Data center provider Telehouse International Corporation has launched a time-as-a-service offering in partnership with the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) which houses the UK's National Metrology Institute, the home of time in the UK.
The offering is called NPLTime Certified, and provides businesses with an accurate and synchronized time signal.
NPLTime is monitored and maintained 24/7 up to the point of network entry and is directly traceable to Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), the worldwide reference time scale.
According to Telehouse and NPL, the time delivered is accurate to within one microsecond of UTC so that Telehouse customers can have accuracy in their data timing. Data centers including Telehouse normally use Network Time Protocol for their source of time data, however, this is only traceable and accurate to 10 milliseconds.
The time-as-a-service solution does not rely on public internet or GPS antennas for synchronization. Customers can connect their rack at the Telehouse London Docklands data center to NPLTime Certified via a fiber cable.
The solution will be particularly useful to the financial services sector which has been legally required to comply with EU regulations for time stamping on trades and transactions since 2018.
Takayo Takamuro, managing director of Telehouse Europe, said: “As the technological and regulatory landscapes evolve, accurate time is increasingly business-critical, particularly for financial services organizations that must provide evidence of accuracy for forensic analysis and audits. The launch of NPLTime Certified at Telehouse further strengthens our commitment to customers to deliver services that directly address their challenges, in this case, certifiable and traceable time to aid regulatory compliance.”
Leon Lobo, head of the National Timing Centre program at NPL added: "Resilient time underpins the synchronization of the digital infrastructure and maximizes the quality of data through traceable timestamps. The partnership between NPL and Telehouse offers an exciting new opportunity, supporting business continuity, as well as enabling current and emerging applications with trusted time.”
Telehouse was established in 1989. The company has data centers located in the London Docklands, UK; Frankfurt, Germany; Istanbul, Turkey; Paris and Marseille, France; Hanoi, Vietnam; Hong Kong; Beijing and Shanghai, China; Tokyo, Japan; Bangkok, Thailand; and Los Angeles and New York in the US.
