ISP Airfibre invests in Dublin data centre space to boost colo services

15 Jan 2013

Business-to-business ISP Airfibre has invested in spare data centre capacity from a number of data centre providers around Dublin and says it plans to acquire further rack space in multiple data centres in the city.

The investment is intended to satisfy demand among firms for co-location (colo) services and sell leased line and internet communications to business.

Airfibre claims a technical advantage for its colo services over others that simply offer data centre rack space through a feature it has labelled ‘wire-speed access’. Existing customers for its leased line services can access Airfibre colo rack space without having to touch the public internet.

“This is a model that I successfully executed in the UK,” Airfibre chairman and CEO John Earley explained, “in that customers with a 100Mbps leased line, for example, can enjoy 100Mbps access to their cloud-based servers should they wish to.

“Given our core support for MPLS it is also possible for customers to effectively design and build their own network using Airfibre network resources.”

Airfibre is offering colo in 1u rack space increments and will apply its network monitoring and management systems free of charge for installed infrastructure to guard against potential power supply and connectivity issues. Rack space is supported by independent UPS and power switch facilities.

The company is competing in the leased line space against providers like Eircom and BT.

John Kennedy is a journalist who served as editor of Silicon Republic for 17 years

editorial@siliconrepublic.com