In today’s digital landscape, network security and reliability are more critical than ever. While public Internet and other shared infrastructure services can expose your business to security risks and unpredictable performance, building and managing a private dark fiber network requires heavy capital investment and specialized skills. So, how do you get the security and reliability you need without the operational burden? There’s a more strategic path forward.
Enter Zayo Private Networks. Sometimes referred to as Managed Optical Fiber Networks (MOFN), this solution offers a strategic middle ground between shared wavelength services and fully owned dark fiber. By providing the perfect balance between scalability, performance, and privacy, Zayo Private Networks empower your team to focus on building the future of your business rather than managing its underlying network.
Overcoming Today’s Network Roadblocks
Modern enterprises require a diverse network solution stack to meet their unique connectivity challenges. While shared network solutions are suitable for many use cases, they may not always deliver the predictable performance, latency, and privacy needed for critical operations and connections.
When sensitive data is on the line, relying on shared network services can introduce privacy risks and compliance challenges. Industries like healthcare and finance have strict regulatory requirements that demand private connectivity to keep sensitive data safe. Additionally, data privacy and security are non-negotiable for priority connections, such as those between data centers or from a data center to headquarters.
This is where Private Networks become a vital part of your technology stack. While many businesses consider dark fiber for maximum control and scalability or shared wavelengths for cost-efficiency, Private Networks offer a powerful middle ground. They deliver the robust performance and security benefits of Dark Fiber without the heavy operational burden of managing it, making them the perfect solution for your most critical connections.
What are Zayo Private Networks?
Zayo Private Networks deliver fully dedicated, high-capacity fiber connectivity to organizations that want control over their network’s performance, security, and scalability. Fiber and equipment are provisioned exclusively for your organization and fully managed by Zayo from design to deployment to maintenance, providing maximum bandwidth without the operational burden.
Zayo Private Networks are available in two distinct offerings, each designed to meet specific business needs:
- Private Wavelength Networks (PWNs): Ideal for high-capacity connectivity needs across both long-haul and metro distances. PWNs provide dedicated, high-bandwidth connections that scale easily, making them perfect for data center interconnects, cloud access, and other high-volume traffic applications.
- Private Data Networks (PDNs): A more cost-effective solution designed for lower bandwidth metro requirements, leveraging Ethernet connectivity. PDNs offer numerous network architecture opportunities, including full mesh design, providing flexible connectivity that is well-suited for connecting multiple office locations, business parks, or campus environments within a single metro area.
For a deeper understanding of how Zayo Private Networks can fit into your network toolkit, explore our Private Networks Overview. Learn More.
What Sets Zayo Private Networks Apart
When you choose Zayo Private Networks, you gain access to features and capabilities unmatched in the industry:
- Extensive National Footprint: Zayo’s vast network connects you to IP peering facilities, key data centers, and over 28,000 on-net locations across North America.
- No Entrance Criteria: Zayo is the only network provider offering Private Networks at scale with no upper or lower threshold for bandwidth size. Whether you need 10G on the low end or a massive 1Tb+ connection, Zayo delivers.
- Dedicated NOC Support: Benefit from a 24/7/365 Network Operations Center (NOC) that is completely dedicated to Private Networks customers, ensuring your network is highly reliable and always on. Plus, get software, field, and sparing support.
- Path to Ownership: At the end of your contract, Zayo offers the unique option to transfer the title for long-haul Private Wavelengths Network equipment. This provides ultimate control if you decide you want to own Dark Fiber in the future.
- Custom Solutions: With Layer 1 (PWN), layer 2, or layer 3 (PDN) solutions on both metro and long-haul infrastructure, Zayo is the leader in designing custom configurations to meet your exact specifications.
- Private Layer 2 Connectivity: While other providers sell Ethernet as a managed service, Zayo uniquely offers a private, closed-circuit Ethernet connection.
Zayo Private Networks vs. Self-Management
Deciding between a managed solution and self-management comes down to resource allocation and expertise. With Zayo Private Networks, you can free up your internal teams from the burden of network operations. Customers needing expert management can rely on Zayo to handle full lifecycle operations and incident management. This means you do not have to staff internal teams with optical expertise.
Relying on Zayo also means significantly lower upfront costs. Self-managing a network often requires higher capital expenditure and introduces ongoing internal staffing costs. Additionally, Zayo acts as your single source for fiber, eliminating the complexity and cost of sourcing and lighting fiber from multiple carriers yourself.
Comparing Your Network Options
Understanding the differences between available network models helps clarify why Private Networks hit the sweet spot for organizations.
| Dark Fiber | Private Networks | Wavelengths | |
| Fiber infrastructure | Dedicated | Dedicated | Shared |
| Optical equipment | Customer owned | Dedicated | Shared |
| Network management | Customer managed | Zayo managed with dedicated NOC | Zayo managed |
| Scalability | Customer adds new cards to owned equipment | Zayo adds cards to dedicated equipment | Customer orders new standalone services |
| Pricing structure | Monthly leases with options for prepaid IRU contracts | Primary monthly leases with NRC or MRC option | Monthly leases |
| Best fit customer | Requires highest levels of security and prefers to manage own network and scale internally | Requires highest level of security and scalability, but lacks the resources to manage internally today | Lower bandwidth scaling requirements |
Real-World Use Cases for Private Networks
To understand the transformative power of this technology, look at how industry leaders are leveraging Zayo Private Networks to drive growth.
Finance: Flawless Trading Execution
A global investment bank needed to connect its trading floor with AWS and Google Cloud Platform (GCP) for real-time analytics, requiring a solution that could handle market volatility without latency spikes.
Zayo provided a Private Wavelength Network offering execution-grade consistency and burst-ready capacity. The bank eliminated latency surprises that previously broke AI model accuracy. By feeding their AI models with consistent, real-time data, the bank reduced trade execution latency by roughly 15% and significantly improved fraud detection accuracy.
Education: Securing Student Data
A large metro school district needed to connect its administrative offices, data center, and dozens of school sites while ensuring the security and privacy of sensitive student information. This required a secure, reliable, and scalable network solution to handle everything from online testing to daily administrative tasks.
Zayo supplied a Private Data Network solution that created a secure, isolated network connecting all district locations within the metro district. This private network ensured that student data and other confidential information were protected from public Internet risks. The district gained a secure, high-performance network that could easily scale to meet future needs, ensuring compliance with data privacy regulations and protecting its community.
Cloud and Hyperscale: Expanding AI Clusters
A leading hyperscale provider needed to interconnect multiple data centers to expand its regional AI training clusters. The sheer volume of traffic required dedicated, secure capacity at a massive scale.
Zayo’s Private Wavelength Network delivered predictable training pipelines and sustained high-volume traffic between AI sites. The customer increased AI training throughput, achieved deterministic latency between data centers, and lowered overall transport costs compared to traditional Internet-based connectivity.
Healthcare: Accelerating Drug Discovery
A biosciences company needed to securely connect its on-premises high-performance computing (HPC) cluster with AWS and Azure to enable AI-driven drug discovery.
Zayo implemented a Private Wavelength Network to guarantee private, reliable performance for critical AI pipelines while safeguarding highly regulated genomic data. The biosciences team simplified their hybrid operations, cut genomic dataset transfer times by about 40%, and enabled real-time multi-cloud AI model training without having to re-architect their systems.
Empower Your Enterprise to Innovate
In today’s fast-paced digital world, your network is the backbone of innovation. It drives the technologies that help businesses thrive, grow, and stay ahead of the competition. Bold ideas require a powerful, reliable network to bring them to life, but managing the network should drain your internal resources or distract from your core mission.
Zayo Private Networks provide the scale, security, and performance of dark fiber, fully managed by industry experts. You get predictable performance and peace of mind, allowing your team to focus on what they do best: innovating for the future.