Shawna Furr over @ SoftLayer told me today that SL just undertook quite a network upgrade this past month.
For Seattle they've added 10G connections to Comcast, SIX, Level3, and NTT adding to their existing 2x 10G connections to Internap for a total of 60Gbps of network capacity. In their Dallas datacenter they've brought on 10Gbps to Level3, 20Gbps to NTT, and 10Gbps to Equinix's IBX peering cloud. Dallas now has 80Gbps of capacity, up from 60Gbps the last time I checked.
All told, SoftLayey has roughly 200Gb/s of network capacity spread amongst it's three US datacenters. Based on what I know about SoftLayer's infrastructure and scale, this means they might be the only large dedicated server provider that isn't overselling their bandwidth.
SoftLayer Increases 10G Network Connections
Total Network Capacity Tops 200GDecember 16, 2008, Dallas, TX—SoftLayer Technologies, the on-demand IT services provider, recently upgraded all of its data centers’ network connectivity. The upgrades included additional 10G connections, for a total of 20 across the company’s facilities in Dallas, Seattle, and Washington DC. The new connections provide additional redundancy with low latency across both SoftLayer’s Public and Private networks and increase bandwidth for SoftLayer customers’ ever-growing capacity needs.
“Network reliability is the backbone of all we offer and our customers’ first priority,” said Ric Moseley, SoftLayer Vice President of Engineering. “We are committed to continually enhancing our network and increasing our redundant connections to ensure we deliver industry-leading performance and uptime.”
The company’s Seattle data center received additional 10G peering connections from Comcast and the Seattle Internet Exchange (SIX), as well as 10G transit connections from Level 3 and NTT America. The facility’s upgrades included the installation of Internap’s Flow Control Platform (FCP), which enhances Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) routing performance by monitoring each provider’s connections and rerouting traffic when a connection is interrupted.
The Dallas data center’s upgrades included adding a 10G Comcast connection for private peering. Currently this link carries more than 2.5Gbps of network traffic; in the coming days, it will have connectivity into Equinix facilities in Dallas and Washington DC, providing direct connections to additional carriers.
SoftLayer’s upgraded data center connectivity:
Dallas, TX
• Comcast—1x10Gbps
• Global Crossing—1x10Gbps
• Internap—1x10Gbps
• Level 3—1x10Gbps
• NTT America—2x10Gbps
• SAVVIS—1x10Gbps
• Equinix—1x10GbpsSeattle, WA
• Comcast—1x10Gbps
• Internap—2x10Gbps
• Level 3—1x10Gbps
• Quest—1x10Gbps
• SIX—1x10GbpsWashington, D.C.
• Internap—2x10Gbps
• Level 3—1x10Gbps
• NTT America—2x10Gbps
• Equinix—1x10GbpsAbout SoftLayer Technologies Headquartered in Plano, Texas, SoftLayer delivers next-generation web hosting and virtualized data center services on a global basis from facilities located in Dallas, TX; Seattle, WA; and Washington, DC. Utilizing proprietary management tools coupled with the industry's first Network-Within-a-Network topology, the company delivers unprecedented power and control to securely manage IT environments while providing unparalleled scalability. For more information please visit www.softlayer.com or call 866.398.7638.
Contact:
Shawna Furr
214.442.0584
press@softlayer.com
Michael Halligan is a serial entrepreneur with more than 15 years of experience in IT architecture and operations. His primary role is chief technical officer of BitPusher, LLC, a managed application hosting firm based out of San Francisco and Seattle. He is currently starting up a new Web application providing intelligent services to the convention industry. He previously held architectural and management positions at start-ups MyPoints, Kontiki and Napster.
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Can you please tell us
Can you please tell us something more about this post? And why its different than any other network upgrade that happens all over the world?
This just looks like some free publicity for company x.
Short answer: Because I felt
Short answer: Because I felt like writing about it.
Long answer: SoftLayer's network has gotten very large, very quickly. This gives them economies of scale that few (if any) other dedicated server providers have.
Scale means direct benefits like cheaper bandwidth potential, better performance, and better routing since the larger they get the easier it will be for them to negotiate public peering.
Ancillary benefits include having a larger network with which to mitigate large DDOS attacks, greater burst capacity, more diverse routing, and of course, my guess that they're not overselling their uplinks.
Hosting Companies Migrating To Their Seatle Datacenter
I host with midphase aka:Anhosting, Autica. All servers are in process of being migrated to Softlayers Seatle, WA data center. My server was migrated early 01-01-09. This is probabbly part of the reason for the increase in their facilities. I think they was using the Equinix datacenter in Chicago, IL.
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