Dark Fiber and Infrastructure (DF&I), an emerging dark fiber and conduit network provider, announced that DataBank had brought its Ashburn campus on-net to its Express Connect dark fiber network. The infrastructure provides dedicated access to and between major data centers and peering points in and around the Northern Virginia and Maryland marketplaces on the region’s newest and highest quality dark fiber and conduit system.
DF&I Express Connect network offers physical route diversity from Northern Virginia to Baltimore and one of the region's most significant amounts of conduit capacity.
Over 40,000 fiber strands are available between Maryland and Virginia on DF&I's infrastructure, and more than 70,000 fiber strands are available within Virginia—all underground. With its most recent route completed early last year, the network is an attractive draw for data center providers and other service providers that need dark fiber infrastructure.
“We take pride in offering a high capacity, low latency network in one of the most critically important data corridors in the world, and now it can benefit even more businesses thanks to our new partner, DataBank,” said John Schmitt, DF&I’s founder and chief revenue officer. “It’s always a great day when we can expand the network to accommodate even more interconnection in such a vital communication hub like Ashburn.”
The system now connects DataBank’s Ashburn campus, which consists of two facilities with a combined 300,00 square feet of raised floor space and 50 MW of critical IT load across 13 acres. Its location in the heart of Data Center Alley makes it ideal for enterprise, web-scale SaaS or hyperscale cloud workloads looking for interconnection and expansion.
“Through DF&I’s vital network infrastructure, we’re now able to give our clients even more reason to deploy here,” said DataBank vice president Thomas Cannady. "The Express Connect network will help strengthen everyone’s access to the region’s dark fiber pathways.”
DF&I, founded in 2017 to meet increased demand for dark fiber and conduit solutions in Northern Virginia, plans to expand its new fiber infrastructure to additional attractive markets for data center development with sponsorship from IPI Partners. This global investment firm specializes in investing in critical digital infrastructure assets.
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