Zayo Logo

Why Does a Deep Distributed Network Matter for Media Companies, Content Providers, and Digital Commerce?

Blog

It feels as though, in the world of technology, that constant change is the new normal. Organizations on the leading edge are constantly thinking through how to imagine and deliver new experiences that need technologies to be built, combined, and integrated in new ways.

Organizations come to Zayo with an overriding need to provide bleeding-edge experiences that blur the lines between media, content, and retail. They’re looking to the future by creating omnichannel experiences, building on automated responsiveness, powered by deep, extensive analytics. These experiences require varying degrees of autonomous insight and decision-making that’s distributed, built on regional access instead of taking traffic to central locations.

For example, leaders like Amazon and Disney gather millions of data points per customer, whether online, through streaming platforms, or in stores, which they use to develop and refine unified experiences, aiming to improve customer satisfaction and repeat business. Other retailers, media companies, and content providers are thinking along similar lines and trying to work out how to bring their dreams of compelling, disruptive experiences into reality.

Common Problems at the Edge

One of the challenges companies encounter is managing a microservices database. How can services store data without losing their control and bandwidth?

  • To solve the problem and develop these experiences, organizations need deep distributed networks that go beyond the traditional core to cloud, extending very high performance links out to the edge, connecting edge to core, edge to cloud, edge to edge, and essentially everything to everything, without compromising performance, latency, or price. This need is disrupting the competitive landscape for enterprise connectivity, and as you’d expect, there are winners and losers, incumbents and challengers, and some vendors are delivering what’s needed, and others aren’t.
  • Many of the old incumbent carriers are discovering that there’s a market for deep distributed networks. They have thousands of incumbent customers to support so their ability to pivot can be compromised, but they’re making investments in distributed networks to try and gain a piece of the pie. Their fiber investments might not be entirely enterprise-grade, often relying on coaxial infrastructure, but they often have extensive reach.
  • Some organizations, in their markets, reach directly to the edge, have fiber in place, and offer intensely disruptive pricing that breaks carrier pricing models, but if they’re not in the market you need — their inexpensive pricing does you no good.
  • Finally, some companies have less legacy infrastructure and can invest more in deep distributed networks, adding both span and performance. We’re seeing a few providers who are thinking intelligently about the needs of media, content, and commerce companies, but many simply don’t have the assets in place to provide a firm foundation.

Regardless of which category, supporting this requirement economically isn’t just a matter of fiber, it’s going to take some kind of disruptive technology deployment. Integration of wireline and wireless will be needed to support next-generation omnichannel experiences, there’s going to be a lot of integration work, with services and partnerships needed, and technology agnostic thinking that can make smart, pragmatic decisions to support emerging opportunities.

If you’re looking for a provider who offers a deep distributed network, what qualities should you hope to find?

  • Expertise: a provider with deep experience working with hyperscalers and carriers brings a track record of solving complex network problems at scale. You know the Facebooks and AT&Ts of the world only choose the best network solution providers.
  • Neutrality: a provider with a deep bench of partnerships and a pragmatic approach to working with other providers gives you added flexibility and versatility without having to cope with the added expense of sunk costs.
  • Reach and span: a provider who can reach all the major centers, as well as a diversity of edge locations combined with a proven pattern of expansion into different markets, gives you a foundation. You want unique, diverse, high-performance routes and direct connectivity to the cloud.
  • Relationships: your provider should have a group of trusted strategic partners who help ensure game-changing service excellence, agility, speed, and scale.
  • Complete Product Offering: look for a company that offers infrastructure products and managed solutions.

Zayo is a market leader in building and providing deep distributed networks to leading-edge organizations around the world. Find our more about our Managed Edge Services here.