Month: April 2022

What Is Dark Fiber? How it Works Plus its Many Benefits

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Fiber-optic cables provide internet connectivity by sending information through light pulses. Cables that have been installed underground but aren’t in use are called “dark fiber”—also known as black or unlit fiber. There are thousands of miles of unlit fiber-optic cables throughout the country that were installed by telecom providers but haven’t been utilized yet.

Organizations in private and public sectors can take advantage of this unused dark fiber to create a secure network system that’s isolated from public networks and provides consistent, reliable speed.

By purchasing or leasing dark fiber, you can create a stable internet environment that your company controls, ensuring you never have to worry about insufficient bandwidth or network capacity. Find out more about dark fiber vs. lit fiber and the advantages of working with dark fiber service providers.

Dark Fiber vs. Lit Fiber

When most people connect to the internet from home through their laptop or smartphone, they’re using lit fiber — linking to the existing fiber-optic infrastructure provided by a utility company. But when organizations want a secure and private option for network access, they can purchase or lease dark fiber-optic cables from a service provider.

The organization uses its own equipment to “light” the fiber, so they have complete control over their internet infrastructure.

Benefits of Using Dark Fiber

While dark fiber may seem confusing at first, it’s an elegant solution to many of the challenges that companies face. The advantages of using dark fiber include:

Privacy and Security

Companies can purchase or lease dark fiber, and they own the equipment connected to the fiber. This dedicated infrastructure gives the enterprise complete control over the network.

All the information they send over the network is private and can’t be monitored by outside entities. This is a big value-add for organizations that handle sensitive, private data, such as healthcare systems.

Working with dark fiber service providers is becoming a popular choice among school districts that want to ensure that student data remains protected while having access to a secure and powerful network.

Speed

In computer network systems, latency measures the amount of time it takes for data to travel from its origin point to its destination.

Dark fiber networks tend to have low latency, meaning data can be transmitted quickly across a large network. This is important for organizations with a high number of endpoints, such as laptops, desktops, tablets, and IoT (internet of things) devices.

Capacity and Flexibility

Because enterprises that use dark fiber aren’t utilizing public fiber-optic cables, they enjoy high capacity and strong signal strength. This allows them to respond to internal demand without worrying about external network issues.

Fiber-optic cables are extremely powerful — their bandwidth is only limited by the transceiver equipment at either end of the fiber. As companies need more bandwidth, they can simply upgrade their equipment to enjoy higher speeds, without needing to replace any fiber.

Cost-Effectiveness

While operating your own private fiber-optic network comes with start-up capital costs, the potential for long-term savings is significant.

As your organization grows, you can quickly surpass your bandwidth capacity if you’re on a lit-fiber network, and it can require lots of time and money to upgrade your existing systems. But once you’ve invested in dark fiber, it’s easy to add capacity. Plus, you don’t have to worry about service calls, hidden fees, or unpredictable costs from month to month.

Learn More About Network Solutions from VPLS

At VPLS, we offer dark fiber connectivity solutions supported by our carrier-neutral data centers throughout the United States and beyond. We work with more than 7,000 clients around the world to provide managed solutions for everything from cloud storage to colocation. We’ll tailor our services to meet your company’s unique needs, and our 24/7 support means we’re always just a call away. For more information, contact us today.

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Data Centers & The Responsibility of Sustainability

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What about a giant, clunky building is earth-friendly or sustainable? That is a great question. Less than five years ago, articles in the media were warning that digital infrastructure, such as data centers, could consume 20% of global energy by 2025. Many would be surprised to hear that the data center industry only consumed 1% of global energy in 2020.

In fact, data centers are becoming more efficient, thanks to advances in technology and better management practices. In 2019, VPLS shifted towards greener energy solutions in our Northern California data centers with the installation of airside economization units in our Emeryville facility, and the installation of high-efficiency precision cooling systems in our San Jose data center. As a result of these upgrades, VPLS was able to achieve a PUE of 1.25 in Emeryville and 1.29 in San Jose (the industry average being 1.5 or greater), reducing the overall carbon footprint by over 1,800 metric tons that year. And we’re not alone—across the industry, data centers are finding new ways to save energy and minimize their impact on the environment.

Today’s data centers are built with energy-efficient components and use innovative cooling systems to reduce their energy consumption. At VPLS, we are committed to continuing to invest in energy-efficient solutions. Our data centers PHX1 (Phoenix, Arizona) and DAL1 (Plano, Texas) use 85% less water and energy than the industry average. VPLS’s focus is to shift away from water-based cooling solutions while improving our efficiencies to reduce our impact on the environment.

Data centers may not have started off keeping energy efficiency and sustainability top of mind. But that makes it that much more important for the data center engineers of today to assume the responsibility of keeping up with improvements, upgrading infrastructures, and ensuring that their facilities function in unison with the planet as well as public demand for fast and reliable data. Improvements like those of VPLS’s Northern California data centers can go a long way if all data centers work towards reaching the goal of sustainability.

In addition, VPLS’ data centers are located in areas with high renewable energy potential, so we are able to take advantage of clean energy sources. We also emphasize purchasing power from renewable resources. Our commitment to minimizing the carbon footprint while delivering fast, secure, and reliable service to our customers, proves that sacrificing quality for sustainability is not necessary.

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VPLS Raises Additional $30 Million Investment from Crestline Investors 

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VPLS Raises Additional $30 Million Investment from Crestline Investors 

VPLS and Crestline expand partnership for continued growth

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VPLS, a leading cloud-to-edge computing and IT solutions provider, announced today a $30 million equity investment led by Crestline Investors, Inc. Proceeds will be used to support VPLS’s acquisitive growth strategy and fund continued organic growth. This extends VPLS’s successful partnership with Crestline, which began with a $30 million preferred equity and debt investment in 2019, bringing total investment to $62.5 million to date.

VPLS, dual headquartered in San Jose and Los Angeles, CA, was founded in 2017 under the name Evocative Data Centers with a $2.5 million seed investment spearheaded by Arman Khalili. Rebranded VPLS after the 2019 acquisition of VPLS and VPLS Solutions, the company has grown from two data centers in the San Francisco Bay Area to 16 data centers across the United States, Europe and Asia. VPLS offers enterprise-grade data centers, managed IT services, bare metal hosting, public cloud connectivity, and value-added reseller services.

“VPLS is thrilled to expand its partnership with Crestline,” said Arman Khalili, CEO of VPLS.  “We look forward to deploying the capital into future acquisitions and growth initiatives.  VPLS’s clients can expect additional exciting announcements soon.”

Under the leadership of industry veterans Arman Khalili and Derek Garnier, VPLS is well-positioned for continued success as it expands its infrastructure and services capabilities,

Will Palmer, Managing Director at Crestline and VPLS Board member

About Crestline Investors, Inc. 

 Crestline Investors, Inc., founded in 1997 and based in Fort Worth, Texas, is an institutional alternative investment management firm with approximately $15.0 billion in assets under management. Crestline specializes in credit and opportunistic investments, including providing flexible capital solutions to middle market companies, asset backed investing and financing and restructuring solutions for mature private equity funds. In addition, the firm manages a multi-PM equity market-neutral hedge fund and provides beta and hedging solutions for institutional clients. Headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, the company maintains affiliate offices in New York, London, Toronto and Tokyo. 

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