Business Continuity
Dark Fiber
Business Continuity
Dark Fiber - what is it? So fiber is fiber, right? Sure, just like
all glass is exactly alike. If you read the urban legend material
available on dark fiber, some equipment vendor-supported sites state
outright that all fiber is created equal.
Business Continuity
Dark Fiber – dirty windows
Some even imply that
the fiber an organization would purchase to manage themselves would
be superior to the fiber the service providers would supply for
their managed solutions. The difference would be similar to looking
through a cloudy, dirty window too high above ground for you to
clean yourself versus a clean, clear window professional window
cleaners maintained.
The long-term lease of
dark fiber means just that, it is from the provider’s source to the
end customer’s demarcation point. The fiber jumper to the
transponder and beyond will be the responsibility of the purchaser.
Fiber is not portable.
Owning all of the facilities to which the fiber will be connected is
strongly recommended. Built into the cost considerations should be
cost to move the fiber in the future. If new facilities were to be
built or purchased and fiber is not available, the average lead time
for fiber build-out is two years! This is largely due to the time
involved with obtaining right-of-way and permits necessary for the
build-out.
Business Continuity
Dark Fiber –Repair and Maintenance
Once the fiber and the
equipment are installed, what will be the upgrade and maintenance
schedule? When the 90-day to 12-month warranty has expired on the
equipment, who will you get to maintain the box or repair it? The
FCC tariff on dark fiber is very specific on what can and can’t be
done by the service provider to condition, maintain or repair the
dark fiber.
For example, if you
purchase OC3 bandwidth but can only obtain DS3 throughput, your
options for getting the line conditioned for better performance are
very limited with dark fiber.
Most supporters of
dark fiber minimize the cost of and issues associated with a Third
party contractor to handle the repair and maintenance. Can you
really afford to casually brush aside this expense that could easily
rival the upfront difference in the dark fiber vs. managed
solution?
Explore the Disaster Recovery
Toolkit
Contains 18 ready to use templates for successful
Disaster Recovery Planning / IT Service Continuity
Management
