North American Network Operators Group

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Re: an over-the-top data center

  • From: Jean-François Mezei
  • Date: Fri Nov 28 16:05:12 2008

Måns Nilsson wrote:

> Exactly where is of course known in the business, but not so well that it
> is OK to post their locations on Nanog. 

The problem with this mentality is that it does not deter those wishing
to do harm to the data centre or corporation.

For banks, I think the biggest advantage of having a no-name building is
that the general public will not try to enter the building thinking that
there is a bank branch or ATMs available and then rudely be thrown out
by the guards.

If you look at Toronto, the main carrier hotel is quite famous at 151
Front Street, very near to the main train station, convention centre etc
(aka: right at the core of the downtown). People who do not know about
the internet infrastructure may not realise what this building is about,
but anyone who knows how ISPs operate would know the strategic
importance of that building.

The thing about a carrier hotel is that it cannot be a secret location
since you need to allow various carriers and ISPs to have physical
access to the building so they can install/manage their
servers/routers/switches.

The advantage of this swedish data centre is that even if its location
is well known, it is pretty hard to harm the building. You can't run a
truck full of explosives into it for instance.