EdgeconneX is a US based data centre provider that builds specialised data centres outside of, or on the edge of, the main data centre hubs. The company is expanding rapidly and has grown from two new data centres in 2013 to twenty one in mid-2015. EdgeconneX plans to create 9 new data centres over the course of 2015, bringing the total number to thirty. Demand for edge colocation facilities currently outstrips supply and EdgeconneX aims to meet that demand both in the US and globally by building edge data centres on demand. This global expansion strategy was further reinforced by the appointment of new Chief Technical Officer Don MacNeil in August 2015.
Besides colocation services, EdgeconneX also offers two other core services Edge PoP and Edge Wireless. Edge Pop is a point of presence an on-site go-between between business premises and the full range of network providers. Edge Wireless delivers wireless networks to buildings and complexes.
EdgeconneXs USP is close proximity to the end content user. By locating data centres near areas with high end user density, EdgeconneX claims to be uniquely positioned to deliver high quality content, like videos and cloud apps, faster and better than competitors. Its data centres are sometimes compared with Content Delivery Networks, or CDNs, which are buildings packed with caching servers. Unlike CDNs, EdgeconneX offers genuine colocation services with associated high specification infrastructure and counts CDNs amongst its clients.
Location
EdgeconneX data centres are all situated in North America. The company is headquartered from Herndon, Virginia and has one other office in Denver, Colorado.
Existing data centres are located down each coast of the country, with California and Florida both home to three centres each. Virginia and Tennessee both have two centres each, and the remaining eleven are distributed evenly across the coastal states and Texas.
EdgeconneX is keen to identify new location opportunities and offers an open invitation to potential customers to request data centre locations where they need them most. All of these data centres are purpose built with a range of security measures, including biometrics, access via pin and key card, man traps and CCTV. N+1 cooling, onsite fuel stores and multiple backup generators ensure tier 2 or three across every data centre. New data centres are being submitted for OIX Data Centre certification upon completion. At present one data centre (Texas) has OIX certification and one other (Utah) is in the process of receiving it.
Energy
A core part of EdgeconneXs product is high power density. Rack spaces offer up to 30Kw and 600w per square foot. It is one of the biggest power offerings in the industry and is one of the main draws EdgeconneX has for customers, who pay by the KW used. As the building of new data centres slows down, EdgeconneX may turn its attention to sustainably procuring that energy to bring better value to its clients.
Funding/business model
EdgeconneX Inc. was founded in 2009 by wireless entrepreneur and consultant Edmund Wilson. It is a privately owned company and is funded through a combination of venture capital and private equity. Major investors include Comcast, TDF Ventures and Meritage Funds, the latter two of which have provided $14 million since 2010 in four rounds.
Customers and partners
As an edge of network space, power and network provider, EdgeconneX mainly deals with big telecoms and cable firms. Clients also include commercial landlords and content delivery networks, with infrastructure, power availability and locations specifically suited to that market.
Major EdgeconneX clients include Comcast, the first and founding customer and major investor, and CloudFlare, the content delivery network that processes more than five percent of all global internet requests.
Many of EdgeconneXs major partners bring supportive infrastructure directly to its data centres, which help to keep down development costs. Instead of relying on existing and outdated infrastructure that can prove to be the weakest link for a company that depends on speed and reliability, EdgeconneX teams with companies that can deliver state of the art infrastructure wherever they need it, like new last-mile fibre optic infrastructure. Partners include Fibrelight, SummitIG and Zayo.
A specialist service that meets a growing need
Demand for edge colocation services is strong and growing and EdgeconneX is investing heavily in meeting that demand. For ISPs, content providers and content delivery networks that appreciate a partnership approach to overcoming content delivery barriers, EdgeconneX is one of the only viable options. EdgeconneX is innovative, ambitious and focused on catering to a highly defined but important target market with a view to becoming an important global player in edge colocation.