Digital Realty : building the digital future
Thanks to increasing deregulation , data centre operators found themselves increasingly able to capitalise on this trend . “ What those data centre operators found was that they could build those express networks between core campuses themselves , offering them at discounted rates , and eating into one of the few remaining golden goose revenue streams left to the telcos on the networking side ,” Davidson says . The reason for data centre operators ’ dominance over telcos in the interconnection space , he continues , is because “ they were able to do it a little bit better because they didn ' t have to view that connectivity as a revenue source , and instead could treat it as a value-add .”
This approach isn ’ t ubiquitous across the data centre sector , Davidson admits , but for Digital Realty , it ’ s become a cornerstone of how the company grows and attracts new customers into its user base . “ When you look at how Digital Realty operates , that datacentre-to-data-centre connectivity really isn ' t a product : it ' s a feature , an add-on you see being used in order to attract people into the ecosystem ,” he says . “ It ' s not something you ' re looking to maximise your margin on ; it ' s something that you ' re looking to sell as much of as possible in order to enable people to use your site effectively .” This ultra-open approach to the interconnection infrastructure surrounding and connecting Digital Realty ’ s facilities is , Davidson stresses several times
70 December 2021