from the getting-rid-of-the-cat5-cable-we-streched-across dept.
Microsoft has invested in two new undersea cables that will connect North America with Ireland, and plans to extend investment to new cables connecting America and Asia:
"Over the past 9 months, Microsoft has been significantly investing in subsea and terrestrial dark fiber capacity by engaging in fiber partnerships that span multiple oceans and continents," Redmond network enablement bigwig David Crowley said in a blog post. On Monday, the software giant announced partnerships with Hibernia and Aqua Comms, each of which will provide a cable that links Microsoft's North American infrastructure with data centers in Ireland, and from there to the UK.
In addition, Crowley said Microsoft has joined a consortium of companies that are working to build the first-ever physical landing station connecting North America to Asia, in what will be known as the New Cross Pacific (NCP) Cable Network. Besides Microsoft, other NCP consortium members include Chinese firms China Mobile, China Telecom, and China Unicom; Taiwan's Chunghwa Telecom; South Korea's KT Corporation; and Japan's SoftBank Mobile. The undersea cables for the effort will be supplied by New Jersey–based TE SubCom.
Microsoft isn't the only US tech firm investing in undersea network cables, though. Last August, Google said it would invest $300m in a set of six fiber pairs linking the US West Coast with Chikura and Shima in Japan. Those cables are expected to go online in the second quarter of next year, offering hypothetical total bandwidth of 60Tbps. The NCP consortium, meanwhile, claims its cables will supply up to 80Tbps.
Facebook has invested millions in Asia Pacific Gateway undersea cables. The Register is also reporting on a new land link between Perth and Sydney in Australia. Here's a map of submarine cables across the world.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 12 2015, @07:48PM
I guess the NSA/Stasi complained about the latency to get to all that data...
(Score: 3, Interesting) by takyon on Tuesday May 12 2015, @08:08PM
Microsoft Protests Order for Email Stored Abroad [soylentnews.org]
Microsoft Defies US Court Order, Will Not Give-up Emails [soylentnews.org]
Tech Giants Rally Around Microsoft to Protect "Your" Data Overseas [soylentnews.org]
Microsoft and Ireland, cabling 'cross the sea,
pissing off the U-S-G
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 12 2015, @08:17PM
I've seen and read those articles but I don't believe them. I think that there is a discrepancy between what is said publicly and behind closed doors.
Uncle Sam passes by in an unmarked van and utters something between his lips along the lines of "if you even think about making it hard for us, we won't supply you with all the economic espionage data we vacuumed up with ECHELON, that and we'll turn nasty on you".
(oh, and I'm a former microsoftie - but do not take that to mean that I have /proof/ of these accusations, that would have been above my pay grade)
(Score: 2) by takyon on Tuesday May 12 2015, @08:20PM
Meh. We're in the age of unfettered conspiracy. Anything you think of might be a real operation by NSA/FBI/DEA/DARPA/Google. Or it might not.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 12 2015, @08:27PM
"It's not because you're paranoid that they're not after/out to get you"
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Tuesday May 12 2015, @08:51PM
Meh. We're in the age of unfettered conspiracy.
Hmmm, does this mean that the Atlas has been Shrugged? Former Microsoftie, we know that can't be, unless you have had the systemd control chip removed from the brain stem. Well, have you? See! A refusal to answer can only mean one thing.
(Score: 2) by MrGuy on Tuesday May 12 2015, @08:08PM
Yeah, but you really need to divide those numbers by two to account for the capacity the NSA needs to backhaul all the rest of the data running in the cable.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 12 2015, @08:10PM
Ireland is every American corporation's favorite tax haven, and Asia is where all the real manufacturing gets done. But those lowlife working class losers are totally lost without the United States to tell them what to do.
(Score: 3, Funny) by kaszz on Tuesday May 12 2015, @09:43PM
You may only use Microsoft network stack to communicate via this cable....
(and only search using Google on that other cable)
(Score: 3, Interesting) by arslan on Tuesday May 12 2015, @11:24PM
Not that NSA conspiracy theories aren't pertinent... Looks like MS is gearing up in the cloud space. Amazon has their own global private fiber if I'm not mistaken, no I don't have any online reference, I did hear this from them on stage in the AWS summit recently.
Amazon customizes a lot of things for AWS anytime they think they can improve performance and get better stability over commodity resources. This includes building their own power sub stations, network equipment and firmware, etc. They are way ahead of any other cloud providers at this point.
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Wednesday May 13 2015, @12:26AM
would it be possible to avoid the need for them with better caching, routing, geography-specific DNS and load balancing?
Maybe the fiber is just cheaper than all that software development, maybe more reliable too.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 13 2015, @02:56AM
Not if you're just streaming advertising videos to idiots, no. But there's more to the World Wide Web than a Content Delivery Network, and there's more to the Internet than the World Wide Web.