Today's internet consumer is savvier and more demanding than ever. Capturing the attention of this audience, and efficiently serving it, is critical to your success. Regional hosting, or hosting in a regional market where much of your customer base is located, is crucial to meeting the demands of your customers. Over the next four articles, we will look at the benefits of hosting in four major U.S. internet markets – Chicago, Atlanta, Miami and Los Angeles. We will start our journey in Chicago.
General Benefits of Hosting in Chicago
The Chicago metro area is the third-largest U.S. metropolitan economy, with a GDP of over $650B. Chicago also ranks second in the nation in the number of fast-growing small businesses according to Inc. Magazine. Access to your product by these businesses (and the revenue they generate) can be more effectively accomplished by hosting in a Chicago-based data center.
Chicago's data centers provide some of the largest and most connected Points-of-Presence in the region. With multiple downtown and suburban data centers, Chicago provides a core set of unique benefits when compared to other U.S. locations.
Strategic Midwest Location
Chicago's central U.S. location provides many strategic benefits not found in other parts of the country. Natural disasters are uncommon in the region so infrastructure and facilities are less likely to suffer catastrophic outages. Additionally, Chicago's data centers and their network points of presence (PoPs) handle most of the IP traffic transiting from the Northeastern corridor to the West Coast. This traffic makes Chicago one of the most highly-transited regions in the country.
Internet Exchanges
Internet Exchanges (IXs) provide direct access to the internet backbone via IP Transit. Chicago hosts three major IXs – Equinix Internet Exchange, Amsterdam Internet Exchange (AMS-IX) Chicago, and United IX. Of these, Equinix has the largest and best-established presence in the region.
Adaptive Data Networks can provide your business IP Transit Service in Chicago. IP Transit allows your business to take advantage of the lower latency and faster performance it provides. Feel free to reach out to our professionals to discuss how we can meet and exceed your needs.
Financial Center Proximity
Chicago is a Top 10 Global Financial Center and houses numerous international financial exchanges including:
- Chicago Board of Trade (CBT)
- Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE)
- Chicago Intercontinental Exchange (CIE)
- Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME)
- Deutsche Börse
- NYSE:SFTI
Proximity to these exchanges is required for high-frequency trading (HFT) when microseconds count. By reducing the path length to these exchanges, executing buy or sell orders is nearly instantaneous. By hosting in Chicago, you can attain sub-millisecond latency to some of the largest futures exchanges in the world.
Content Delivery Networks
Chicago is home to many PoPs for major Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) including AWS CloudFront (Amazon), Cloudflare, CacheFly, CenturyLink / Level 3, EdgeCast (Verizon), and Internap. Products that rely on these CDNs, such as content organizations who stream content directly from local servers to these CDN's will benefit from their proximity and reduced latency to these organizations networks.
Adaptive Data Networks' Chicago Presence
Adaptive Data Networks has chosen to host its Chicago Data Center in Equinix's CH3 facility. Equinix maintains a prominent Chicago presence and robust offerings to suit the current and future needs of our clientele. Here are some of the highlights of out Chicago data center:
Location
The CH3 facility is located at 1905 Lunt Avenue in Elk Grove Village, Illinois. This location near O'Hare International Airport provides access to key logistics, real estate development, and technology firms in Chicago's Near-West suburbs. The three-story facility offers 114,457 S.F. within the data center for our clients' hardware. CH3 was upgraded in 2014 to benefit from technologies not available during its construction in 2007. Additional upgrades totaling $63M are ongoing and will be completed 2Q 2018.
Connectivity
CH3 is Adaptive Data Networks' primary PoP in the Chicago region. Significant investments have been made in network architecture, redundancy, and connectivity to allow us to provide some of our highest availability SLA's direct to you.
CH3 is directly connected to Equinix's downtown location (350 East Cermak) via the firm's Metro Connect™ network. Metro Connect™ provides highly reliable network connectivity across multiple data centers in a metropolitan area. This high-speed connection allows tenants in any Equinix data center to quickly exchange data at up to 100GigE speeds.
Additionally, CH3 offers a multitude of connectivity options including Cloud Exchange – A robust cloud-based interconnection platform, Internet Exchange, and Cross Connect – Direct access to CDNs within the same exchange.
Security / Access
Multiple levels of security including physical, human, and electronic are utilized at CH3. Physical security begins with the design of the building. Concrete bollards are used at the entrances to prevent vehicles from crashing into the building. Furthermore, man trap entries prevent unauthorized access to the physical hardware. 24/7 security personnel monitor all activity within and around the data center. Electronic protection includes biometric readers, fiber vault, CCTV monitors and recorders, and motion detection systems and are used to secure the facility.
Infrastructure
Redundant power and cooling systems allow CH3 to maintain an industry-leading 99.9999% network uptime. Power is brought into the facility by two utility feeders capable of providing 3.0 – 5.0 kVA per cabinet. Block redundant UPS configurations deliver N+1 redundancy. Fifteen 2,500 kW diesel generators are on standby in the event of a power outage, and provide N+2 redundancy. The facility's cooling system is equally robust. Water-cooled centrifugal chillers provide the backbone of the system. It employs water-side heat exchangers to cool and pass air through the handling units. The cooling system also offers N+2 redundancy.
Certifications and Sustainability
Equinix is committed to keeping its facilities on the forefront of technology. Over the last year, they have spent over $1B to upgrade their facilities. A portion of those improvements is focused on gaining industry-recognized certifications and reducing the environmental impact of its facilities. These improvements have allowed CH3 to achieve the following six certifications:
- Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)
- International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 27001
- National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) 800-53 / Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA)
- Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS)
- Service Organization Control (SOC) 1 Type II
- Service Organization Control (SOC) 2 Type II
CH3 was designed to be a “Green” facility. Numerous sustainable features are incorporated including granular temperature controls, cold aisle containment, a reflective roof, and optimized lighting controls. Additionally, a portion of the facility's power is provided by wind turbines, a renewable energy source. These features led to the facility's receipt of the Energy Star for Data Centers in 2016.
Conclusion
Chicago presence in today's global business landscape is clear. Its status as a top global financial market and inclusion in coast-to-coast transit routes make it an ideal location to host your product. Businesses can efficiently meet their customer's demands and increase market share by hosting their products in Chicago. Adaptive Data Networks offers these benefits to its clients by using Equinix's CH3 data center.
While there are many options available for hosting your product or service, it is imperative to ensure your hosting provider has reliable support and robust offerings that scale with your company's growth. Adaptive Data Networks' certified IT professionals draw from a wide range of hosting, consulting, and IT experience to provide you with the best service and resources that will meet and exceed your needs.