Laying the foundations for a digital society IN ASSOCIATION WITH:
DIGITAL REPORT 2021
LAYING THE FOUNDATIONS FOR A DIGITAL SOCIETY
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Eurofiber, in partnership with Infradata, is paving the way for dynamic smart cities across Europe with its open digital network
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distance of 160 kilometres of fibre optic cable has been laid by Eurofiber since I interviewed the group director of the company exactly one month ago. This impressive statistic is why the Dutch-based open digital network provider is leading the way in helping European cities stay connected. The pace of deployment is staggering. It started back in 2000 when Eurofiber laid their first 500km stretch of fibre network to connect the four major Dutch cities of Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague, and Utrecht. Today, they have laid more than 39,000km of fibre - laying 40kms each week - have 11 data centres and a digital footprint that covers the Netherlands, Belgium, France and a new branch in Germany. For any company that lays this amount of fibre optic cable a trusted system integrator is vital if they are going to achieve their goal of helping European cities stay connected. Step in Infradata, who has been a proactive
“ Utilising our own fibre optic network and data centres, we provide smart, open, futureproof cloud infrastructure and connectivity solutions to companies, government bodies and non-profit organisations” DANIEL DANON
MANAGING DIRECTOR EUROFIBER CLOUD INFRASTRUCTURE
partner for 10 years helping Eurofiber move from the early days of dark fiber to providing a secure and connected digital infrastructure. There was a time when a river was the lifeblood of a city for its trade and commerce, but as the pandemic has shown, the future of remote working for millions of people now relies on being connected to a digital world - as does the future safety and security of a city. Eurofiber is literally laying a lifeline for the digital society of so-called ‘smart cities’. The network is already being used to control 75 per cent of the movable locks and bridges along Amsterdam’s famous canals. “Vital infrastructure” is how the Dutch government designates the company’s open digital network which means different providers, from hospitals to FinTech, companies, governments and non-profit organisations eurofiber.com
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“Customers have complete freedom to choose the services, applications and providers they need, allowing them to tap into the full potential of digital innovation”
can install and operate into the full potential their services in an of digital innovation,” efficient way. said former French “Utilising our own engineer Daniel fibre optic network Danon, who joined and data centres, we Eurofiber in April provide smart, open, 2020 at the height future-proof cloud of the pandemic. infrastructure and Speaking from connectivity solutions Utrecht, Danon to companies, said the DNA of government bodies the company is an and non-profit “open fibre network organisations,” to enable others” DANIEL DANON said Daniel Danon, pointing out he is MANAGING DIRECTOR EUROFIBER CLOUD INFRASTRUCTURE Managing Director proud to lead an Cloud Infrastructure. organisation - rich “Customers have complete freedom with a strong ecosystem of partners such to choose the services, applications and asInfradata - and has the aim of helping providers they need, allowing them to tap others at its heart. 6
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DANIEL DANON TITLE: MANAGING DIRECTOR EUROFIBER CLOUD INFRASTRUCTURE INDUSTRY: FIBRE OPTIC NETWORK AND DATA CENTRES
Open fibre network Eurofibers’s open digital infrastructure, which they own and operate, is designed to independently support a wide spectrum of industries and innovations. The companies Dataplace, FullSave, Eura DC and Netiwan operate their 11 data centres in the Netherlands and France. “We were lucky enough in 2000 to have the vision of how fibre was going to be a key part of the future and it has become the most future-proof, dynamic, element of our digital world. We have been able to create an infrastructure that is cost effective, which is very important to us as we want to enable other people’s businesses in a financial and technical way,” said Danon. “As a company we have a digital all the way approach, we're fast growing so everything has to be scalable and that means
EXECUTIVE BIO
LOCATION: NETHERLANDS Daniel Danon (1977) started his career at Telecom Modus Ltd in London, followed by an MBA at INSEAD in Paris, he became product manager at Liberty Global/UPC in Amsterdam. In 2009 he moved to Budapest where he initially worked as senior consultant at Solon and then became Director of Business Development and New Enterprise Services at Vodafone Hungary. In 2014 Daniel returned to Liberty Global in Amsterdam, where he worked as Director Product Strategy and VP Product Planning & Research. In 2020, he joined Eurofiber as Group Director Products & Services, responsible for the company’s portfolio strategy. Recently, Danonl was appointed Managing Director Cloud Infrastructure.
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Infradata: Driving digital innovation with Eurofiber Infradata and Eurofiber celebrate 10 years of being proactive partners as they work to secure and connect European cities When the Dutch Government designates your work as being crucial to the infrastructure of the country it is essential you partner with the best. This is exactly what Eurofiber did 10 years ago by choosing Infradata as their trusted system integrator.
About the customer A decade later and the seamless partnership between Eurofiber and Infradata, which focuses on network and security, is still going strong as they work together at an incredible pace. Eurofiber lays 160 kms of fibre optic cable each month to achieve their goal of helping European cities stay connected. In total they have laid nearly 40,000km of fibre across Europe.
Proactive partnership Commenting on the long partnership, Daniel Danon, Managing Director Eurofiber Cloud Infrastructure said: Our network is based on equipment they manage with us and that equipment is an integral part of all of the service level agreements - our promise to customers.” Nick Vaes, Director Network Operator at Eurofiber, highlighted that when they started to work with Infradata they only had dark fibre. “We partnered with Infradata for our active layer of the network. This ensures we are capable of delivering services, not only to our direct customers,but also through all the partners at the indirect channels. “It is a very proactive partnership, thinking together, evolving the network, and looking at what is going to happen in the future. It’s a partnership that is building a strong network to serve our customers.” Taimen Boumans, Managing Director of The Netherlands at Infradata, echoed the sentiment saying the overlap in DNA between the two Dutch companies has deepened the partnership over the years. “All the proposals and the projects we design and help deploy for Eurofiber provide quality, cost-effectiveness and also predictability is very important.”
Commenting on the current work to upgrade the core network infrastructure to 100G, Boumans said: “What we see happening in the market is that demands for those solutions are picking up. Technology is a step ahead of market demands. We already find ourselves exploring 400G. “Eurofiber is expanding into many new markets like Belgium, Germany, France and moving into consumer markets. This is a nice overlap for us as we cover the same digital footprint so we find ourselves also exploring and widening the partnership in those areas as we move forward and taking it to the next level.”
Early challenges Commenting on what challenges Infradata had to overcome during the early days of working with Eurofiber, Sjaak Lemmers, Account Director of Infradata said: “It started as dark fibre only, just the cables and no services in the early days. We helped Eurofiber to build and offer an IP service portfolio which is now formally assigned to as vital infrastructure by the government.”
High-speed band-width Giving an example of a mission critical infrastructure project, Infradata has successfully been involved in with Eurofiber, Lemmers highlighted in 2017 they started to replace the older part of the networks to improve automation for provisioning. “This also enables us to grow the bandwidth to a scalable platform. “The high-speed band-width project is a great example of our partnership with Eurofiber. We are expanding the bandwidth in the core to new generation equipment. And at the same time, this enables Eurofiber to keep the same processes and working relations, improve the performance and keep ahead of the market demands,” he said. Headquartered in the Netherlands, their global team of experts has been serving more than 2,000 customers in Europe and the US since 2003. To find out how Infradata is partnering with Eurofiber you can read the latest issue of Mobile Magazine here.
Read more about Infradata
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Eurofiber: Laying the foundations for a digital society
“ We were lucky enough in 2000 to have the vision of how fibre was going to be a key part of the future and it has become the most future-proof, dynamic, element of our digital world” DANIEL DANON
MANAGING DIRECTOR EUROFIBER CLOUD INFRASTRUCTURE
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being digitised. So we know how important it is to be digital, to have our processes and our systems, at the disposal of our 550 employees and of our partners, wherever they are. “We find that same culture and approach with our partner Infradata. That is one of the reasons this partnership has lasted so long. “Going digital for our customers can also be counterproductive if you don’t keep it personal. Whenever we're thinking about digitisation, it's very important for both our customers and for colleagues, that we go digital - but we always keep it personal.” Hybrid cloud management The Eurofiber Group consists of: Eurofiber, DCspine and MatrixMind (in the Netherlands and Belgium), Dataplace
(Netherlands), FullSave, Lumos, Eurafibre, ATE, Eura DC and Netiwan (France) and provide the following services: • Ethernet • Secure cloud connect • Business Internet • WDM • SD-WAN • Managed dark fibre • Data centre services
“What I think customers really need from us is overall hybrid cloud management. It's not just 38,200km about connecting one office of fibre optic building to another. We are network is owned connecting our customers and and operated by partners to their data, wherever it Eurofiber is, and helping them manage that data flow, in their own premises, in the data centres that are close to them, as well as into the public cloud.”
“We also provide services to secure cloud connect that allows you to have a direct connection into a player such as Amazon, Microsoft Azure or Google cloud, and not have to go through the internet remaining on an ethernet layer which means it is very close to the customer,” said Danon.
Competitive advantage Danon cites that having an open network model allows them to be “different and powerful” giving Eurofiber the competitive advantage. “From the start we were an open network, and it really is part of the DNA of the organisation that Eurofiber was built to be eurofiber.com
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HOW EUROFIBER IS CONNECTING CITIES AMSTERDAM
of a large-scale, fine-mesh fibre optic network between all locations of the Municipality of Rotterdam. With this project, all existing fibre
Amsterdam Smart City (ASC) who work
optic networks of the Municipality of Rotterdam
with companies, governments, knowledge
are optimised and linked to the Eurofiber
institutions and the people of Amsterdam
network, creating a single high-quality fibre optic
with the aim of developing the Amsterdam
network for the municipality.
As the Dutch government has recognised,
“We've helped them connect everything from bridges to cameras and the electricity
for a city to become connected it needs an
network. When we talk about a smart city, it
open digital network so different providers
means that everything in that city will benefit
can install and operate their services in an
from being connected with fibre and opening
efficient way.
up opportunities for the people living there,”
Eurofiber’s fiber optic infrastructure in
said Danon.
the capital is very dense. The fine-meshed
“It is a key enabler which will allow the
network coverage across the Dutch capital
city to live its full digital potential and deliver
is laying the foundation for smart city
its citizens more ecological and effective
applications so that sensors, intelligent
connectivity. We also have to think of future-
systems, Internet of Things applications and
proofing a smart city and prepare it for a future
big data analyses can be used efficiently.
of 5G and edge computing.
Amsterdam has the most inhabitants of a Dutch municipality: 859,732 in an area of 219
DID YOU KNOW...
Eurofiber started in 2018 with the construction
Eurofiber has a unique partnership with
Metropolitan Area as a smart city.
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ROTTERDAM
BERLIN
km² - a quarter of which is water. Eurofiber’s
Eurofiber has just appointed Christoph Klein
coverage extends to hospitals, schools, metro
as Managing Director Germany to lead the
services, energy stations and the famous canals
expansion in Germany as part of its European
with some 50 bridges and locks connected
growth strategy. Eurofiber entered the German
via the Eurofiber network, as well as 200 bus
market with a joint venture with Vattenfall, which
shelters and dozens of security cameras in the
is established to connect more than 500,000
public space. With an average network distance
households and businesses in Berlin. Recently,
of 400 meters to the backbone, 96 per cent
it announced a partnership with fiber network
of the locations in the Amsterdam region are
operator NGN partnership to build a leading B2B
within their network coverage.
fiber infrastructure platform in Germany.
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“From the start we were an open network, and it really is part of the DNA of the organisation that Eurofiber was built to be the fibre for everyone” DANIEL DANON
MANAGING DIRECTOR EUROFIBER CLOUD INFRASTRUCTURE
Eurofiber: Laying the foundations for a digital society
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QUICK FIRE QUESTIONS
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IN THE HOT SEAT WITH, DANIEL DANON, MANAGING DIRECTOR EUROFIBER CLOUD INFRASTRUCTURE What technology do you predict will be used by data centres in the future? “Data centers will bring data closer to the consumers and businesses. It will not just be about cloud but edge and ultra low latency. At the end of the day it's making sure data is very close to customers. This will impact things such as Artificial Intelligence, Augmented Reality, 5G, 6G as we move into the future.” What plans do you have for the future? “To be the best open infrastructure for the digital world. We want to enable our customers to grow and innovate without any digital limitations, and thus empower the digital society.” What is the next smart city you will be working on? “We are not focusing on one city. We've got a very dense mesh network across our territories and on a daily basis we are connecting more elements within a city than ever before. We are working with cities across all of our footprint in The Netherlands, Belgium and France. “Our work in Berlin with Vattenfall is an amazing asset for the community to have in the ground and will benefit households and businesses as well as the city's optimisation management.”
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the fibre for everyone. We've brought that into the larger digital infrastructure, including colocation and connecting data centres, which is unique and powerful. “Our open network is different and powerful as it allows us to invest once, for many. It allows us to deliver ultra low latency and because we have a mesh network the routing is much more dynamic and direct,” said Danon who also pointed out having a presence across Europe was also important. “In addition, when you're thinking about data, it's also about colocation and connecting to the cloud. Managing and controlling all aspects of this hybrid cloud also puts us in a competitive position. That
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“We are connecting our customers and partners to their data, wherever it is, and helping them manage that data flow, in their own premises, in the data centers that are close to them, as well as into the public cloud” DANIEL DANON
MANAGING DIRECTOR EUROFIBER CLOUD INFRASTRUCTURE
means that we really are the partner of choice in terms of digital infrastructure. “We are continuing the vision of a dynamic digital world first envisioned by Eurofiber when the company started more than 20 years ago.” 10-year partnership with Infradata Danon outlined the importance of being an open network which enables Eurofiber to work with an ecosystem of partners which include Infradata. “Infradata is not just a partner, they really are our system integrator. Our network is largely based on equipment they manage
with us and that equipment is an integral part of all of the service level agreements our promise to customers. They have been supporting us and taking care of the ethernet and internet network.” Nick Vaes, Director Network Operator at Eurofiber said: “Infradata is a proactive partner, flexible, and always willing to fight for us. We started as a company which only had dark fibre. About 16 years ago we started delivering lit services for 160km our customers. Our open network of fibre optic cable is laid delivers ethernet (layer 2) and later every month on internet (layer 3) services over by Eurofiber our network.” eurofiber.com
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“Infradata is not just a partner, they really are our system integrator” DANIEL DANON
MANAGING DIRECTOR EUROFIBER CLOUD INFRASTRUCTURE
“We partnered with Infradata for our active layer of the network, so we are capable of delivering services, not only to our direct customers but also through all the partners at the indirect channels,” he said. “It is a very proactive partnership, thinking together, evolving the network, and looking at what is going to happen in the future. It’s a partnership that is building a strong network to serve our customers." Taimen Boumans, Managing Director of The Netherlands at Infradata, echoed the sentiment saying the overlap in DNA between the two Dutch companies has deepened the partnership over the years. “All the proposals and the projects we design and help deploy for Eurofiber provide quality, cost-effectiveness and also predictability is very important.” Commenting on the current work to upgrade the core network infrastructure to 100G, Boumans said: “What we see happening in the market is that demands for those solutions are picking up. Technology is a step ahead of market demands. We already find ourselves exploring 400G. “Eurofiber is expanding into many new markets like Belgium, Germany, France and moving into consumer markets. This is a nice overlap for us as we cover the same digital footprint so we find ourselves also exploring and widening the partnership in those areas as we move forward and take it to the next level,” he said. Commenting on what challenges Infradata helped Eurofiber to overcome
during the early days, Sjaak Lemmers, Account Director of Infradata said: “It started as dark fibre only, just the cables and no services in the early days. We helped Eurofiber to build and offer an IP service portfolio which is now formally assigned to as vital infrastructure by the government.” Giving an example of a mission critical infrastructure project, Infradata has successfully been involved in with Eurofiber, Lemmers highlighted in 2017 they started to replace the older part of the networks to improve automation for provisioning. “This also enables us to grow the bandwidth to a scalable platform. “The high-speed band-width project is a great example of our partnership with Eurofiber. We are expanding the bandwidth in the core to new generation equipment. And at the same time, this enables Eurofiber to keep the same processes and working eurofiber.com
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2000
the year Eurofiber was founded
550
employees
€202mn revenue
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relations, improve the performance and keep ahead of the market demands,” he said. Healthcare and FinTech Danon said Eurofiber will continue to be agile to their customers by making sure they are available and adapt to their needs. “We’re constantly monitoring developments in industries like healthcare and FinTech and we build scenarios on that to make sure our network will continue to be the infrastructure they need. This also includes security encryption, reach and latency and bandwidth. “It’s also about our colocation infrastructure being more than just real estate but being part of how customers connect to the cloud, and that cloud is in EUROFIBER – EIGHT STEPS itself is a very agile and dynamic TO A FAST, SECURE AND place to work in. We've already COST EFFECTIVE SERVICE recognised how we can build an infrastructure - an orchestration • Ethernet – connects sites securely capability - to combine and flexibly over a custom private everything we've got. It’s not network with Ethernet VPN. always about inventing something • Secure cloud connect – offers new. It's also about combining a safe, direct access to multiple what we have with the expertise cloud platforms of our partners.” • Business Internet – offer Danon said he was looking employees fast and secure internet forward to focusing on their new access with business internet venture in Berlin. “Extending our • WDM – benefit from high fibre networks and data centres bandwidths with WDM and don't across Western Europe is part of worry about management • SD-WAN – software replaces the future plans but we are also committed to focusing on the manual management growth here in the Netherlands. • Managed dark fibre – control the Belgium and France still have a bandwidth of your dark fibre and lot of fibre and cloud connectivity grow as needed • Data centre services – data and opportunities and we are focusing on our joint venture in Germany,” applications optimally and securely he said. available in a Tier3 data centre. • Connectivity – the foundation of a smart city
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Eurofiber
Safariweg 25-31 Maarssen The Netherlands 3605 MA
T +31 30 242 8700 | www.eurofiber.com
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