value of co-location

Sat Jan 20 00:57:23 UTC 1996

Re: value of colo.  Sometimes it's helpful to use a colo as a mini-POP
and drag lines out to local customers or to other colo members who want
to buy transit.  A NAP with enough space to rent whole cages seems like
something a lot of people would want -- down at WilTel they really
frown on private wires between cages and they don't own a GIGAswitch.

Re: fast packet data services.  The telcos have really screwed the pooch
with ISDN, SMDS, and ATM.  I'm not sure why F-R has worked well without
years of delay, but it's a real anomoly.  I have little if any confidence
that I will be able to buy OC3 speed ATM and use it to contact 200
(or even 20) metro-area NAP partners any time this century.

ISP's who practice conservative engineering (i.e., safe sex) will continue
to buy the fastest telco pipes they can get _among_those_which_actually_work_
and this is probably going to be raw fibre before it starts to be 155Mb ATM.
I'm not in love with the idea of a barn full of routers all hooked up to
a GIGAswitch milking machine, but I have to prefer the config that works.

I know that after years of trauma and chaos and delay, we now have a couple
of NAPs implemented on an ATM mesh.  If I ever see an ATM NAP come online
with dozens of 155Mb/s members and no chaos, trauma or delay, I promise to
post a full apologia here.