SSE Enterprise Telecoms has announced the launch of Manchester’s LIGHTNOW scheme, a high capacity and ultra-resilient optical networking service.
The solution will power connection between nine of the busiest data centres within the Manchester area and will also connect them to 21 dedicated LIGHTNOW data centres in London, providing 1Gb and 10Gb wavelength connectivity, with sub 1ms latency. Wavelengths could be provisioned within a week.
The expansion of the project came after successful implementation in London and following SSE’s venture bringing seven new Manchester-based data centres on-net.
The company will make the product available through a set of different packages starting at three months, with a zero charge set-up option, in-life circuit moves between any of the on-net data centres real time, and 24/7 support.
The Manchester LIGHTNOW venture will provide meshed connectivity in and around the city and on to London.
The LIGHTNOW scheme was first launched in London, where 21 data centres were connected by SSE Enterprise Telecoms.
Originally, the service formed part of Project Edge which saw SSE Enterprise Telecoms increase the reach of its fibre network to more than 13,700km with a total of 234 PoPs, serving more than 200,000 metropolitan business postcodes across the UK.
LIGHTNOW will be powered by Ciena’s 6500 Packet-Optical Platform, equipped with WaveLogic coherent optics.
Colin Sempill, managing director of SSE Enterprise Telecoms, said: "When we first launched our LIGHTNOW service, we were serving the demand from businesses for high capacity connectivity between data centres in London.
"We could see that increasingly more data centre managers were choosing to use a combination of data centres to best suit the requirements of their data – whether that be high security, maximum availability or the need for speed – but they weren’t willing to compromise on service.
"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 data centre links both within the Manchester area and to London.
"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 data centre portfolio that makes a real difference to our customers, supported by a network infrastructure that has no tolerance for downtime."
