Industry News

ZenFi Networks: Leading the Charge on Next-Gen Infrastructure

With a fiber network spanning over 1300 route miles throughout NY and NJ metro regions, ZenFi’s purpose-built communications infrastructure network is also accessible at NJFX’s CLS colocation campus.

May 5, 2021

Optimism is in full swing as we look ahead to a post-pandemic world. Many organizations have had to do some rebalancing this past year and make investments in their network infrastructures – increasing security and modernizing legacy networks – all to pave the way for new applications and capabilities. Enterprises, as well as telecom wholesalers, have spent time fortifying core areas, so that their networks have the capacity to support their end-users’ digital engagement. This has been an especially transformative year for ZenFi Networks, the ‘Go-To’ provider for wireless siting, network edge colocation and dense fiber connectivity across the greater New York and New Jersey metro regions. The company helps large enterprises, wireless providers and wholesale telecommunications providers shore up capacity, leverage new routes and expand to meet the increasing demands for low latency and ultra-reliable connectivity.

“ZenFi Networks is made up of industry veterans, many of whom have known Gil and his team for over a decade. We were all big fans of NJFX right from the start and had faith that NJFX would build a unique and impactful CLS ecosystem. The investment we made at their CLS campus has really paid off.” – Thomas Schemly, Executive Director, Telecom Solutions for ZenFi Networks

NJFX’s unique carrier ecosystem has grown to over 20 terrestrial carriers and four subsea cable systems since it launched five years ago. By collaborating closely with our carrier partners, our facility and services have not only expanded but we have been able to stay agile. We are always looking for ways to adapt based on what our clients require – everything from offering higher availability to better security and better network architecture solutions.

And we believe that it is that spirit of finding ways to get more business done, that has made NJFX what it is today. Our team strives to always be on the cusp on the next new idea, helping our customers solve challenges and just flat-out making things happen.

Today, ZenFi is seeing a ton of growth not only from their point to point and custom dark fiber builds, but also with passive wavelengths and at the 1G, 10Gig and up to 100Gig levels. The company also provides robust options to connect to the cloud via numerous onramps across leading global cloud platforms.

“We’ve seen tremendous growth stem from our point of presence at NJFX. Their team has been a great partner for ZenFi as our services complement each other, and as such we are seeing a lot of new business coming out of NJFX,” continued Schemly.

Disrupting the Connectivity Landscape

ZenFi Network’s sweet spot is its’ robust and dense dark fiber network. The company designs and builds routes that are dedicated to each customer, with specific routes purpose-built to support their clients’ strategic infrastructure requirements. ZenFi also has some of the fastest routes out of NJFX to Carteret, Woodbridge, Newark and Mahwah.

“Latency still matters, and we own it, along with many options that reach the North Jersey data center market. Not only can we provide transport, but we have a super dense network with high capacity in NYC metro. We built our network to suit to support applications like 5G and with our built-in conduit assembly, it makes the network more accessible than legacy fiber networks.” – Walter Cannon, VP of Business Development for ZenFi Networks

Enabling Mobile Densification

“When it comes to supporting wireless, whether it’s 5G, 4G, 4G LTE or Wi-Fi, we are continuing to densify our network by adding more features and by building out network edge colocation facilities to support higher speeds and changing technologies. The good news for our clients is that we can support rapid deployments, get creative and build-to-suit whenever necessary. Add all of that to the fact that we can connect any client at NJFX to 147 strategic enterprise buildings, as well as to all major data centers across the NY and NJ metro area. It’s a win for all,” continued Cannon.

The company plans to continuously densify its network based on expansions by mobile carriers to support 5G and other applications. In addition to their purpose-built fiber network, ZenFi also offers wireless siting and network edge colocation solutions which, combined, offer a total cost-effective solution to aggregating traffic and enabling digital transmissions closer to end users.

As Schemly noted, “We are on the cutting edge of mobile and wireless demands and applications and are positioned well as our network was purpose built for innovation and to be future proof.In short, we are ahead of the curve in the way we approach wireless solutions and deployments.”

Swiss Army Knife of Telecom

“ZenFi Network’s point of presence at NJFX is what I describe as being ‘globally local’. Our marketplace platform enables the world to use ZenFi’s world-class infrastructure in NY/NJ to enable route diversity. The company has so many network routes that our global community can diversify greatly due to their dense network and core competencies.” – Gil Santaliz, CEO for NJFX

By having its fiber network available at the NJFX CLS, ZenFi deploys custom solutions to make sure its customers can get beyond the data center – and connected to the subsea cables, that extend connectivity for them to Europe, South America, and other parts of the globe.

The ZenFi Networks team believes that NJFX’s strategic location, away from NYC metro, and away from all the other carrier hotels and data centers is one of its many advantages. The subsea industry is skyrocketing with an estimated 30+ new subsea cable projects expected for the U.S. east coast over the next ten years. This makes NJFX a big draw for ZenFi customers as they can also leverage all the options stemming from the many subsea cable systems.

Santaliz continued, “In this very close connected industry, it’s important to build relationships. NJFX is all about aligning with good people who keep doing good things. Our team is always focused on creating synergies and has established many long-term industry partnerships with best of breed providers, like ZenFi Networks. A lot of our customers like the routes that ZenFi designs and deploys because they are unique, and the team is also great to work with.”

For more on how ZenFi Networks is building the network of the future, check out this read from Co-Founder and CEO, Ray LaChance HERE. You can also catch more about the company on their YouTube Channel or at zenfi.com.

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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.

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NJFX CEO Gil Santaliz reports on the state of the subsea sector

Industry News / NJFX

NJFX CEO Gil Santaliz reports on the state of the subsea sector

See the original article by Chris Kelly at Total Telecom

January 9, 2019

New York City has long been the center of the universe for telecommunications and early connectivity – defined originally as voice traffic for North America. TAT 8 was the first optical fiber cable that when into service in 1988 connecting New Jersey to England and France. That cable was retired in 2002. The next 14+ fiber cable systems followed similar paths from the shores of New Jersey & Long Island, New York to Europe with one common hub and single point of failure, 60 Hudson Street in New York City. These cables traversed thousands of miles across the ocean then made precarious 60 to 150 mile treks into Lower Manhattan. This thoroughfare is now completely congested with unmanageable manhole systems – including fiber cables that can’t be recognized and abandoned in place.

North America has a vast data center landscape today and subsea systems are changing. One difference is now these systems don’t have their only hand-off points and single points of failure located in lower-Manhattan. Also, it’s becoming more clear, that many enterprises’ network dependent businesses are connected through overlapping routes unknowingly. Some of those routes may be susceptible to damage from outages, cut networks as well as inadvertently by regrooming networks due to industry consolidation. In addition, a recent study by researchers at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and the University of Oregon found that the thousands of miles of buried fiber optic cable are at risk of drowning under the rising seas. This isn’t something that will happen far in the future, but rather could be a reality within two decades, with New York as one of the most susceptible locations.

Combined with those vulnerabilities, is the fact that the subsea cables that came online in the Internet age are reaching their end of life, and therefore, their viability. The majority of the cables in the Atlantic Ocean were put into service between 2000 and 2001. A cable’s retirement depends on both being physically operational and on the costs associated with continuing to operate it. Financially, this countdown usually begins around 20 years while physically, the cable and electronics are manufactured to last about 25 years.

So, what all of this means is that we are on the verge of a massive shift for Atlantic subsea cables. This is truly an event that has not been seen before and one that will create choke points throughout the northeast as well as possibly isolate legacy network hand off-points. As new cables become ready for service, they are driving a shift away from legacy landing points and bandwidth handoffs. NJFX in Wall, New Jersey is a perfect example. The site was chosen as the landing point by the consortium which operates HAVFRUE in large part due to NJFX’s location, which is far enough outside New York to avoid congestion. NJFX offers route diversity to the rest of the country and most importantly provides Tier 3 data center options right at the subsea cable edge. Another unique aspect of NJFX, is that although it is at the cable landing, the site is at an elevation where you can be assured that equipment investments of hundreds of millions of dollars will be secure and safe. This coupled with multiple subsea cables connecting four continents, and you have a game changer.

Over the last several years, NJFX has developed the ability to attract diverse dedicated fiber backhaul across North America, creating operational independence for the very populated region of more than 100 million. Optimizing the caching of content along the main arteries of the Internet is critical. In very short order, NJFX will be able to support content that is most popular for Europe, South America, Africa and Asia.

NJFX has also been very focused on partners and enabling customers with access to the networking architecture and tech advancements they require to be flexible and prepare for growth. This year the company has grown its carrier base and subsea cable access – to meet the high demand for diverse network architectures. NJFX has established, through its partners, new routes which bypass heavily congested regions such as NYC and Miami. This enables customers true route diversity all the way down to the subsea cable layer along with security, low-latency and access to a vast carrier ecosystem.

The NJFX CLS campus is home to the subsea cable systems TGN1, TGN2 and Seabras. Wall-LI (2020) will interconnect Long Island to New Jersey, extending interconnection for clients across North America, Europe, Caribbean, South America, Africa and AsiaPac. In addition, as noted, NJFX was chosen as the landing point for the latest transatlantic subsea cable system, HAVFRUE/AEC2 (2019). The goal of NJFX being a strategic landing point for the world’s subsea deployments and serve as a major interconnection for global communications is being realized.

NJFX CEO Gil Santaliz will be speaking at this year’s Submarine Networks EMEA 2019 event in London. Gil will be taking part in the Day 1, Keynote panel, titled ‘Making waves: Emerging strategies & opportunities in the subsea cable industry’.

CLICK HERE for a full agenda and details of how you can be involved.

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About NJFX:

Blockchain startup OpenCryptoTrust Signs Deal with NJFX, Tier 3 Carrier Neutral Cable Landing Station Campus

Industry News / NJFX

Blockchain startup OpenCryptoTrust Signs Deal with NJFX, Tier 3 Carrier Neutral Cable Landing Station Campus

See the original article at OPENCT

November 12, 2018

ZUG, SWITZERLAND – OpenCryptoTrust (OpenCT) has announced a five-year commitment at NJFX, the only CLS colocation campus in the U.S offering Tier 3, carrier neutral data center capabilities, to support its blockchain-based telco infrastructure in the domestic and international markets.

This positions OpenCT as one of the first blockchain players within the world of telco and places them in direct line with prestigious NJFX’s customers. As a highly interconnected hub, NJFX is an ideal location for firms to leverage OpenCryptoTrust solutions.

“NJFX represents one of the most significant cable landing systems with worldwide access, to ever cross the Atlantic,” comments Mayande Walker, CEO for OpenCT. “We are proud to be a part of the NJFX CLS colocation campus that will further our goal to make New Jersey one of our main strategic access points in the US blockchain ecosystem and will serve as a major interconnection for global communications.”

“Global interconnection is exactly what NJFX provides as the first and only cable landing station colocation campus in the United States,” states Roy Hilliard, VP of Business Development for NJFX. “NJFX sees the partnership as a logical extension to the NJFX hub of services that our service provider clients provide and that enterprises are looking for as a way to efficiently and securely enable critical applications.”

OpenCT has achieved a solution which telco industry analysts have described as “the Holy Grail application/service for carrier services” – real-time bandwidth usage billing. This is facilitated thru two ground-breaking functions (predictive real time provisioning and smart contracts) that ultimately support enterprise bandwidth-on-demand. In addition, customers will be able to dynamically scale up or ‘burst’ connectivity during times of peak demand. Enterprise customers have never had the ability to pay for actual bandwidth usage – this innovation means no more inefficient long-term leases.

OpenCT is using blockchain technology in an entirely new way to support modern telecommunication services. They have modified the blockchain protocol itself to support ultra-secure data transport – and superior management overlay. Through smart contracts (on their own hybrid blockchain) there is the ability for strategic carrier partners to offer their large-scale enterprise customers a new way to pay for bandwidth.

Through advanced optical switches that monitor application traffic requirements, OpenCT can use predictive measures to establish and tear down Dense Wave Division Multiplexing (DWDM) lambdas against transatlantic/transpacific circuits (in fact all optical-based circuits) – supporting near real time provisioning and decommissioning, especially the high costs incurred due to expensive transoceanic links.

Notes to the Editor:

NJFX (New Jersey Fiber Exchange) owns and operates a 64,800 square foot purpose-built Tier 3 CLS Colocation facility and 58-acre campus in Wall, NJ. This unique campus is supported by several route-independent carriers that offer direct access to multiple independent subsea cable systems interconnecting North America, Europe, South America and the Caribbean. High and low-density colocation solutions are available with 24/7 support. NJFX, along with its carrier ecosystem, provide a marketplace offering flexibility, reliability and security that global carriers, content providers, and enterprise/government entities utilize to drive network reliability, while reducing expenses. Located at the United States’ easternmost edge, the NJFX CLS supports diverse connectivity options and offers direct interconnection at the Cable Landing Station without recurring cross-connect fees.

OpenCryptoTrust (OpenCT) is a robust, high performance, hybrid blockchain that enables innovative solutions. OpenCT is challenging the current characterization and standardization of the functions within the telecommunications industry.

OpenCT has modified the blockchain protocol itself to support ultra-secure data transport – and superior management overlay. It has also developed two ‘killer applications’ that solve immediate problems and offer significant cost savings for telco carrier enterprise customers.

BaaT (Blockchain-as-a-Transport) transforms the use of the public internet for inexpensive, secure, enterprise-grade, data communications at significant cost reduction from private circuits.

BD-WAN (Blockchain Defined Wide Area Networking) modernizes existing pricing strategies for bandwidth – supporting ‘bandwidth on demand’ for private optical-based circuits – the ability to charge customers for the bandwidth they use. Additionally, this product is superior to existing SD-WAN solutions – in terms of security, MPLS and/or cloud routing and interoperability.

Contacts:

NJFX: VP of Business Development Roy Hilliard
email: roy@njfx.net

OpenCT: CMO Stuart G. Hall
email: stuarth@openct.io

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About NJFX:

Cross River Fiber completes Latency-Sensitive Route to NJFX & Becomes New International Gateway to NYC Financials

Industry News, Press Releases / NJFX

Cross River Fiber completes Latency-Sensitive Route to NJFX & Becomes New International Gateway to NYC Financials

January 22, 2018

Morristown and Wall Township, NJ – Cross River Fiber, a New Jersey-based, boutique network infrastructure and telecommunications solutions provider, announces the completion of its fiber network to the NJFX Tier 3 colocation campus in Wall Township, NJ. The highly-anticipated fiber route provides both enterprises, as well as the international community, with a robust interconnection option between the NJFX campus and key financial exchanges and carrier hotels in NY and NJ.

Offering high-capacity, latency-sensitive dark and lit services, Cross River Fiber designs, constructs and maintains its own independent network and distinguishes itself from other providers by custom-building its network to client specifications. NJFX operates the only carrier neutral Tier 3 cable landing and colocation campus and through its Subsea Exchange platform, carriers, service providers and content companies have direct access to a vital marketplace. The completed fiber route deploys all new optical glass, as well as a path that is diverse from other legacy infrastructure options, which equates to an extremely reliable network for NJFX customers.

“We are excited to enable the global business community through our high-capacity, latency-sensitive and diverse network,” says Vincenzo Clemente, CEO of Cross River Fiber. “By providing purpose-built transport options between the NJFX campus and these important exchange points, we are enabling any enterprise who conducts critical business transactions domestically and abroad, effectively closing the loop between subsea transport and the NY-based interconnections that drive business.”

“Cross River Fiber provides a key gateway to New York metro financial hubs, and we welcome them to our new Subsea Exchange ecosystem,” states Gil Santaliz, CEO for NJFX. “This marketplace allows subsea operators and US fiber-based providers to interexchange their capacity, ensuring network diversity through transparency. Cross River Fiber shares our commitment to providing highly reliable infrastructure, which is paramount to keeping global networks and financials operating 24x7x365.”

For more information about Cross River Fiber, please visit www.crossriverfiber.com.

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About Cross River Fiber
Founded in 2011, Cross River Fiber provides custom, scalable, and secure high-speed fiber network solutions for carriers, wireless mobility providers and enterprise businesses. Our purpose-built fiber network extends into key data centers, carrier hotels, enterprise buildings, wireless access points, and financial exchanges within New Jersey and New York. Providing dark and lit transport solutions, Cross River Fiber connects businesses to a digital world. Cross River Fiber is a Delaware LLC owned by its employees, business partners and Ridgemont Equity Partners. To learn more about Cross River Fiber, visit www.crossriverfiber.com. To learn more about Ridgemont Equity Partners, visit www.ridgemontep.com.

For Cross River Fiber Media Inquiries, please contact:
Melissa Stanislaw
Director of Sales and Marketing
mstanislaw@crossriverfiber.com
(908) 409-6981

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About NJFX: