Jan 18, 2011 11:51 AM,

CENX partnership with CoreSite emphasizes connectivity for cloud providers

By Joan Engebretson

Carrier Ethernet exchange operator will co-locate new exchanges at 11 data centers operated by CoreSite

When carrier Ethernet exchanges launched over the last 12 months or so, their initial purpose was to act as a mid-point between links from two different carriers, with the goal of interconnecting end user locations served by different carriers. But a new Ethernet exchange-based offering, announced today from exchange operator CENX, essentially will co-locate exchanges at key endpoints—11 U.S. data centers operated by CoreSite Realty Corporation that host 600 customers, including a high percentage of cloud service providers.

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“Cloud providers will be able to [obtain] access through the carrier Ethernet exchange [using] a single link to access 15 million Ethernet service locations,” CENX President Nan Chen told Connected Planet. The 15-million number refers to the individual Ethernet-served buildings that can be reached through CENX exchanges.

CoreSite aims to help cloud provider customers

CoreSite, which did a $270 million initial public stock offering in September, operates about two million square feet of data center space that includes 1 Wilshire Blvd. in Los Angeles, a widely recognized carrier hotel location. “We’re a five-nines reliable, carrier-neutral co-location and interconnection provider,” said Chuck Price, CoreSite senior vice president of information technology.

The CENX partnership, Price said, “will provide cloud customers lower costs, faster time to provision and carrier-grade SLA-based service.”

Although some data center operators serving cloud providers are attempting essentially to establish their own interconnection options by luring individual carriers to their centers, Price said CoreSite decided that it would be best “to find a best of breed provider and leverage their technology inside our portfolio.”

By partnering with CENX, CoreSite was able to quickly put together a portfolio of carriers to provide connectivity to enable cloud service providers to bring services to the market as quickly as possible, said Price. “They can use CENX to identify carriers and establish relationships with them through the CENX exchange. The enterprise customer would participate with one of those carriers to get on the exchange.”