Sarah Kurtz

CONNECTIVITY THROUGH THE PANDEMIC: RISING TO THE CHALLENGE THROUGH COLLABORATION AND AGILITY

Originally published on the Pacific Telecommunications Council blog on August 13, 2020.

Now more than ever, it’s paramount that our connected world remains so. NJFX is handling the pandemic with the team’s usual forward-thinking approach. As a Tier 3 Cable Landing Station colocation campus with four subsea cable systems and nine terrestrial backhaul providers, NJFX is a designated critical infrastructure site. As such, our team is always prepared and ready with emergency response plans to address hurricanes, terrorist attacks, or even widespread power outages. A global pandemic, however, wasn’t part of that equation. The pandemic is certainly unique, unchartered territory and caused organizations globally to rethink standard operating procedures and exhaust spare inventory network capacity. Now, we continue to face supply chain issues as we prepare for the fall and a potential second wave or other unforeseen natural or man-made disaster.

There can be challenges in our ability to reach traditional network hubs in major U.S. cities, especially when considering having to use public transportation and elevators in high-rise buildings, which can go against current safety protocols. In addition, global social unrest continues to be aimed in these cities with the highest risk for additional virus outbreaks and potential violence. Our industry workforce component of essential employees has endured these challenges and will continue to do so. Still to come, challenges of returning to work while children may be continuing to engage in virtual learning for the new school year. In the U.S., as we continue down the path of subsea systems going on 20 years, we will soon be left with only four systems less than 10 years old this year, and one of those is in financial distress. In the U.S., our main East Coast fiber routes were all built about 20 years ago and have too much commonality, which allows for failures to potentially happen simultaneously. Combine that with an essential workforce that is stressed, and this could lead to unpredictable outage times.

Collaboration is needed for restoration on upcoming events and long-term investments to ensure this age of network interconnection can provide 100 percent uptime. In our current information age of instantaneous awareness through social media, every minute counts for us to know what’s happening.

At NJFX, we are fortunate with our suburban environment in a two-story building that was designed for contactless access. We now have more physical fiber count cables and capacity per cable than any other network hub in the U.S. Our role is vital. We built the facility as “Tier 3 by the Subsea,” but in this unpredictable world, the fear about the unknown continues and our team is focused on making sure we, along with our customers, are all prepared.

In this challenging time, the industry has had to either find ways to adapt to this very fluid situation or risk many unknowns related to both the physical health of our employees and the economic health of our businesses. This situation has forced organizations to rethink the status quo, be flexible, and not take normal operating procedures for granted.

What we have learned is that our industry is very resilient, robust, and able to rise to the challenge. The Internet did not break, it’s what has kept us together, connected, and relatively stable. As long as our collective focus remains on solving unique challenges and working together, we will continue in the spirit of what sets us apart. We’re ready and dedicated to ensuring our customers, employees, and vendors are prepared and safe. Together, we will not only deliver what our ecosystem has come to expect from us, but we will work to offer even greater capacity, connectivity, and opportunities than ever before.

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About NJFX:

NJFX is a Tier 3 Carrier Neutral Cable Landing Station campus. Our colocation ecosystem has expanded to over 35 network operators offering flexibility, reliability, and security. Our Wall, NJ location provides direct access to multiple subsea cable systems giving our carriers diverse connectivity solutions and offers direct interconnection without recurring cross-connect fees.

Rising Through the Ranks: Developing a Newly Blossoming Career During a Pandemic

NJFX Blog / Sarah Kurtz

Rising Through the Ranks: Developing a Newly Blossoming Career During a Pandemic

August 11, 2020

Our world came to a screeching halt in mid-March. Businesses scrambled to make accommodations for entire workforces that shifted to remote work. Schools were shuttered. Travel was banned. In short, the world as we knew it changed drastically in the blink of an eye.

At NJFX, our business development model relies on building relationships, attending industry conferences and speaking on expert panels around the world. But that all changed earlier this year. While leisure travel is important to maintaining sectors of the economy, even more important is business travel that is crucial to developing and maintaining relationships between companies.

Late last year, Sarah Kurtz joined the NJFX team as Business Development Manager. Sarah has led NJFX’s enterprise efforts by providing awareness of unique interconnectivity options and the global reach at the Cable Landing Station campus. To that end, she began traveling extensively to introduce NJFX and its capabilities and offerings to the marketplace. In a few short months, those travel efforts were forced to end.

Now, executives at NJFX and many other companies and industries are re-evaluating how to conduct all business remotely. For NJFX, this transition was challenging but not impossible. Because the services that NJFX provides are part of the infrastructure that is powering the world’s newly remote workforce, some of the efforts were naturally enhanced. Being a digital native who easily adapts to ever-changing technology, Sarah was able to embrace a new way of building virtual relationships. At a time in Sarah’s career when learning the ins and outs of business development are key, she has had to shift building those relationships over a computer screen. Fortunately, the initial face-to-face meetings set Sarah up for success in the current environment.

Weeks of lockdowns turned into months, and NJFX had to make a decision about our annual internship opportunities. In May, NJFX welcomed Amanda Kadunce to the team as NJFX’s first 100% virtual intern. Amanda also rose to the challenge, learning important business and marketing skills while safely working from home over 200 miles away.

As the economy changes course, we will continue to see different trends emerge. Careers that were attractive pre-pandemic may not be as enticing today. Many kids in high school and post secondary schools are shifting their focus to jobs that withstand economic uncertainty. But one thing we have learned is that the ‘new’ economy definitely includes jobs within our industry. The data and voice connections that NJFX’s ecosystem powers have been keeping all of us online and connected. We look forward to a day when we can return to meeting face-to-face. Until then, we are remaining ever-vigilant in helping our subsea and telecom customers fortify their networks with more capacity, resilience and diversity. It’s the human connection and training up the next generation within the telecom industry that pulls us all forward to even greater things ahead.

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About NJFX:

The New Age CLS: Prepared for the Unexpected

NJFX Blog / Sarah Kurtz

The New Age CLS: Prepared for the Unexpected

Expect the unexpected. It’s a lesson learned from past natural and manmade disasters and one that we have all been forced to contend with during the COVID-19 pandemic.

*Photo Credit of CNN – Utility poles were felled Tuesday by Tropical Storm Isaias as it hit Guttenberg, New Jersey.

August 6, 2020

This week, Tropical Storm Isaias compounded an already stressful and challenging situation by battering the U.S. east coast, landing in North Carolina on Monday and powering up through New Jersey, New York and Connecticut. Devastation was widespread as fallen trees smashed houses, buildings, cars and blocked roads. Hurricane force winds also contributed to the mayhem by downing power lines and blowing out transformers – leaving over 2.8M people in the tri-state area without power. Isaias is being compared to the devastation left by Superstorm Sandy and has utility crews working to restore power, along with emergency response teams clearing debris and helping those in need.

It goes without saying that the loss of life and personal property damage has been devastating to the region this week. For many businesses, this was terrible timing as they have already been working hard to recover from forced closures, having to operate under limited capacities and increased restrictions due to COVID-19. However, if your business is located near a power sub-station or near the backbone of the power grid, then you will probably be included in the priority restoration efforts as utility crews work to fix the highest-use areas first.

A closer look at one such business.

Located 30-feet from a power substation, NJFX, as a carrier-neutral Cable Landing Station (CLS) in Wall, New Jersey, continues operations on generator power under its Covid-19 Hurricane preparedness protocols. New Jersey electric utilities are assessing and prioritizing power restoration efforts and have crews working continuously. Jersey Central Power & Light (JCP&L), which serves over 1M customers in central and northern NJ, also reported that an additional 1,300 workers will be arriving today, joining nearly 4,000 resources already engaged in the restoration effort. NJFX has experienced no service-affecting impact to customers and will provide full updates when electric utility is restored. This essential CLS, is operating on generator power now, which can last for ten days. Assessing the fuel consumption levels multiple times per day, NJFX can easily resupply its fuel load with the fuel trucks that are on standby to replenish when and if needed.

“When NJFX turned to us for consultation on power protocols during the facility’s construction, we noted that the location was superior because of the proximity to an existing utility substation. During outages, utilities will prioritize restoration efforts to substations in an effort to restore power,” commented Will Steffens, Principal, Sugarloaf Associates. “As an extra layer of security, a switch was installed on the utility distribution systems just outside the facility to isolate NJFX from impacts on the distribution system in the surrounding area. Even if there is extensive damage to the utility system in the area and the substation is energized, NJFX will be up and running.”

The NJFX team has forged strong partnerships with utility companies and local officials and is maintaining open lines of communication. Working in lock-step with local officials, and having the technical expertise needed to analyze the situation, further helps ensure NJFX retains priority as part of the restoration efforts. Thankfully, there is not the wide-spread flooding that came with Hurricane Sandy, and the roads coming into NJFX’s facility are clear. Customers, vendors and carriers are able to reach the colocation campus, which is back to operating under its Code Orange, COVID-19 hurricane preparedness procedures and requirements. In addition, since NJFX doesn’t require water to operate as do other data centers, it is not impacted by the inability that power outages cause to treat sewage.

“We are not out of the woods yet,” commented Gil Santaliz, NJFX CEO and Founder. “But NJFX customers can rest assured that every consideration has been well-thought out and accounted for. Because of our strategic location 64-feet above sea level and outside the NY/NJ metro areas, NJFX is buffered from some of the other issues plaguing urban areas. Expect the unexpected is a motto that the NJFX was founded upon and we continue to live by that today.”

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About NJFX:

NETIX CASE STUDY – NJFX

NJFX Blog / Sarah Kurtz

NETIX CASE STUDY – NJFX

July 22, 2022

WHO IS NJFX?

As a carrier-neutral Cable Landing Station (CLS), NJFX has a robust ecosystem of carriers, subsea cable providers, telecommunications companies and enterprises. The NJFX team has a very collaborative approach in working with a wide variety of organizations to offer access to new geographies, enable increased capabilities, drive advancements, solve IT challenges and overall, create new opportunities for its clients.

HOW DID YOU HEAR OF NETIX?

NetIX really captured our attention after winning ‘Best Internet Exchange’ at the 2018 Global Carrier Awards hosted by Capacity Media. Earning this coveted award and achieving that recognition really spoke volumes. We were honored to be considered as the hub for NetIX’s first entry in the U.S. market in 2019. At NJFX, we have a responsibility to our customers to source and partner with the best networks that can offer high-quality services and solutions, and NetIX fits that criteria.

THE CHALLENGES:

NJFX is home to 80% of U.S. carriers, more than 270 ASNs, and four subsea cables providing independent direct routes to North America, South America, Europe and the Caribbean. NetIX offers additional opportunities to our clients who want to access global solutions and a global network simply, quickly and through one cross connect from one location. With the NetIX Point of Presence (PoP) in the NJFX CLS, our customers have another reliable partner to help distribute their [email protected] www.netix.net ASN: 57463 traffic globally. Our U.S.-based ASNs want to exchange traffic directly with other peers globally quickly, easily with minimal hassle and service disruption and NetIX enables all of this. As a leading player in the marketplace, NetIX helps U.S. East Coast-located networks improve their reach across Europe.

THE SOLUTION:

There are two NetIX services that stand out the most to our customers; the GIX (Global Internet Exchange) solution and the global Point-to-Point service. Both of these services are provided through one cross-connect and one contract, keeping things as simple as possible.GIX is a unique service that enables tenants to access all the major Internet Exchanges and directly exchange traffic with them. Offering GIX means NJFX can connect to over 6,000 networks and can help distribute traffic to more than 30 Internet Exchanges like AMS-IX (in Amsterdam), DE-CIX (in Germany), LINX (in London), MSK-IX (in Moscow) and many more.Since NetIX’s network has over 150 PoPs (Points of Presence), our customers can connect to any one of them, be it in Tokyo, Los Angeles, Milan, or even Buenos Aires – all locations can handle any type of bandwidth with immediate upgrades if required.

THE RESULT:

We partnered with NetIX because we knew the broad range of services and the type of solutions it provided would be of interest to our customers and could benefit them greatly. NetIX has an excellent reputation in providing exceptional services, and we are confident their team will deliver that same level of service to our customers.Through this partnership we have enabled new capabilities for our customers creating more value and options for them. We’ve also been able to further solidify our position as a global telecommunications ecosystem. Our partnership with NetIX offers many opportunities to our tenants who want to access global solutions and a global network simply, quickly and through one cross connect from one location allowing for rapid deployments and enabling cost-effective access to European Internet Exchanges.

WOULD YOU LIKE TO GROW, EXTEND, AND IMPROVE YOUR NETWORK?

ENJOY ALL THE BENEFITS FROM WORKING WITH NETIX AND GET IN TOUCH WITH OUR TEAM TODAY:

Website- www.netix.net

Email- [email protected]

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About NJFX

Re-Imagining Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging

NJFX Blog / Sarah Kurtz

Re-Imagining Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging

NJFX General Manager dedication to bringing young talent to the industry

July 28, 2020

COVID-19 has presented significant obstacles for many aspects of life, and for young people it has also created a lot of uncertainty when it comes to employment options and opportunities. For this reason, the SubOptic Association is working hard to establish a pipeline to reinvigorate the subsea/telecom industry and enable strategic internship and mentorship programs allowing for the new wave of leaders pushing the industry forward. NJFX applauds this group and its efforts to strengthen the industry as a whole.

As part of that focus, NJFX General Manager, Felix Seda and Business Development Manager, Sarah Kurtz – both millennials – are assisting in SubOptic’s efforts to encourage young talent to join the telecommunications workforce, specifically in the subsea space. After spearheading the Millennials in Telecom reception at PTC 2020, Seda sought to expand the initiative and focus it on the subsea space, leading him to work on initiatives within the Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging (“DIB”) working group of the SubOptic Association. As a part of the DIB Working group, Mr. Seda and Ms. Kurtz are working alongside the rest of the members to create opportunities for the younger generation to explore the various avenues afforded within the industry.

“We are working with the many talented people in the SubOptic Association to rebuild these programs in a way that will help broaden our outreach and expand the pool of young leaders exploring our rewarding and unique industry,” says Seda. “Internships are a great way for people still in college to find their career path post-grad, and we do not want the state of the world to get in the way of that.” The SubOptic Association is also working on building and launching their mentorship program, which connects young professionals with more experienced mentors to guide them in the beginning stages of their careers.

“We value the work being done by the entire SubOptic membership and working groups to raise awareness on the importance of bringing more people to the industry and attracting new organizations,” commented Erick Contag, Executive Chairman of GlobeNet and President of the Executive Committee of SubOptic. “We are fortunate to have such a talented and dedicated team of people working on these important and worthy initiatives.”

“Felix and Sarah are very dedicated to this cause and their insights have been extremely valuable to not only NJFX’s success, but in guiding millennials to the industry,” commented Gil Santaliz, CEO of NJFX. “They are clearly dedicated to building out the subsea workforce, and we look forward to their efforts, along with others in the industry to garner even more participation and success going forward.”

Seda has also been working with SubOptic’s DIB working group to expand its network of partner companies for the internship and mentorship programs. The DIB team recently held a well-attended session at the Subsea World online conference to encourage more companies to get involved. “When I was in college, I was a part of the Posse Foundation program, which is a well-known organization in the education landscape. They have a large network of “Posse Partners”, companies who encourage their employees to volunteer to mentor students and provide internship opportunities to the Posse scholars. My goal is to create an extensive network like that for SubOptic, and maybe even blend these initiatives in the future,” Seda remarks.

This is not the only time Seda and Kurtz have shown their dedication to bringing young talent to the industry. They both worked closely with PTC earlier this year to organize a reception aimed at bringing millennials together to network with each other and with established industry veterans. The dynamic twosome also conducted a virtual career presentation at Matawan Regional High School in New Jersey to inform college-bound students about the opportunities in telecom infrastructure. Their work with SubOptic is the next step in collective efforts to revitalize the industry with fresh perspectives, from the Digital Native generation.

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About NJFX:

The North Atlantic Loop

Newsroom / Sarah Kurtz

The North Atlantic Loop

Published by SubTelForum on July 22, 2020

July 23, 2020

Aqua Comms, the independent carriers’ carrier and the owner-operator of five subsea cables will be launching its North Atlantic Loop in the second half of 2020.

The North Atlantic Loop will comprise of two major Trans-Atlantic cables and three regional cables to bring to the market diverse, resilient and uniquely routed subsea cables. These will combine to deliver enhanced capacity services to the North Atlantic markets of the US, through to Ireland, the UK and the Nordics – all with diverse routing and landings.

This new offering will provide critical infrastructure to key data centre markets as well as the major telecoms markets within the east coast of the US and western Europe.

Two of the 5 cable systems in play are:

AEC-1 (America-Europe Connect-1) that went RFS in 2016 and runs from New York to Dublin
CC-1 (CeltixConnect-1) that went RFS in 2012 and runs from Dublin to Wales and on to London

Three new cable systems are expected to go live in 2020:

AEC-2 (America-Europe Connect-2) from New Jersey (NJFX) to Denmark (Blaabjerg)
CC-2 (CeltixConnect-2) from Dublin (Clonshaugh) to UK (Blackpool)
NSC (North Sea Connect) from UK (Newcastle) to Denmark (Houstrup)

AEC-2 will be the first new Trans-Atlantic cable to land in Denmark (Blaabjerg) in nearly 20 years – since TAT-14, a cable which is due to be retired in December 2020. On the US side, AEC-2 lands in NJFX in Wall, New Jersey – an industry-leading carrier-neutral cable landing station (CLS) campus and Tier 3 data centre. AEC-2 will also branch into Ireland (Old Head), a diverse landing to the existing AEC-1 landing Killala, before routing on to Dublin. This new cable therefore offers route diversity from end to end, and will deliver secure, modern subsea cable capability from the US to the Nordics, Ireland and the UK.

CC-2 will be Aqua Comms’ second unrepeated cable across the Irish Sea, running from Clonshaugh, Dublin via the CLS in Loughshinny, to Blackpool, UK. CC-2 will offer multiple fibre pairs on a brand new route, again designed to deliver secure and reliable services between Ireland and the UK. CC-2 will partner with CC-1 to deliver diversity and resilience between the UK and Ireland as part of the North Atlantic Loop.

NSC will connect Denmark (Houstrup) to the UK across the North Sea to the Stellium carrier neutral data centre in Newcastle, UK. Its Danish landing will connect through a terrestrial fibre link to Blaabjerg as part of the North Atlantic Loop whilst also providing diversity of landings for NSC and AEC-2.

To continue reading the rest of this article, please read it in Issue 113 of the SubTel Forum Magazine on page 39 or on our archive site here.

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About NJFX:

The North Atlantic Loop Read More »

Capacity Europe 2020

Events / Sarah Kurtz

Capacity Europe 2020

Europe’s largest event uniting the global connectivity industry will take place on the 19-22 October.

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Events

Capacity CALA 2023

November 16, 2023

Our CEO Gil Santaliz and Enterprise Solutions Architect are flying Las Vegas for AWS Re:invent conference!

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AWS re:Invent

November 15, 2023

Our CEO Gil Santaliz and Enterprise Solutions Architect are flying Las Vegas for AWS Re:invent conference!

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Capacity Europe 2023

September 14, 2023

Capacity Europe Join us and The entire connectivity landscape including network operators, data centers, cloud providers, satellite operators, hyperscalers, content providers, and more, to negotiate

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Why the Cable Landing Station Matters

NJFX Blog / Sarah Kurtz

Why the Cable Landing Station Matters

As a Carrier-Neutral Ecosystem, NJFX Brings Together a Variety of Carriers and Service Providers That Enable So Much More For End-Users

July 7, 2020

Wall Township, NJ – A Cable Landing Station (CLS) colocation campus in the U.S., offering Tier 3, carrier-neutral data center capabilities — providing direct access to multiple independent subsea cable systems connecting North and South America, Europe and the Caribbean — is an entirely unique facility in the world of information and communications technology (ICT) with singular attributes and capabilities. Especially as content and application requirements continue to push the need for data to be closer to the edge, such a CLS colocation campus is essential in providing strong interconnections between customers, partners and transcontinental subsea cable systems.

“For global enterprises, ISPs, CDNs and network operators, having access to diverse terrestrial and subsea options for connectivity is the foundation of their ability to reach new customers and penetrate new and emerging markets,” commented Gil Santaliz, CEO for NJFX. “Moreover, by establishing a presence at the NJFX CLS colocation campus, customers can leverage direct over 12 terrestrial routes to major North American destinations and avoid unnecessary legacy network bottlenecks. In addition, NJFX customers can also gain access to four subsea cable systems between continents for the best intercontinental data exchange, including critical transatlantic connectivity to Europe & South America.”

“By establishing a presence at the NJFX CLS colocation campus, customers are now able to leverage direct, low latency routes to major U.S. business hubs in New York and Ashburn that avoid legacy chokepoints,” stated Ivo Ivanov, CEO of DE-CIX International. “We are also seeing the LATAM market as one of the focus regions for networks we want to connect from NJFX to DE-CIX New York.”

Why are these connectivity and interconnection capabilities now more important than ever?

If the recent months have taught us anything, it’s that a surge in digital services usage places tremendous pressure on the internet to be able to handle the rise in traffic volumes and shifting patterns of demand that can potentially affect the end-user experience. To give but one example of how this has affected communications providers, in March, as internet users began staying home to work, study and self-entertain, one major carrier saw a 20 percent increase in web traffic in a single week. Virtual Private Network (VPN) usage went up 49 percent, while video rose by 36 percent, and online gaming increased 115 percent.

CenturyLink, which offers an extensive global fiber network, including approximately 450,000 route miles of fiber and a network serving customers around the world, recently established a point-of-presence (PoP) at NJFX. The carrier provides an underground terrestrial fiber network, linking key routes across North America. This is just one more example of the advantages of a CLS colocation campus with carrier-neutral data center capabilities that brings together a variety of communications and service providers that enable so much more for end-users

“Establishing a point of presence at NJFX allows CenturyLink customers close proximity to data, decreasing network latency, along with delivering smart options to further diversify and plan their international connections with clarity and accuracy,” commented Warren Greenberg, vice president and general manager for CenturyLink in NYC, NJ and CT. “We look forward to offering our services suite at the NJFX campus and to our enterprise customers.”

Rather than a gradual evolution, COVID-19 has accelerated the digital transformation efforts of many enterprises virtually overnight. Moreover, with IDC predicting that global data traffic will increase 61 percent by 2025 to reach 175 zettabytes, up from 33 ZB last year, we can reasonably anticipate that the demand for networking, compute, and storage capacity will remain high, especially as more and more next-generation technologies such as AI, IoT, and AR/VR applications become mainstreamed, and 5G sees wider adoption.

Faced with these current and future challenges, a CLS colocation campus that serves as a network interconnection point at the easternmost edge of North America enables companies to design and construct the most efficient network for their business and ensure the delivery of high-bandwidth content and applications to serve end-customers. NJFX offers an ecosystem rich with fiber networks and platforms providing multiple options for route diversity, availability, reliability and security.

Because of its location on the edge of domestic and international networks and subsea cables, this enables enterprises, financial services organizations and carriers to utilize direct routing, eliminate single points of failure and avoid typical network congestion points.

Recently, Epsilon connected its network backbone to NJFX’s facility, extending its software-defined networking (SDN) platform, Infiny, to offer the ability to bypass New York entirely. Epsilon customers can connect directly to Europe from NJFX via the Transatlantic Bridge, including the TGN cable as well as the Havfrue (AEC2) cable when it becomes ready for service.

“NJFX is a pivotal data centre for transatlantic traffic,” said former Epsilon CEO Jerzy Szlosarek. “With multiple transatlantic cables coming directly into the NJFX facility, connectivity can happen right at the edge, without legacy bottlenecks, and can then continue across North America via the complete Epsilon network.”

Via Epsilon, as well as several other network providers such as Altice, NJEdge, TATA Communications, Windstream and Zayo, companies can readily access major cloud service providers (CSPs) to launch public and private cloud deployments from NJFX, including Alibaba Cloud, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Azure, Google Cloud Platform, IBM Cloud, and Oracle.

The Flexera 2020 State of the Cloud Report recently revealed that the most common multi-cloud approach among enterprises is a mix of multiple public and private clouds. NJFX’s ability to offer streamlined access to CSPs is especially significant in view of the fact that cloud-first policies and cloud migration are top-of-mind among enterprises, which are rapidly increasing cloud spend and workload volumes, according to the report.

You can check out the other articles in the Why CLS Matter series in the links below:

https://njfx.net/njfx-blog/terra-firma-why-terrestrial-connectivity-matters-to-the-cable-landing-station/

https://njfx.net/blog/why-the-cable-landing-station-matters/

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About NJFX:

“Every Submarine Cable Project Is Unique”

Newsroom / Sarah Kurtz

“Every Submarine Cable Project Is Unique”

An interview with Michael Cunningham, CEO of Crosslake Fibre

Originally posted 23 June 2020 on SubCableWorld.com.

June 29, 2020

WALL TOWNSHIP, NJ –

Editor’s note: In recent years, submarine fiber optic cables have been appearing everywhere. The industry is familiar with the large-scale OTT-sponsored cables being built around the world, but others are taking advantage of the advancement in submarine cable technology to put cables along routes that were never considered before.

One system that definitely falls into the latter category is a submarine cable system that entered service last year in Lake Ontario. Built by Crosslake Fibre, the cable is, as far as SubCableWorld can determine, the longest fiber optic cable ever installed in a body of fresh water.

SCW recently had the pleasure to speak with Michael Cunningham, CEO of Crosslake Fibre, about the Lake Ontario project and the company’s plans for future systems.

Mr. Cunningham: Crosslake Fibre is a submarine fiber optic cable system developer based in Toronto, Canada. We’ve built a cable across Lake Ontario connecting Canada and the United States and we’re developing three other submarine cable systems.

The Lake Ontario cable entered service in October. This is a 58-kilometer cable installed across the lake that forms part of a route between Buffalo and Toronto. Now that the route is in service, we are looking to extend our network. Early this year, we announced that we were have extended our backhaul capacity into Equinix’s TR2 International Business Exchange™ (IBX®) in Toronto and its NY4 IBX in Secaucus, New Jersey. Our network also extends to the NJFX submarine cable landing station/data center complex in Wall, New Jersey, where we can connect to some of the international submarine cables landing there, such as the transatlantic cables and Seaborn’s Seabras-1 to South America.

Due to the relatively short distance across Lake Ontario, we were able to use non-repeatered cable with a high fiber count. The submarine cable we used supplied by Hexatronic and has 192 fiber strands. This gives us a design capacity in the thousands of terabits per second.

As the non-repeatered cable isn’t powered in the way that repeatered cables are, we didn’t need the traditional large cable landing station. We were able to bring the submarine cable right into the network on either side of the lake.

Every submarine cable project is unique and presents a different set of challenges and the Lake Ontario build is no different. In terms of a location and geography to install a cable, it’s definitely one where there is a comparatively benign environment, especially compared to the ocean conditions where most submarine fiber optic cables are laid. In Lake Ontario, you have a lakebed that is relatively soft and easy to install a cable into. You don’t have a lot of challenging geologic features. It’s not the busiest place in the world and there’s not a lot of current. The weather is not as extreme as you see in the ocean. So it was a very good kind of place to install a cable.

Our next project will connect the United Kingdom and France across the English Channel. There hasn’t been a new and dedicated fiber optic cable built across the English Channel in almost 20 years. We’re looking to be the next generation of cables along that route.

We’re in the process of developing the cable project and to kick off the material work in the next month. It’s a very similar design to the Lake Ontario cable. It’s non-repeatered and has the same fiber count — 192.

The cable, however, will have to deal with much greater risk factors in the English Channel than in Lake Ontario. It will have to deal with fisheries and avoid anchorage zones. There is also the issue of unexploded ordnance (UXO). That required a lot more study and a lot more planning. We’ve done a UXO study and the survey will kick off in July.

We decided to go with 192 fibers in both the Lake Ontario and the UK-France cables. We could have gone higher, but what we have to keep in mind is the repair, especially in the English Channel with the many threats that face cable there. We have to assume that over the life of the system, repair will be a requirement. We have to insure that we’ll be able to get the sea repair done quickly and that means that we can’t have too high a count – it just takes too long. There are cables out there with fiber counts in the thousands of pairs and the repair plan for those is to just replace the cable. That can be done on some very short links of only a few kilometers, but for the scale we need, that isn’t practical.

We also are working to develop two other cable systems. One is the Wall-LI cable between the NJFX complex in Wall, New Jersey, and Long Island, where other transatlantic cables come in and there is a lot of infrastructure for international traffic. Wall-LI will allow that traffic to bypass New York City.

The other project we’re looking at is back in Lake Ontario. It’s called Maple Leaf Fibre and will have a submarine component running between Toronto and Kingston, followed by a terrestrial component to Montreal. The submarine cable in this case will run more or less east-west in Lake Ontario, rather than north-south as was the case with the original Buffalo-Toronto cable.

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About NJFX:

It’s a Wrap: ITW 2020 a VIRTUAL Success!

NJFX Blog / Sarah Kurtz

It’s a Wrap: ITW 2020 a VIRTUAL Success!

International Telecoms Week is a widely attended and eagerly anticipated annual event. As with many events this spring, ITW 2020 transitioned from in-person to fully virtual. It’s quickly becoming the new normal.

June 24, 2020

WALL TOWNSHIP, NJ – Despite the new format, the goals of the event remain the same since the first conference in 2000. ITW aims to bring the carrier, data center, software, hardware, internet application, and investment communities together.

NJFX was pleased to announce CenturyLink Inc. (NYSE: CTL) is the latest communications service provider to establish a presence at the CLS campus. CenturyLink offers an extensive global fiber network including approximately 450,000 route miles of fiber and a network serving customers around the world, providing secure and reliable services to meet the growing digital demands of businesses. CenturyLink’s expansion into NJFX offers its customers more options to connect and leverage cutting-edge services.

During ITW, NJFX team members participated in a JSA virtual roundtable bringing the telecommunications infrastructure community up to date on all the latest happenings at NJFX. Highlights include NJFX’s effort to bring millennials and digital natives into the infrastructure side of telecommunications.

NJFX Founder and CEO Gil Santaliz participated in a virtual session entitled “Community: Subsea” along with Andy Bax, COO of Seaborn Networks; Ian Clarke, VP Global Submarine Sales at Ciena; and Laureen Cook, executive TMT adviser at Extelcon. The focus was on the latest transatlantic cable projects, which are entering a renewal phase. This new phase is being powered by new business models, including investment by OTTs, along with technological advances that could open up new routes.

Santaliz added that content, streaming and broadcasting players leading the charge for new levels of connectivity are helping to enable the current (virtual) state of affairs stating, “If I’m not there, I want to feel like I’m there, and broadcasting lets me do that. You need that connectivity to make that work.”

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