Connexions4London (C4L)

Connexions4London (C4L) provides wholesale internet infrastructure services to over 300 major customers, connecting over 100,000 servers and machines, making it one of the largest independent Internet Service Providers in the UK. Launched in 2000, it now has one of the UK's largest privately-built, neutral data centre connected fibre networks, with over 50 data centres on net across the UK, Amsterdam and the US.

C4L specialises in high capacity connections providing multiple 10 gigabit connectivity services and has established a proven track record as a leading provider of multi-homed transit services. These include IP Transit, Colocation, Interconnects, Leased Lines, DSL, VoIP, Out Of Band, Disaster Recovery and Offsite Backups.

The Challenge

C4L’s wholesale platform enables any business to easily choose their services over one simple port at wholesale rate, effectively eliminating the headache of managing multiple providers and worrying about redundancy.

However, having become so successful, it became clear the company needed to increase its connectivity. “Due to our business requiring vast amounts of connectivity for our clients, we require multiple 10 Gigabit connectivity to the UK's core Tier 1 providers and to internet exchanges such as LINX,” explained Matt Hawkins, Managing Director of C4L.

C4L set about finding a partner that would be capable of providing high quality colocation services with excellent high capacity connectivity as well as the ability to connect to a large customer base. It also needed a company that was able to offer the facilities in other countries as C4L’s network expanded.

“Telehouse offers the best connectivity of any UK data centres which made them ideal for many of our core services.”

Solution

The cost to run such diverse connections back to its own facilities would have been substantial and not commercially viable. Additionally, the CAPEX to build its own data centre would also have been cost-prohibitive. This, coupled with overheads such as power, maintenance, 24x7 staff and constant monitoring, meant the most cost effective option for C4L was to outsource. C4L chose to outsource its needs to leading colocation provider, Telehouse Europe.

“Telehouse was the only data centre that enabled us to connect our core VoIP platform directly to our multiple VoIP providers. It provided the best connectivity for delivering minutes to our customer base”, said Hawkins.

“In our opinion, Telehouse also offers the best connectivity of any UK data centre which made them ideal for many of our core services, such as IP Transit and Interconnects. We required the highest capacity backbone connectivity possible for our clients.”

Project implementation was trouble-free, allowing a smooth transition for C4L. As C4L can use their own qualified engineers for cabling, the speed at which projects are completed has improved and reduced costs. C4L’s presence at Telehouse Docklands facility and Telehouse Metro facility also enables the company to connect to more clients and providers.

“The best experience with Telehouse has been the quality of remote hands on site.”

Results

Since working with Telehouse, C4L has experienced a virtually faultless service and has experienced a 100% return on its investment. It has become one of the company’s core backbone sites and supports hundreds of thousands of users. The best experience with Telehouse has been the quality of remote hands on site. C4L is in over 30 data centres around the UK and Telehouse has far outstripped the quality of 24x7 remote hands compared to other facilities, and has delivered exceptionally fast response times.

With C4L always looking for additional quality data centre space in order to keep pace with the needs of its customers, the future is likely to see it further extend its relationship with Telehouse.