Poole: C4L to provide super-fast carrier grade network

Leading data centre colocation and connectivity solutions provider C4L has deployed a new high-speed MPLS/VPLS Ethernet network across its entire UK estate of On-Net data centres. 

The new carrier grade network means that C4L will be able to bring together communications, cloud and connectivity to introduce products and services to market much faster and more efficiently than ever before, potentially reducing network and data centre installations from a month to a day.

The IP network was designed for C4L by Alternative Networks (Alternative), using Juniper MX transit routers and Extreme metro-switching hardware for scalability, maximum security and resilience. Alternative is one of the most experienced providers of IP infrastructures and data centre solutions in the UK and a long-standing Juniper Elite Partner and Extreme Platinum Partner.

“There is significant demand for increased bandwidth from our customers, with data consumption and internet usage growing 50% per year,” explained Matt Hawkins, C4L chairman. “Our own expanding colocation footprint, new cloud service adoption and complex network designs have helped drive this.

"We recognised that while access circuits of 100Mbps & 1Gbps are common in data centres, 10Gbps are rapidly becoming the norm; growth to 40Gbps and even 100Gbps is already being discussed, so we needed to address this performance demand.”

Alternative worked with C4L to develop, test and implement this entirely new network solution which brings together the Juniper core network and Extreme edge access network products, to ensure the lowest latency and highest density available.

“Alternative was the only supplier that offered the experience of implementing both Juniper and Extreme technologies in parallel,” continued Hawkins. “By offering the next generation of bandwidth capability, it is our vision that businesses are not constrained by limitations in technology, bandwidth or timescale. We are constantly challenging the industry and expect to be providing 100Gbps connections in the near future.”