This morning I had the chance to talk to a potential data center client who was concerned that most ISPs that service Dallas seem to be located in the ‘Building Which Shall Not be Named’.  He felt that locating his equipment outside of the ‘Building Which Shall Not be Named’ would help lower this risk of downtime.  Of course I tried to explain that the opposite might be true.

I began by explaining that most of the long haul fiber entering Dallas hits the Electra POP near the AA center.   Originally leased (99 year lease) by Western Wireless, then IXC, who became Broadwing and ultimately purchased by Level (3), the small facility is home to most of the long haul fiber in Dallas.  There isn’t enough room in the POP for much besides basic optronics and simply muxing gear, so many carriers have connected their fiber to POPs built in 2323 Bryan St.  The building is full of carriers who use the building to light their fiber and sell capacity.  There are few colocation facilities in the building, but most of them are very full or very expensive.  As a result many of the ISPs connected their networks from 2323 Bryan St. to 1950 Stemmons (more commonly known as the ‘Building Which Shall Not be Named’) a 1.4 million square foot building with huge floor plates.  Most of the internet routers in Dallas are in one or more facilities located in the ‘Building Which Shall Not be Named’.

The net-net is that these three locations form a triangle of connectivity.  If any one of them is disrupted Dallas’ various connections to the internet would likely go down.  Staying away from anyone of these locations may seem like a good idea, since in many ways they are great ‘targets’.  Ironically, the most likely scenario is that with all of the construction going on in Dallas (notice all of the cranes?) it is more likely that the local loops (the connections that run between buildings in our streets) will be cut accidentally.  If the ‘Building Which Shall Not be Named’ is destroyed I imagine almost every internet connection in Dallas would be distrupted.  If the local loop between the ‘Building Which Shall Not be Named’ and your building is cut you are the only one who will be down.  I suspect you are 99% more likely of the later than the former and of course the former means you are down anyway…

My advice?  For colocation pick one of the main buildings: 2323 Bryan or ‘Building Which Shall Not be Named’.