There’s no crying in network development, not when the first $100 million price tag will be a blip on one’s $4.1 billion secondary stock offering proceeds.
Light Reading offers a collection of Google network tidbits, hints, and secret mutterings in an article appearing online today. All the rumors point to the Googleplex ruling a core communication transport network among the world’s largest.
Google has issued requests for proposals to supply it with some $100 million in DWDM (dense wavelength division multiplexing) equipment, and bidders like Siemens, Lucent, and Nortel among others want a piece of the pie.
The report notes how Crain’s New York Business learned Google has picked up 270,000 square feet of NYC real estate at 111 8th Avenue; the site is a telecom interconnection facility. Think racks upon racks of servers and switches, and miles of cabling.
Other rumors have Google looking for a similar facility on the West Coast, which would give it a connection to Asia. “I could tell you more but they would kill me,” Light Reading’s tipster said in the report.
Some theories hold that these investment will payoff for Google with big cost savings. Light Reading offers this quote from senior director of advanced networks Bill St. Arnaud with Canarie Inc:
“By building their own distribution network they don’t have to pay peering costs. Remote peering and transit costs are significant for all the big Internet players. So everybody is thinking of doing this.”
From a scale standpoint, the Google network will be vast. The report closes with this quote from Telx chief strategy officer Hunter Newby: “Traditionally, people went to Internet peering points. But because Google is so large, it could be the Internet. People would go there and never leave.”
And that would present a lot of opportunities for Google ad impressions.
David Utter is a staff writer for Murdok covering technology and business. Email him here.
