Nokia has provided an IP over fiber network to link NorthC's 10 data centers in the Netherlands to offer one "virtual" facility to customers.

The Netherlands' largest native colocation provider is using Nokia's Region Connect Ring, provided with help from Infradata, to support cloud services flexibly with low latency and fast response times.

Ten NorthC facilities connected

The Region Connect Ring uses Nokia’s 7750 service routers with 1830 photonic service switches and network automation to offer Layer 2 IP/MPLS interconnection services between the 10 data centers.

The new routers are being added to Nokia's Network Services Platform (NSP), a software-defined network (SDN) automation product that has already been deployed. The NSP allows full management of NorthC’s customer connections and data center interconnection. This means, among other things, that NorthC can set up network services in hours rather than days.

“Nokia and Infradata have enabled us to implement the best solution for our Region Connect Ring," said Mario Hangjas, senior director of IT for NorthC. "The Region Connect Ring allows customers to directly access network and cloud services that are not available in their own region.”

NorthC was formed by the merger of two Dutch providers, NLDC and TDCG in 2019. It rebranded as NorthC in 2020

The Netherlands is having a love/hate relationship with data centers, as Amsterdam emerges from a one-year moratorium on new data centers, which was imposed because of fears that they were too hungry for space and energy. NorthC is keen to demonstrate its facilities are good citizens - it began shipping waste heat from its Aalsmeer facility in 2021