- Ziply is using the spare space in its old central office facilities for enterprise data center colocation
- There are roughly 200 buildings with space on offer, with some provided as move-in ready and some as build to suit
- Ziply isn't the only operator repurposing its legacy assets
Ziply has spent the better part of five years turning the legacy copper network it acquired from Frontier into a powerhouse fiber competitor. But as it overbuilt those old assets it was left with one big question: what to do with all those central office (CO) facilities that used to house copper kit. The answer? Turn them into data centers, of course.
The operator isn’t looking to become the next cloud hyperscaler. But it is shopping the spare space in its 200 or so hardened CO buildings to enterprises as prime colocation real estate.
“There’s a differentiation between these structures that we own and operate versus an office complex where someone gets some carriers to install some facilities and they bring in some power,” Ziply’s GM of Commercial Services Chris Gellos told Fierce.
“If you’ve ever seen a central office of a phone company…they’re fortresses.”
Gellos said the decision to use its old COs for colocation is a win-win for Ziply and its customers. On one hand, it’s beneficial for Ziply’s business. And on the other, it meets rising customer demand for convenient, secure places to host their compute infrastructure, particularly as artificial intelligence (AI) proliferates.
He added that Ziply already has a number of customers using its new colocation facilities, including some small and medium business clients, enterprises and government users. There’s even a hyperscale company or two in there, he added.
Asked if Ziply can support liquid cooling – which is becoming increasingly important to enable high-performance compute for certain AI applications – Gellos said it depends on the facility. Some of its COs are listed as move in ready, while others are marketed as build-to-suit locations. The latter obviously could be adapted to suit a customer’s needs.
Shifting sands
According to data from Synergy Research Group, non-hyperscale owned colocation facilities carry 22% of the global critical IT load. That compares to the 41% that runs in hyperscale data centers and 37% that still lives on-prem.
While hyperscale facilities are expected to grow drastically to account for more than 60% of data center capacity by 2029, that doesn’t mean colocation facilities are going anywhere. Enterprises may be moving away from on-prem deployments, but even as they spend more on hyperscale deployments they’re also “choosing to house an ever-growing proportion of their data center gear in colocation facilities,” Synergy Chief Analyst John Dinsdale noted.
Thus, though “colocation share of total capacity will slowly decrease, colocation capacity will continue to rise steadily,” Synergy predicted.
Indeed, it’s worth noting that Ziply isn’t the only operator that is repurposing its old COs to house cloud infrastructure. Gellos pointed out that Lumen has done the same.
A Lumen representative confirmed to Fierce that it is using some of its CO buildings for enterprise colocation, stating "This helps us maximize the value of our assets."
"Customers who come to us for these services are looking for that deeper presence into markets, as well as low-latency connectivity and proximity to their customers," the rep continued.
Both Gellos and the Lumen rep touted the fact that these colocation facilities link directly into their networks – a key benefit for companies looking to secure high-bandwidth data transport.
Elsewhere, Frontier, which has also been overbuilding old copper assets with fiber, took a slightly different approach last year when it leased out space in its old central office buildings to AT&T for the latter’s wireless gear.