers offer redundancy and reliability – ensuring maximum uptime even if one supplier is experiencing issues.

There is also the added assurance of cross-connects. If your business depends on high speeds to react to ever-changing situations, cross-connects offer direct connections between servers. This helps to support interconnection requirements without increasing costs. Likewise, cross-connects allow businesses to bypass public internet, making their connection quicker and more secure.

Scalability

As businesses grow, their IT and connectivity needs change. Carrier-neutral data centers allow companies to choose network providers that most suit those needs. When requirements change, companies can add additional network connections to extend their services.

The overall benefit of carrier-neutral facilities is that they put the power in businesses’ hands. They have the freedom to choose suppliers based on investment, reliability, or scalability.

Carrier neutrality means connectivity

Carrier neutrality is an essential factor to look for when outsourcing your data center or seeking interconnection services, as it provides the benefit of both cost-efficiency and a greater degree of connectivity than you could find anywhere else.

All of our data centers are carrier-neutral, providing customers with many connectivity options to many carriers and options for their business. Connecting with multiple carriers in our data centers enables redundancy, optimal uptime, and cost-efficiency, all of which are great benefits to any business seeking to outsource their data center. If you’d like to learn more about any of our carrier-neutral solutions for your business, please contact us via our site's contact page.

The State of Cloud Platform Standards, Q4 2016