Avoid the middleman: Go direct to the network owner for enterprise connectivity

This article was originally published by Fierce Network

Many enterprises might not be aware that they—just like service providers, consultancies, and wholesale customers—can work directly with the owners of the global fiber backbone for their connectivity needs. Partnering directly with the network owner provides superior value, state-of-the-art security know-how, reduced administrative overheads, and no-holds-barred performance and availability.  This provides a huge competitive advantage in today’s data-driven economy, where reliable and secure connectivity can make the difference between operational success or failure.

Working directly with a network owner that deploys, operates, and governs the core network is a win-win for large organizations. This allows enterprises to gain direct access to the capacity, performance, and customer support offered by network owners, according to Mattias Fridström, chief evangelist at Arelion. The alternative is to partner with a local or regional network provider; however, those organizations actually connect to the Internet backbone themselves, creating as a network “middle man” between enterprises and network owners like Arelion.

Globally, the backbone network services market is expected to reach nearly $153 billion by 2030, according to Coherent Market Insights. The firm notes that “the proliferation of data-driven technologies and the rising need for seamless connectivity have resulted in a surge in demand for Backbone Network services. Organizations rely on these services to ensure fast and secure data transmission, enabling them to efficiently run critical business applications and deliver high-quality digital experiences to end-users.”

“Having the right partner for network connectivity is paramount for enterprises,” Fridström explains. “The network underpins much of the user experience, from brand perception to core operational metrics, and this is compounded by the adoption of artificial intelligence workloads and real-time data analytics by many organizations. Consider organizations that need zero downtime and minimal latency, such as online gaming that need to deliver optimal value and performance to customers.”

Additional advantages of going direct to a network provider include security, since network owners have panoramic visibility to incoming threats, and customer service and support from expert engineers with forensic insights to performance management, traffic prioritization and granular quality-of-service control.

Connectivity 101: What is the Internet Backbone?

The Internet backbone can be simply defined as the core of the Internet. The primary goal of the Internet backbone is to provide high-speed, high-capacity, reliable, and efficient connectivity between different points on the Internet. Thanks to a combination of different technologies and routing/switching strategies, Network Service Providers (NSPs), together with Internet Service Providers (ISPs), ensure that data packets travel through the shortest and fastest routes available at any given time.

The largest Internet backbone providers are known as Tier 1 networks with Arelion and a dozen or so organizations being classified as Global Tier 1 networks. These Global Tier 1 networks sit on top of the Internet ecosystem where they run and distribute the majority of the traffic on the Internet. Buying directly from any one of these networks increases the chances of reaching the end destination with less network hops, and therefore the lowest latency and best-in-class performance.

What Makes a Good Internet Backbone? Factors for Consideration

Considering the scope, complexity, and potential for service variation across the wider Internet ecosystem, network buyers should look deeper into the Internet backbone underlay networks of their prospective suppliers. This should include:

• Reach: This will largely influence the extent to which a network partner has control of “on-net” traffic. A larger footprint generally means greater control and the only way to ensure full visibility of network resources, and ultimately, quality.
• Scalability: Is a supplier network built on leased capacity or their own infrastructure? This will dictate the ability of a supplier to scale capacity, quickly and efficiently.
• The proximity of a supplier’s network to the Internet backbone. In what tier do they reside?
• How well connected are they? In other words, do they connect via third party transit networks and public exchanges points, or do they have a well dimensioned/managed ecosystem of private connections towards critical Internet backbone networks?
• How large is their directly connected customer base and how are they ranked in comparison to others?
• Proximity to major cloud networks: Does a potential supplier have direct onramps to the big clouds and is there sufficient capacity?
• How is the network ecosystem managed? When things go wrong, it is important to have direct access to highly skilled and motivated customer care resources.

Benefits of Going Direct to the Network Owner

• Fast installation and comprehensive support for network planning
• A highly flexible and scalable network solution portfolio
• Reasonable pricing with a pay-per-use model
• Professional customer support with fast response times
• High levels of resiliency and security for business-critical applications
• Excellent geographical reach
• Minimal hops between PoPs and shortest path routing
• Private network connections for maximum network quality
• Public network connections with data traffic prioritization
• A trusted, experienced and reliable international supplier

Arelion’s Solution

Arelion doesn’t just own and operate one of the world’s best-connected Internet backbones, its team also spent three decades developing and perfecting it. From the optical fiber right up to the customer service layer, Arelion’s highly skilled and experienced engineers manage its network infrastructure and customer support 24/7.

Arelion’s main strengths as a Tier-1 Internet backbone provider include:

1. Global network infrastructure: Arelion operates an extensive fiber-optic network spanning multiple continents, with over 350+ PoPs and more than 75,000 kilometers of fiber optic cable.
2. High-speed connectivity: Arelion delivers high-speed Internet connectivity and low-latency services, offering IP transit, DIA, Ethernet services, Wavelength services, and fiber optics.
3. Connected networks: Arelion has established connections to all major networks worldwide to efficiently exchange traffic between content providers and end-user networks (both enterprise and private).
4. Innovation: Arelion invests in technology and stays at the forefront of Internet infrastructure by embracing emerging technologies and industry standards.
5. Broad appeal: Serving ISPs, content providers, enterprises, government agencies, and telecommunications operators, Arelion’s high-quality services enable reliable and efficient global connectivity to businesses of all sizes (from startups to Fortune 1000) across diverse industry verticals.

Why Arelion?

We built our backbone on our own fiber network, with almost unlimited capacity capabilities—avoiding congestion and allowing for future growth. We have almost three decades of experience from providing the world’s biggest content distributors, ISPs, service, and hyperscalers with high-bandwidth, mission-critical IP transit capacity.

• Arelion solves global connectivity challenges for multinational enterprises whose businesses rely on digital infrastructure. Its global Internet services connect more than 700 cloud, security, and content providers with low latency.
• Established in 1993—with 30+ years in the carrier industry—Arelion is an Internet pioneer with more than 2,700 customers worldwide. It provides the world’s best-connected Tier 1 Internet backbone (Kentik ranking 2024), including 75,000 km of optical fiber in North America, Europe and Asia.
• Arelion has more than 350 Points-of-Presence in 120 cities and 35 countries worldwide.
• Directly connected to 900+ operators and 500+ content providers, Arelion provides direct on-ramps to the top five cloud providers.
• Arelion achieved a record-breaking Net Promoter Score (NPS) of 72 for 2023, with the highest scores given to Account Management, Network Quality, and Service Delivery.

Learn More   

• For more information, contact Arelion today
• Arelion Blog
• Solution Page: Enterprise Networks