As Google has expanded its Cloud services around the globe, they have added new cloud regions in the Netherlands, Montreal, Finland, and opening just yesterday, Los Angeles. And to interconnect this vast network, Google, as well as other major Internet companies look to subsea cables to assure connectivity between their data centers.
There are several options Internet companies can pursue when it comes to these cables. Quite often, the cables are built and owned by a consortium of companies, and sometimes, a competitor can lease capacity on the existing cable. The third option is building the cable themselves.
The massive subsea cable project Google announced on Tuesday will be a private cable because the company wants to own the connectivity between its data centers around the world and it won’t have to share the bandwidth for the life of the cable, according to Tech Crunch.
Subsea cables are expensive, costing hundreds of millions of dollars that include both the cost of the cable itself and the specialized surface facilities needed at both ends of the cable. This cable called the “Durant” cable is Google’s fourth private cable. It is named after the first Nobel Peace Prize winner and Red Cross founder Henry Durant.
Durant will span nearly 4,000 miles of the Atlantic Ocean before making landfall on France’s Atlantic coast. The cable will “connect Google’s Northern Virginia region directly to its Belgium region,” Google’s Jayne Stowell explains in her blog post.
SubCom For The 5NCIZFrTJf
— SubTel Forum (@SubTelForum) July 17, 2018
Google has chosen TE SubCom, an industry pioneer in undersea communications technology, to design, manufacture and lay the cable for Dunant, which will bring well-provisioned, high-bandwidth, low-latency, highly secure cloud connections between the U.S. and Europe.
“We are proud to be working with Google on this important cable system and to be helping to increase Internet performance for all,” said Sanjay Chowbey, president of TE SubCom. “The Dunant cable system will be built using SubCom’s industry-leading A1 cable family, which is optimized for projects compatible with higher DCR. As a leading supplier of submarine cable systems, we look forward to continuing to work with our global partners to create more accessible and faster internet access.”
