Kordia addresses ‘Bandwidth Tsunami’ with investment

Media release

3 December 2015

Kordia addresses ‘Bandwidth Tsunami’ with multimillion dollar optical network investment

Internet usage and traffic bandwidths are increasing to levels never experienced before. Massive growth in use of video streaming, high bandwidth UFB access services, and cloud based services is driving customers to further leverage the internet in an effort to increase efficiency and grow their businesses. Addressing this, Kordia has made a multimillion dollar investment in a fibre optic backhaul network which meets the needs of business today and into the future.

Based on the latest DWDM and Ethernet technology supplied by network vendor Ciena, the 9.6Tbps capable packet optical network is optimised for delivery of 10 and 100Gbps service connections with very low latency between major UFB points of interconnect, data centres and larger customer sites in the North Island. To put this into context it means that every minute, the equivalent of 18,000 two hour movies could be downloaded.

Kordia CTO Aaron Olphert points out that the dramatic uptake of UFB by businesses and consumers combined with the rapid adoption of streaming video services, software as a service and other cloud computing products, has led to a rapid increase in demand for high quality, high availability networks from both its wholesale and enterprise customers.

The adoption of these services has substantially changed the customer bandwidth profile for service providers. This is creating a bandwidth tsunami and this is what this network addresses.

A multi-million dollar investment coupled with an aggressive optical network rollout has enabled Kordia to meet a 1 December go-live date with the first major interconnection nodes within Auckland and between Hamilton, Palmerston North and Wellington ready to take on customer traffic.

Additional connectivity and interconnection nodes between Auckland, Tauranga, Napier and Wellington are expected to be available in early 2016.

As a provider of connectivity to Internet Service Providers (ISPs) which in turn service consumers and businesses, Kordia’s beefed-up network capacity means many of New Zealand’s internet users are likely to benefit from the investment, either directly or indirectly (as capacity demand on existing infrastructure is eased and competitive wholesale services are introduced).

Olphert says CityLink, Kordia’s launch Optical Transport Service customer, has gone live with the first dedicated high speed connection between Wellington and the Kapua Data Centre facility in Hamilton.

DWDM, or dense wavelength division multiplexing, is a technology which allows multiple high capacity circuits to be carried on a single optical fibre by using light of different wavelengths. Through the technology, Olphert explains, greater throughput can be achieved from the existing inter-city cable infrastructure.

While DWDM technology isn’t new to New Zealand, Kordia’s network represents the latest technology available from Ciena, which has integrated support for packet and optical services and utilises Ciena’s award winning service orchestration and software defined network (SDN) solution Blue Planet.

Olphert adds that Kordia has focused on providing DWDM to data centres and locations driven by customer demand and that Kordia as a mission critical service provider will itself benefit from direct access to this DWDM network for its own managed core network.

“Kordia also runs its own internal network on the same services it provides to its customers. That way we are also a customer of our own network with our own staff not being shy about giving feedback on our service performance. This means we are able to continually improve and innovate.

“Whilst this is a large and strategic investment for Kordia, the unabated demand for capacity driven by todays services and those of tomorrow that we haven’t even thought of, will be supported by this network investment and he says the country’s businesses can be assured we can meet the capacity and performance they need today and well into the future,” says Olphert.

About Kordia NZ

Kordia is a highly focused, specialist telecommunications, information security and media business. We’ve been delivering innovative and highly reliable enterprise-grade broadcast, telecommunications and specialised networks for over sixty years.

We enjoy a strong presence throughout New Zealand and Australia, employing nearly 1000 highly skilled engineering, network operations and field technician staff, who develop networks, contract and consult.

Our people are here to make your business more effective—through real-time speed, efficiency and total reliability. The addition of the Aura’s cyber security services is a logical extension of the mission critical network services we already provide our customers.

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