“ Developing highly robust switch silicon from the ground up and powering mission-critical networks at the world ’ s largest data center customers with a first product line is truly remarkable ”
NETWORKING HARDWARE
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“ Developing highly robust switch silicon from the ground up and powering mission-critical networks at the world ’ s largest data center customers with a first product line is truly remarkable ”
— Sandesh Patnam , Partner , DFJ Growth
around three times the distance between Earth and the Moon . As the planet becomes increasingly interconnected ( to itself , not to the Moon ) and the volume of data being created swells past 2.5 quintillion bytes every single day , Earth ’ s fibre optic nervous system is an increasingly critical piece of infrastructure .
As the need for capacity to connect more and more hyperscale data centre facilities to the net increases , dark fiber is becoming one of the most important commodities in the industry .
Dark fibre is unused or unlit fibre optic cable , often laid alongside connected lines , that isn ’ t hooked up to allow the passage of data traffic . Dark fiber is typically leased to third-party companies by the network operator to allow for increased traffic .
Recently , several companies have emerged in this field , deploying new dark fibre routes to link up major data centre hubs . Hyperscale players are also building out their own networks ; just last year , Facebook began selling unused capacity to other companies , effectively entering the wholesale fibre business .
Data centre investors and operators , forever seeking to improve the efficiency and capacity with which their facilities can reach network hubs , have been readily investing in and acquiring companies that specialise in providing dark fibre network access .
Currently , the dark fibre network operating industry brings in around $ 4.5bn in the US alone each year , and is expected to grow as a CAGR of around 12.2 % going forward as investment continues to rise and the industry continues to mature .
In 2019 , SDC Capital Partners acquired a majority stake in Summit Infrastructure Group , a Northern Virginia dark fibre provider , with access to about 700 kilometres of cable . “ Summit has built a highly differentiated network infrastructure in the world ’ s largest data
OCTOBER 2020