The seamless interconnect of data center facilities is needed to deliver lightning-fast speeds, and yet internet content providers (ICPs) have grown at such a rate there has barely been enough time to create the rigorous testing regiment necessary.

Fire up the Wayback Machine, and let’s travel back to the year 1996 — the time when the Telecommunications Act paved a competitive pathway for traditional phone companies and internet businesses.

As data center and enterprise network managers confront the ongoing surge of high-bandwidth, high-speed applications driven by the rapid growth of mobile device use, 4k to 8k video streaming, virtualization, IoT, 5G, and yet-to-be-identified emerging technologies, they are tasked with building a long-life, future-forward network at the lowest cost of ownership.