As part of its continued penetration of the media and broadcast sector, leading provider of bespoke private networks, Geo Networks (Geo), today announced a 10 year contract with new media data centre, The DataRoom London (DataRoom). Geo is to provide dark fibre to south London-based DataRoom, linking  it to Geo’s 3,000km network to facilitate connectivity to over 100 data centres and media hubs such as Chiswick Park, MediaCityUK and Dublin’s The Digital Hub.

DataRoom, a brand new media-specific data centre in the Royal Woolwich Arsenal, is a collaboration between existing storage facility Stockroom London and digital media service provider ChilliBean.  Whilst StockRoom London will continue to provide ultra-secure space for the archiving and storage of film, tapes, data drives, documents and related items, DataRoom has been constructed to provide a central access point for post-production and special effects companies to render content, alongside staple data centre services such as disaster recovery, server virtualisation and co-location.

Director at DataRoom, Peter Godden, believes that DataRoom will fulfil a niche in the market: “We have allocated an initial 10,000 square feet with the necessary power and connectivity for VFX and post companies to locate and engineer their render farm and storage infrastructure served by SLAs and tariffs designed to meet their specific needs. Having archive storage facilities and space for other technical operations alongside will complement the DataRoom service”.

Both Stockroom London and DataRoom are on the site of the former British Library book repository in Woolwich’s Royal Arsenal. Geo has extended its network from Greenwich a further 3km to new Crossrail hotspot Woolwich, using its agreement with Thames Water to deploy the fibre through the sewers. As well as providing complete diversity from other networks, the depth and security of the fibre virtually eliminates disruption from street works. It has also provided DataRoom with a direct point-to-point connection to TeleHouse West data centre in Docklands.

“We chose Geo for two reasons: firstly because of its innovative fibre location in the sewers which affords it excellent up-time records; and secondly because it could give us dark fibre to manage ourselves. This means that we can light additional bandwidth as and when our data centre customer base grows,” continued Godden. “A traditional managed service, on a fibre-by-fibre cost basis, would have restricted our ability to offer our customers a cost-effective solution and space outside of the city. Now we can be a truly competitive alternative.”

Geo’s Media Sales Director, Will Pitt, knows that scalable, secure fibre is critical to the success of DataRoom: “By using Geo’s fibre, customers of DataRoom will have access to the UK & Ireland’s newest optic fibre network and have the freedom to buy dark fibre or managed services from any location. That will enable up to multi-terabit scalability, which is perfect for the demands being placed on those companies involved in the sector, who need to do what they do faster, with a focus on optimal quality and reliability”.

As leading provider of bespoke private networks, Geo Networks (Geo), celebrates ten years since its inception, Chief Executive and co-founder, Chris Smedley looks back on how fibre has supported the growth of UK businesses across a range of sectors, and helped the UK to become one of the most advanced data markets in the world.

“Geo was formed in 2003; a challenging time in which telecoms providers were still dealing with the collapse in valuations following the dotcom bust,” said Smedley, who has been Chief Executive since the company’s creation. “The perception of most industry players at the time was that there was a surfeit of optical fibre assets and that they were of little value. However, we always felt that data usage would continue to drive demand for high bandwidth services, and that an investment in fibre would pay dividends in the future.”

Geo was created after Hutchison Whampoa bought a 2,500km national fibre asset from Lattice Plc, who had constructed it between 1999 and 2001, largely tracking the UK’s gas network. Geo was launched in December 2004 as a provider of national, private fibre networks. In 2005, it acquired Urband, the owner of an extensive sewer-based metropolitan network throughout London, enabling it to sell fibre networks both within and out of the capital.

“The big deals that really drove Geo in its formative years were due to the realisation by fixed and mobile broadband providers that the explosion of data consumption would require a change in how they procured network services,” continued Smedley. “Fixed and mobile ISPs were mostly not owners of network assets; that had been the position of the incumbent and when voice and dial-up internet revenues dominated, there was little pressure for change. However, in the mid-2000s the shift to always-on broadband using DSL technology and the growth of mobile data radically accelerated the need for these players to control optical fibre and benefit from its low cost of growth as if they owned the infrastructure. The time was right for a new kind of fibre business – one which was prepared to form long-term relationships with key industry players and give them access to and full use of the network assets previously denied to them. It was during this period that Geo’s fibre became the national core network for businesses such as 3, O2, TalkTalk and Tiscali, as it remains today. In less than 7 years, the bandwidth being consumed over Geo’s fibre by these companies has grown from a handful of 10 Gigabit per second wavelengths to multiple Terabytes of data and an entire generation of new broadband businesses have been able to grow and compete.”

Geo’s other earliest customers were also industry players such as carriers and systems integrators. However, increasing demand was coming through for individual large enterprises or public sector organisations to use fibre leases as the basis of a scalable private network. 2006 signalled a paradigm shift for Geo with a significant network construction between two private data centres, for a client of systems integrator, CSC, who also asked Geo to operate the optical transport layer as a dedicated private network for the exclusive use of CSC. “Within a year of that, we had taken this model direct to a number of large enterprise customers; banks, media companies, and businesses growing through online channels. Since then, we have witnessed a step-change in the way that the market procures data services, as companies have accelerated their use of data centres and dedicated fibre to locate their critical data away from their own premises, and the data centre and hosting industries in the UK and Ireland have benefitted from an explosion of investment and demand,” continued Smedley. “Above all, Geo has been able to take advantage of the success of the UK and Ireland in establishing leading positions within Europe’s changing data economy. Cities such as Dublin, Manchester and London and their surrounding regions are vital locations for both the storage and transfer of data. Geo’s network assets are a critical and long-term facilitator for this whole market.”

Technology optimising the existing fibre infrastructure deployed has also evolved over the last decade. “Today’s technology means that we can now provide 16Tb/s capacity per fibre pair, without expensive regeneration over a geography which includes all major conurbations in the UK and Ireland,” stated Geo’s Head of Customer Network Engineering, Gordon McCulloch. “There are now coherent optical solutions commercially available that provide 100Gb/s DWDM wavelengths at 50GHz or even 25GHz frequency spacing, compared to just 2.5Gb/s ten years ago.”

However, fibre-specific technology is also advancing. Last year, Geo launched the first of two diverse, low latency routes to Ireland, and the marine fibre cable used in the route in partnership with EirGrid was deployed with very low loss fibre, around 0.175dB per kilometre.

Last year, Geo added to its network an average of one major data centre per month. It now offers the most comprehensive data centre network, with over 130 on its extensive 100% fibre network across the UK and to Ireland,. “The single biggest opportunity for us continues to be the proliferation of data centres and the move to off-site and outsource the management of data by business customers. It was recently noted that only around 20% of western European businesses are currently using data centres; the remainder still keep their data in a server room onsite. With the ongoing growth in data usage and the ever-increasing reliance most businesses place upon it the market opportunity remains very attractive,” concluded Smedley. “It has been a very long time since I have needed to evangelise the benefits of privately owned and controlled fibre to any business; the economics of fibre, its enormous scalability and superior performance together with the application of in-house IT skills mean that dark or dedicated managed fibre is becoming a common feature of most major data network procurements. The attractions of “cloud” technology and the advantages of data centres and hosted IT services mean that there has never been a more appropriate time for businesses to consider switching to an unshared, private fibre network.”

Geo Networks Ltd (Geo), the leading provider of dedicated fibre networks, has announced today a further deal with Surf Telecoms (Surf), supplier of wholesale carrier fibre and bandwidth services in the Midlands, South-West and Wales.

Following on from a successful project supporting Surf and one of their major customers in 2011, Surf approached Geo with a requirement to expand its fibre network to provide communication services to parent company Western Power Distribution. Connecting the two existing networks, located in the South-West and Wales to the newly acquired Midlands region, and bringing management of the entire infrastructure in-house was a crucial element in fulfilling Western Power’s business strategy.

The 270km fibre optic network deployed connects Surf’s South-West network in Tewkesbury to some of the key locations in the Midlands including Worcester, Tipton, Hinckley, Leicester and Nottingham. Geo was one of those selected from a number of vendors due to both its network location and its open access approach to dark fibre. By leasing Geo dark fibre that tracks the national gas pipeline, Surf has additional security and the ability to manage its own services across an extended geographical footprint.

“By expanding our network through Geo, Surf is able to offer a more integrated solution to both internal and external stakeholders,” said Richard Slane at Surf, adding, “We now have a network in place that provides Surf with a fantastic platform to meet the growing data demands of both new and existing customers”.

Geo’s Nick Ballard commented, “This is an exciting opportunity for both companies. Not only has it allowed Surf to maximise their existing infrastructure but it has allowed Geo to further strengthen its relationship with Surf”.

For many of us the norm in 2013 is to read, listen to music, watch movies and take photos on some sort of handheld device. Our phones, tablets and to a lesser extent our laptops have become central to our everyday lives. We use them for entertainment and communication, whether that be a simple text message, email or through the world of social networking such as Facebook or Twitter. Events are captured in high res photos or HD videos and then instantly shared with friends, loved ones or even complete strangers via the internet. Increasingly we look to stream our music via Spotify, Amazon, Apple or Google and video or movie streaming is also more prevalent with the help of both fixed and mobile networks becoming faster.

There has been a fundamental change in the behaviour of consumers. This has been facilitated by cheap consumer electronics, faster networks and most importantly a change in the mind-set of where to store your personal things. This change has led to the transient and even flippant use of media and data which has to reside somewhere. Yes, some of it will of course remain on the phone, tablet or laptop and some will be backed up traditionally to local storage solutions. However individuals are increasingly looking online for places to put their cherished memories and important personal data.

As a result of this the market has responded by radically lowering the availability and price of storage. The picture isn’t totally consistent but the general price per gigabyte is falling to a level where you or I might choose to make the jump and pay to store our data online.

What caught my eye recently was the offer Google was making to anyone who bought a Chromebook Pixel. The Pixel is Google’s own branded laptop similar in form to Apple’s delectable MacBook Air. However, unlike traditional laptops it’s a web based operating system where the user accesses services and programs (such as Google docs) via the browser online rather than a previously installed program on the hard disc. Google also throws in one terabyte (yes 1000 gigabytes which is A LOT of storage) of cloud storage free for 3 years. I’m not sure of the practicality of uploading a terabyte of data via your Virgin Media, BT or Sky broadband connection, but you have to admit it’s a compelling offer that could provide a convenient and secure backup solution for your ever increasing and burgeoning digital life.

So why is this important to us here at Geo? Geo prides itself on its open access network, the newest core network in the UK that is securely built along the gas pipeline as well as residing in the Victorian sewers well below potential street level disruption. Geo is also diversely connected into 100’s of Telehouses, data centres, BT exchanges and other key sites. Geo has also extended its network across the Irish Sea and into Dublin recognising its importance to the digital world as a hub for data storage facilitated by the tax system, availability of power and state of art facilities.

As an open access provider we make a virtue of offering both dark and lit solutions on our high fibre count cables into these key data centres. The explosion in cloud storage is driving demand for infrastructure and dedicated fibre platforms, Geo encourages its customers to think of the network as their own. “Own your network” is Geo’s strap line and we mean it.

As all these tech companies that battle for your data need to build high quality and very high bandwidth networks that can, in the blink of an eye, retrieve that photo, song or video and transport it thousands of miles to your phone or tablet as you speed home at 100mph on the 18:35 out of Kings Cross. This is the world we now live in and I for one can’t wait to see even bigger and faster networks, where data size and distance travelled become irrelevant. Welcome to the always on, always connected digital world.

For me, the change that makes all the difference is the take up and adoption within the consumer space. For the first time I believe that consumers not only know what cloud computing actually means, but more importantly are prepared to engage with it and use the technology in a meaningful way. While online PC backup has been available from specialist providers for enterprise companies for many years, the majority of consumers either ignored the need for secure backup or used local physical storage solutions. These could have included floppy discs, memory sticks, CD and DVD discs and various flavours of hard drive. For the majority of us, the cost of online storage was beyond our budget and the practicality of uploading gigabits of data over slow ADSL connections impractical.

So what’s changed in recent times to spur my optimism? Two factors have (in my opinion) facilitated the move into the cloud. The first is the plethora of data created from hand held devices such as tablets and smart phones. The second is the reaction from the market to this cloud explosion in terms of availability, ease of use and cost.

Let’s transport back to a time before the consumer digital explosion when the only people who cared about digital storage was the likes of scientists or large corporate entities. These organisations probably used IBM or Digital for storage on their massive mainframe computers and the data it collected. Normal people collected physical copies of things such as letters, vinyl albums or tapes for their music collection as well as printed photographs of their holidays and other family occasions which of course were processed and developed at the chemist. All of these were diligently stored in the pre-digital backup way (probably in boxes in the loft) and dug out for the occasional event or family gathering. Move on thirty or forty years and into the 21st Century and the whole world has changed. Almost everything is created, transmitted and stored digitally. When did you last buy a book in a shop, or a CD or DVD on the high street, or hand your film cartridge envelope over the counter in the chemist? We have moved our lives and our memories into a digital reality without even realising it.

In part 2 of this blog, I will be discussing the norm in 2013 and how the market has adapted by allowing cloud storage to be available for everyone.

“An open-access network (OAN) refers to a horizontally layered network architecture in telecommunications, and the business model that separates the physical access to the network from the delivery of services.”

The more generally adopted approach within the telecoms market towards service delivery is to bundle the physical access with the delivery of services. The result for a data centre owner is a single available provider, with no choice for its customers. If additional providers are needed at a site to serve other customers, the cost of the physical access build (fibre and duct) needs to be borne all over again, and the cycle continues….

Open access therefore represents real and tangible benefits for a data centre operator. Firstly, the investment in the fibre and ducting is only made once by either the operator or its customers. Secondly, all telecoms operators immediately have cost effective access to the fibre, ensuring that customers have real choice. Thirdly, the data centre operator knows with some certainty that the scale of the fibre asset built to its site is sufficient to meet the needs of its customers and delivers the required level of diversity.

But what does it mean for the open access operator? Offering open access is about being comfortable in your own skin. It’s about not discriminating. It’s about having enough confidence in your own proposition, so that when you sell to a competitor who then gets all the glory because they sign the large end user, you can feel quietly pleased that the results have been worthwhile. It’s about taking a long term view, and developing bullet-proof partnerships with data centre operators, such that you benefit from one another’s successes.

We are constantly faced with the same question from traditional telcos – ‘why do we do it?’ The answer is simple. It is our belief that giving ‘control’ of the throughput of a fibre pair to a customer is the best way to deliver a sustainable long term relationship. Our goal is not to ‘control’, but to give ‘control’.

Leading provider of bespoke private networks, Geo Networks (“Geo”), today announced two changes to its executive team. Mike Ainger, who has been with Geo since its inception and was appointed COO in 2007, is moving to the newly-created role of Chief Strategy Officer. He will be responsible for driving forward Geo’s value proposition through market analysis, consultation and innovation.

Graham Leach joined Geo as its COO in January 2013, bringing with him a wealth of telecoms and infrastructure experience. As the operational figurehead of the company, Graham will be responsible for the design, delivery and day-to-day operation of customers’ networks, as well as delivering customer service excellence.

Commenting on the changes, company Chief Executive Chris Smedley said: “The creation of a new strategy position on our executive team and board of directors signifies our commitment to continuous improvement and innovation. I’m delighted that Mike is taking on this role, and equally pleased to welcome Graham to the executive team.”

Graham has had a successful career in the Royal Corps of Signals, which included serving on the staff in the Ministry of Defence and command of a multinational Regiment during the conflict in Bosnia, for which he was awarded a Queen’s Commendation. After his career in the forces, he joined Racal (later becoming Global Crossing) where he held the position of Service Delivery Director; then moved to Serco as Infrastructure Project Director, before being Managing Director of Peek Traffic Ltd, and finally heading up FibreSpeed, an optical fibre network operator in North Wales. Graham holds a degree in Electrical Engineering and has completed the IoD Certificate in Company Direction.

The high fibre count, 151km ring will facilitate virtually unlimited bandwidth access for Digital Realty’s customers to over a hundred data centres and points of presence (PoPs) in London and nationally including low latency routes to Slough, Docklands and the City. In addition, Digital Realty’s customers will have the ability to access Digital Realty’s Profile Park Development in Dublin using Geo’s new East-West Ring, a fully diverse, dedicated optical fibre network linking the UK and Ireland.

Digital Realty’s newly connected facilities offer over 613,000 square feet of data centre space to domestic and international customers including some of the leading systems integrators, IT service providers and enterprise clients, many of whom have demanding, complex requirements and are turning to the latest technologies to meet these needs. Customers want access to ‘best in class’ data centre solutions and fully scalable, ultra-secure network infrastructure to support their business operations. Being able to offer a diverse fibre network to and from a site is a tangible competitive advantage for a data centre operator in today’s competitive environment.

“Geo’s open-access connectivity model is an attractive option for any data centre solution provider,” commented Rob Bath, Digital Realty’s Engineering Director. “By making this one-time investment our customers will benefit from the availability of a full spectrum of service providers and a wide range of connectivity solutions from high-end, dedicated fibre based networks to internet bandwidth connectivity.”

“With a portfolio of more than 100 properties worldwide and a demanding mix of global and local customers, having reliable, secure and completely scalable connectivity infrastructure is a key component of supporting the critical processes of some of the most demanding data users around. By making this investment Digital Realty recognises that today’s global organisations expect leading fibre access in every market they operate in and Geo is ideally suited to provide this in the UK and Ireland,” commented Annette Murphy, Data Centre, Business Development Director at Geo.

It reminded me of something my Gran used to say when remote controls were introduced. Initially, they were things that were physically linked to your TV by a wire; they then became a wireless device you simply pointed towards the TV and pressed; then VCR’s came along and you needed another one for that; then there was another one for Sky; then… well, then she died. Nothing to do with the remote controls, you understand, she was just really old. Anyway, she used to say, to anyone who’d listen, “I don’t care what it does, I just want to watch my Corrie/Emmerdale/Eastenders…etc.”. No matter who we are or what we do, when we want to watch something (“accessing content” we like to call it these days) we don’t care how it happens, as long as it happens.

We’re impatient too, these days. It’s not good enough to have content simply get to the various devices that we carry around with us and/or have in nearly every room in the house. We also want it on-demand. I don’t know what it is that we’re doing that makes us so damn busy all the time, but being able to access content on-demand rocks, doesn’t it?

However, whilst platforms and content owners are offering a greater level of flexibility than ever before, and Over The Top (OTT) delivery methods are extending that flexibility further still, the majority of people still sit down to watch stuff when it’s scheduled to be aired. The vast majority. In fact, did you know that more than 95% of the BBC’s 2012 Olympics coverage was viewed via the regular terrestrial channel schedules (i.e. not via the red button or through catch-up services). So habits are not changing all that fast, despite what you might hear. I digress. Either way, the holy grail needs to be what my friend (and my Gran) suggested; it doesn’t matter to the consumer how the content gets there, as long as it does. It doesn’t matter to the user how the technology works, as long as it works and works every time. Geo has made huge strides into the Media & Broadcast sector over the past couple of years, signing ITV, BBC, SIS Live, GlobeCast and many others, and extending our network on the back of those deals into places like Media City, Chiswick Park and BBC Wood Lane. That’s happened because the industry knows that in order to compete and to stay relevant in their fast evolving market, they need to build network infrastructures that are totally reliable, highly scalable and don’t cost the earth so that the viewer or listener doesn’t know (and therefore doesn’t have to care) what mechanism is delivering the content – because it works seamlessly, every time. We’re proud to be a part of that chain and to continue to serve our growing media customer base by delivering content faultlessly and cost effectively, every time, to broadcast technologists, Grannies, and all.

BBC Studios and Post Production is the latest media company to commission a private fibre network from leading provider of bespoke fibre networks Geo Networks Ltd (“Geo”). The network will be part of the infrastructure that supports BBC Studios and Post Production’s relocation from the iconic BBC Television Centre in West London, whilst the new site is being redeveloped.

The company will return to Television Centre to run three HD studios (including Studio One, the flagship 10,000 sq ft studio) when the site is reopened in 2015. In the meantime it is offering a mix of fully equipped high-definition television spaces at the BBC Elstree and Elstree Film Studios sites.

To support the new set up, BBC Studios and Post Production required a two-year dark fibre connection between the two sites to send uncompressed HD video, audio, IT and other data between them.

Danny Popkin, Technical Development Manager BBC Studios and Post Production said: “We work with a range of production companies, making live and recorded TV shows across a variety of genres for numerous broadcasters. This requires us to transfer enormous amounts of data, including uncompressed video, between our Elstree sites. We wanted to have full control of the network management and this solution provided us with that”.

Geo utilised its unique relationship with Thames Water to provide dark fibre between the two sites, using the sewer network. Requiring just a short dig for the point-to-point connectivity, the fibre is clipped at shoulder height within the sewers, making it impervious to street disruption.

“Media companies are increasingly aware that the traditional managed services model no longer fits their business plan,” said Geo’s Media Sales Director, Will Pitt. “Our private network business model gives them control both financially and operationally, along with unprecedented scalability, and we’re delighted to be expanding our customer base.”

At the end of 2012, Geo announced three major milestones in its Media and Broadcast sector; 12 new media hubs added to its network, a 50% increase year on year of contracts won and new customers including SIS LIVE and TVCatchUp.