Can you give us a brief about your organisation & its recent activities?
In March, 2017, we announced the appointment of Erick Contag, former GlobeNet CEO, as Globenet Executive Chairman, and my appointment as GlobeNet’s new CEO. From a services and operations perspective, GlobeNet improved its IP and IaaS services in Brazil by joining the most important Exchange Points in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, deployed 100G wavelengths service, and launched new Network Virtualization and Security solutions.
GlobeNet was recently awarded Frost & Sullivan’s “2017 Latin American Company of the Year.”. The award criteria includes driving demand, brand strength, and competitive differentiation in delivering unique value to customers. In addition, judges consider Visionary Innovation & Performance to enhance customer impact, according to Frost & Sullivan. GlobeNet has a distinguished reputation for high-speed connectivity, based on the dual ring-protected approach it employs in its Atlantic-ocean-based subsea cable system. It’s low latency and high redundancy were also contributing factors in GlobeNet’s selection as the award winner.
What have been GlobeNet’s key highlights and developments in Latam over the past year?
Last year we launched a Network Virtualization Service, which supports network expansion and enhancement by offering network infrastructure with virtual routers allowing customers to aggregate their international capacity and manage their own connections to peering fabrics. The routers are intended to be an integral part of the customers’ networks for the delivery of their service offering. Transport services between these locations are also available as part of the offering. The PoPs included in the first phase were New York and Miami in the United States, as well as Sao Paulo, Brazil; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Bogota, Colombia; and Caracas, Venezuela.
We also announced the availability of 100Gbps wavelength services from New York and Miami, in the United States, to major data centres in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo in Brazil. The service enables reliable, high-speed connectivity into the two key cities in the South American market.
In order to stand out in the competitive global telecommunications market, Carriers and ISPs need to present additional value to their customers. We improved the delivery of IP and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) services in Brazil by accessing Internet Exchange Points (IXPs), also known in Brazil as PTTs or Pontos de Troca de Tráfego, in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. Connecting directly to an IXP/PTT reduces costs by eliminating the need for third-party networks, allowing traffic balances to be resolved directly and locally. This method also enables network providers greater control, allowing them to route traffic as close to the desired destination as possible. This practice often results in enhanced performance and quality for customers and more efficient operation of the Internet as a whole.
GlobeNet also introduced a DDoS Guard solution, for the protection of international infrastructure against DDoS attacks. Our DDoS Guard delivers 24/7 protection against both volumetric and application targeted threats regardless of their frequency, size, or duration, and guarantees maximum performance without any downtime. DDoS Guard has a scrubbing capacity of 1.44 Tbps. Mitigation is implemented immediately when an ongoing or imminent DDoS attack is identified. The GlobeNet team provides customers with detailed traffic and reports after each event.
What are the major trends in the wholesale market and how is GlobeNet planning to capitalise on those?
The Sandvine 2016 Global Internet Phenomena Report indicates that real-time entertainment including, streaming, on-demand video, music and gaming services account for almost 50% of the Internet traffic in Latin America. In fact, Latin American IP video traffic is expected to grow three-fold from 2015 to 2020, (CAGR of 27%) reaching 9.5 Exabytes per month in 2020. In 2020, 82% of all Latin American IP traffic will be video, and will be distributed in Ultra HD (5.2%; CAGR of 128% from 2015 to 2020), HD (50.2%; CAGR of 43.5% from 2015 to 2020) and SD (44.6%; CAGR of 15.4% from 2015 to 2020).
All of these new technologies require tremendous capacity and new workflow efficiencies as they not only serve as a conduit to consumers for the content that they crave, but begin to generate their own need and requirements from better and fast content in the form of original series, movies, high definition video, etc., to better quality of experience, quality of video watched, fast online gaming.
The future of current and emerging technologies depends in large part on IP services as the enabling technology. We believe that the appropriate IP roll out to support these technologies includes core routing, a reliable transport backbone and top notch connectivity. GlobeNet delivers a complete end-to-end solution from transport to local connectivity, from any of our 18 Points-of-Presence (PoPs) from Latin America to the U.S. and vice-versa, making GlobeNet the ideal provider in the Americas.
We complement our proposal with a powerful DDoS mitigation solution for our IP Transit offering and allow all ISPs in Latin America to take advantage of GlobeNet’s international network that offers the lowest latency to reach the main Internet Exchange Points (IXPs) in the United States.
What are your strategic priorities in 2017 and what announcements can we expect from GlobeNet in the region this year?
GlobeNet is expanding its data center facilities in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) and Barranquilla (Colombia). This investment is aimed to satisfy customer demand for increased colocation and IaaS services in Latin America.
The expansion for GlobeNet’s new Rio de Janeiro data center will be completed in June 2017. The upgraded facility will feature an additional 200 square meters of data center white space. As for power considerations, it has fully redundant AC/DC power, with battery and generator backups. This infrastructure serves as a host for all major service providers in Brazil, OTT, content providers, and is connected to Internet Exchange Points (IXPs) based in Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo. It is also connected to GlobeNet’s state-of-the-art Cable Landing Station (CLS) in Rio de Janeiro, providing submarine access to the Northeast region of Brazil, USA, Colombia and Venezuela.
The new Barranquilla data center will begin supporting GlobeNet’s full suite of IaaS services starting in July 2017. The brand-new facility is being built with Tier III data center best practices, in compliance with all environmental regulations. It features 200 square meters of data center white space and will hold 68 cabinets. This facility will serve as a host to all major service providers in Colombia and will have full connectivity to GlobeNet’s Barranquilla CLS, providing international access to the USA, Brazil and Venezuela.
Both of the new facilities are highly-secure, with biometric controlled access, video surveillance, NOC monitoring, secured racks, FM 2000 fire suppression and security guards on site 24/7/365.
In addition to this, GlobeNet also plans to upgrade its IaaS capabilities in Colombia and expand its network with new PoPs in Brazil,
What does GlobeNet hope to achieve out of your attendance at the Capacity Latam event?
GlobeNet is hoping to accomplish a few things this week at Capacity Latam.
We’ll be looking to grow awareness for our overall product portfolio, but specifically want to inform people about our upcoming infrastructure expansion in Rio de Janeiro and Barranquilla. Mostly, we are looking forward to exploring new opportunities with potential partners and customers.
You can meet with us at our booth or at Suite 222. Don’t miss our Executive Chairman, Erick Contag, who is participating on the “M&A: Competing with Regional Titans? Looking at the Effects of M&A Activity on both the Smaller Local Carriers and the New Players Moving into the Market" panel this Wednesday morning at 10:00 AM.
