The world is relying on network capacity to deliver data more and more. Because of this, the data center industry is looking at different ways to keep up with the demand. That’s driving a growing number of organizations to investigate dark fiber as an alternative to commercial Internet service. Dark fiber is becoming one of the commodities data centers are looking towards to develop its operations. While it sounds like something dangerous or something that could be found in the black market, it’s something that is more along the lines of a commodity that is salvaged and reutilized.
Put simply, dark fiber is pre-existing underground infrastructure that does not yet have the hardware or software that enable it to run services. While fiber optic cables that are actively sending data via light wavelengths are considered lit, the rest of the unused fibers laying in wait are deemed unlit—or dark.
Dark fiber cables can be useful and beneficial to data centers for many reasons. The first being money. Organizations that have a lot of data that they need to move around or if you happen to already have access to dark fibers for little or no cost, it will save you a lot of money to bring up your own dark fiber network as opposed to paying thousands or tens of thousands of dollars a month to some other Internet provider. There is no need to worry about paying for the installation to bury it into the ground.
Another benefit of dark fiber is the potential speed. Whenever an organization is using commercial Internet service, traffic gets bounced around to a lot of different points before arriving at its destination. But with dark fiber, organizations can get a straight line from point A to point B, which improves performance.
Dark fiber cables are a hidden commodity that can be utilized by telecommunication companies. These service companies can provide what is called “wavelength” services or simply “waves”. This is done by splitting the light into various wavelength groups. The use of dark fiber cables seems to be catching the interest of investors and operators of different data center companies. There are many advantages to using these unlit and preinstalled cables, but it is more of a long-term solution than a short term one. While setting up a dark fiber system can admittedly be intimidating at first, choosing an experienced provider who can serve as a trusted partner to design, build, and deploy a custom network will offer businesses peace of mind while addressing current and future network requirements.