EdgeUno shines light on more open future

The challenge

Insights into up-and-coming open DCI trend

As a regional leader and trendsetter, EdgeUno continuously drives and keeps up with the latest data center interconnection trends. The aim is to both optimize the hyper connectivity company’s own networks and share best practices and inspiration with others. This is all a part of EdgeUno’s commitment to driving rapid growth of Latin American connectivity and providing an outstanding customer experience.

EdgeUno’s Tiago Setti, Director of Network Engineering, leads the company’s network design and outreach activities, regularly speaking at events and conferences across Latin America.

"We see a strong trend towards modular 400ZR and future 800ZR DCI solutions. Instead of embedded modules, as has been the standard, pluggables and open systems will be leveraged, providing more openness. This trend is being driven by the need for flexibility, scalability, and future-proofing, as well as the desire to reduce costs and improve energy efficiency. The popularity of all kinds of open optical networking solutions will grow as more and more data center operators break free from the closed systems of the past,” says Tiago.

The Solution

Open solutions aligned with current trends

Smartoptics has been championing open optical networking solutions for years and now offers solutions to deliver all of the capacity and performance benefits of 400ZR in a cost-efficient and small form factor. This is well aligned with current trends and needs, which is one of the reasons why EdgeUno turned to Smartoptics once again when it was time to upgrade to 400G.

“Smartoptics has been an optical networking vendor and key partner to us for a while, supplying us with single lambda 100G solutions and other optics. They have a strong reputation for openness and I can see that their current offering is a great fit for meeting the modular 400ZR trend with more open systems. We have always been impressed with their level of expertise and support and it felt only natural to ask Smartoptics for a solution when it was time to upgrade our DWDM links in Colombia,” says Tiago.

A uniquely flexible and cost-effective muxponder

To upgrade capacity and support new service offerings, EdgeUno chose the Smartoptics DCP-404 muxponder for its flexible ways of deploying 400ZR. These include QSFP-DD support and the ability to multiplex 4x100G in a transparent manner. The muxponder is also popular due to its cost-efficient design for optimized power consumption and increased fiber utilization. The DCP-404 was deployed to interconnect three data centers providing edge services in the capital of Colombia, Bogota.

“We are impressed with the flexibility and cost-effectiveness of the DCP-404. The setup was entirely plug-and-play and Smartoptics was responsive and helpful throughout the deployment process. Compared to industry standards, Smartoptics also did a great job on the lead time. The scalability of the Smartoptics solution is crucial as we continue to offer more high-performance and competitive connectivity services to our customers,” says Tiago.

the Result

Bright future ahead for openness and customer centricity

Following the initial deployment at the three Colombian data centers, EdgeUno is planning to scale the solution to additional locations, including Brazil. The aim is to bring competitive and reliable 400G-backed services to customers throughout Latin America. EdgeUno has also launched a user-friendly and feature-packed customer portal to better serve its customers.

Tiago sees a bright future for both openness and customer centricity – two trends and values championed and shared by EdgeUno and Smartoptics:

“I wholeheartedly recommend that other data center operators seriously consider the great benefits of leveraging open solutions with 400ZR QSFP-DD modules. This is the key to not only cost-effectiveness and increased capacity but also scalability and future-proofing. With both bandwidth needs and customer expectations on the rise, early adopters of a more open networking and customer-centric approach will take a clear lead. In this context, we see great prospects for continuing future collaboration with Smartoptics given the strong alignment of our strategies and values in this direction,” says Tiago.

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