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SSE hooks up Manchester datacentres with 10Gbps connectivity

SSE Enterprise Telecoms launches Manchester Lightnow, a high-capacity optical network service connecting a number of datacentre facilities

Alex Scroxton
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Published: 14 Apr 2015 13:45

Network connectivity and datacentre services supplier SSE Enterprise Telecoms has launched a high-capacity, resilient optical networking service called Lightnow, offering 1Gbps and 10Gbps wavelength connectivity in Manchester.

The service – based on Ciena’s 6500 Packet-Optical Platform, equipped with WaveLogic coherent optics – will connect nine of the busiest datacentres in Manchester as well as offering meshed connectivity into 21 London facilities that have already been successfully enabled with Lightnow.

Users of the Manchester datacentres will benefit from 1Gbps and 10Gbps optical wavelengths between the facilities with sub-millisecond latency and rapid provisioning, said SSE.

The supplier will also offer flexible contract options from three months upwards; free set-up; real-time, in-life circuit moves between on-net datacentres; and 24/7 support.

SSE managing director Colin Sempill said Lightnow had originally been developed to serve demand for high-capacity connectivity in London, but had notes that more datacentre managers were choosing to use a combination of facilities to best suit their requirements, whether those were security, high-availability or speed.

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London network reaches 14,000km

“These ‘pro-locators’, as we called them, are now emerging in Manchester too – most likely due to the booming business in the area and resulting increase in data – and they also require faster datacentre links, both in the Manchester area and to London,” he said.

The original London service, which formed part of SSE’s Project Edge network expansion, has taken the reach of its fibre network to nearly 14,000km, with 234 PoPs covering 200,000 metropolitan business postcodes.

“The expansion of the Lightnow service builds on its success in London and demonstrates SSE Enterprise Telecoms’ commitment to delivering ultra-high capacity connectivity services.  Our ambition is to design a datacentre portfolio that makes a real difference to our customers, supported by a network infrastructure that has no tolerance for downtime,” said Sempill.

The first Manchester datacentres to be connected are DataCentred, Dock 10 – Media City, M247, UKFast – MaNOC 6, and five Telecity-owned facilities.

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