SoftLayer Adds 7 Network Points

On-demand data center services provider SoftLayer Technologies has significantly expanded its network through the addition of seven network Points of Presence across the US.

According to its Monday announcement, the extensive buildout is designed to greatly improve end user experience, provide direct or shorter connections for lower latency, set a new industry standard in enterprise-grade DNS services, increase control over network challenges including suboptimal routing and DDOS attacks, and lower the company's cost of network operations into the future.

"This may be the most important investment we have made to date. It's expensive up front, but the future advantages it will bring to our customers and our market position are more than worth it," SoftLayer chief executive officer Lance Crosby said in a statement. "End user experience has become the ultimate measure of everything we do. Throughout the industry, customers have stopped asking ‘How can we make this work?' and started asking ‘How can it work faster?' This is how."

SoftLayer's network PoPs now include its three geographically diverse data centers and seven additional cities including Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Denver,

Los Angeles, Miami, New York City, San Jose, Seattle, and Washington, D.C. All 10 sites feature network services including virtual private network and domain name system service capabilities.

"As infrastructure, platform, and software as a service (IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS) become more and more the norm, we know it's important for our customers to shorten the distance and quicken the path between their end users and the server; That's what these PoPs are doing," SoftLayer chief technology officer Nathan Day said in a statement. "And DNS issues are the top reason for website outages. We want to take that headache off the table forever. DNS should just simply work -- it should be an afterthought for our customers."

With the additional PoPs, SoftLayer has also more than doubled its total network capacity from approximately 300Gbps to more than 1,000Gbps, including public and private ports. And the company is planning on continuing to expand in the coming months with the July opening of a new corporate headquarters and data center. It also anticipates announcing its first data center outside North America shortly.