Why TED Relies on Atlantic Metro for Daily Transfers of Large Data Files Worldwide
When TED decided to simplify their network and build a business continuity strategy, they turned to Atlantic Metro.
The Challenge
Needed a provider who could provide core infrastructure services with a strong support team.
TED – a worldwide organization dedicated to spreading innovative ideas about technology, entertainment, and design – began in Monterey, California as an experiment in sharing world-changing ideas. For the first 20 years these presentations – TED Talks – were only available to conference attendees. In 2006, TED made all their great content available to the world online.
At the time, TED’s employees used two separate networks – one for their main office and one for video transfers. With just 250 Mbps for office staff, transferring large video files across the employee link meant a total shut down of Internet service for the rest of the office. They had two choices: ask to cancel the transfer until a later time or wait the 30 minutes until it finished. Neither situation was ideal.
Similarly, when someone dropped a large file into shared software services like Dropbox, it would simultaneously sync data to all computers, choking off Internet access for two to five minutes each time, resulting in wasted time and frustrated office staff.
When expanding their US headquarters with a new office in Manhattan, Dan Russell, TED’s Director of Infrastructure & Operations, saw an opportunity to change service providers as well. By happenstance, TED’s new office was next door to Atlantic Metro, a local provider of cloud, colo, and network.
“I don’t know if you’ve experienced the complexity of working with New York telecom companies, but having a provider in the building is a pretty big deal,” Dan says.
Though Dan spoke to the more well-known providers in the New York market, Atlantic Metro offered the services he needed, the personal touch he wanted, and the convenience he couldn’t find anywhere else.
Atlantic Metro was in.
Why Atlantic Metro?
Unified voice and data got TED off the ground. Dedicated support and secure data centers delivered a complete package.
When it was time to renew their network connections in the new building, Dan decided simplifying TED’s network was the best way to go.
“We were able to get more bandwidth for a lot less money,” Dan says. “I wanted to get an off-site data center for real-time backups and disaster recovery…a complete business continuity solution. They had impressed me enough that when I went looking for solutions, they were definitely getting consideration for everything else.”
Today, Atlantic Metro provides TED with 2 Gbps dedicated Internet access and colocation, all with a dedicated support team to give Dan the peace of mind he lacked before.
“I’ve worked with other providers and having a dedicated support team is the kind of thing you get when you’re a big customer or when you’re new on an account. Typically, those people drift off after awhile, whereas with Atlantic Metro, they act as if they’re a hometown provider. I like that I can talk to James or Steve or Dave.”
The Results
A reliable provider who knows their business needs inside and out.
By having a fast, high-capacity network that’s connected to everyone at TED, staff are able to maintain a daily cadence of incoming footage from a number of events around the world, all of which gets backed up, encoded, and sent back out.
“When we have a conference today, we try to get video from the conference venue to our office as quickly as we can. We have eight high-def cameras going, but we’re able to transfer video in very close to real-time. The 2 gig connection is very reliable. It’s been exceptional.”
With big visions for the future, TED is just as concerned with the future as they are with running the day-to-day. That’s why they’re building capabilities to ensure the valuable ideas they spread around the world each day are available to people 100, or even 1000 years from now.
“We worry about this kind of stuff,” says Dan. “So, the simple matter of saying we have all of our data in an off-site storage facility is a pretty strategically valuable and important thing for us. I know these things don’t just run themselves, so I appreciate the things Atlantic Metro does behind the scenes to make sure we can meet those goals.”
