Under the Hood : A Foundation for Success With decades of experience in the telecom industry , Raza , an engineer , was always eager to explore new solutions and solve problems in a fast-paced environment . “ A start-up , such as Fiber Mountain , is where innovation happens ,” says Raza . “ We ’ re a small , nimble company with hand-picked team members who can move mountains .” “ When you ’ re working in a large , incumbent company with existing products and legacies , it ’ s more difficult to break away from those products and address larger industry-wide trends .”
Raza ’ s work caught the attention of John Lagana at USIS , another tech and telecommunications company in the Hudson Valley . The Lagana family began a partnership , providing initial seed funding — venture capital — and introduced Fiber Mountain to Sterling National Bank . “ Sterling National Bank helped bring Fiber Mountain ’ s capacity to a new level of delivering services to clients ,” Lagana says .
More Connectivity , More Bandwidth Fiber Mountain ’ s network services appeals to any industry that ’ s on the edge of upgrading data systems as the demand for greater bandwidth , along with energy costs , continues to soar . “ The need for bandwidth continues to grow — with faster computers , reliance on phones and tablets , etc .,” explains Raza . “ With all of these devices , we ’ re not only communicating better with greater bandwidth , but we ’ re moving beyond the function of communication to the function of day-to-day operational functions . Business applications , like ERP , backend systems and apps for day-to-day job performance , increasingly live on a company ’ s network ,” Raza says . “ With this trend , a company ’ s data usage translates to massive data switches , routers , servers and storage — all of which require massive heat dissipation , energy control , and security . We can build data centers more efficiently that not only meet present needs , but that allow for growth . We all want to grow ; Fiber Mountain offers growth but with less energy costs and hardware investment .”
Raza was driven by the mantra to work smarter , not necessarily larger . Partnering with the Laganas family ,
Fiber Mountain built a software product line that resulted in a simpler network that was immensely scalable to meet the needs of a business of any size , and one with built-in intelligence . The offering is a virtual data center with automated , software-driven processes using a fiber network that enhances data flow while reducing costs , power , and space .
“ Fiber Mountain is transforming network infrastructure ,” says Lagana . “ Data centers are flooded with fiber optic cables , and we ’ ve developed an elegant solution to manage a massive amount of fiber that doesn ’ t require heat and is software-controlled . It ’ s efficient , adaptable to any scale , and inexpensive to run .”
Introducing Glass Core Traditionally , fiber optic cables and their connectors in a data center must be changed manually to accommodate different bandwidths . With Fiber Mountain ’ s proprietary Glass Core™ technology , cables and fiber strands can adjust to bandwidth using software rather than a slow manual process . Fiber Mountain ’ s unique Alpine Orchestration System™ software reduces costly data center to a secure , affordable few screens . “ Think of this system like a GPS navigation center that figures out the best possible routes for your drive , particularly if there is a road hazard ahead ,” says Lagana . “ Our system is like that app in many respects , by managing connections with as little interference as possible .” According to Raza , the team has solved a problem so many engineers and companies have spent billions of dollars and decades trying to resolve — how to build a fiber optic switch in the middle of a network .
Many companies are moving into an upgrade cycle , facing the challenge of enhancing equipment , and adapting to new traffic patterns . Fiber Mountain can work with companies as they upgrade technology piece by piece — or two to three server racks at a time . “ Our products co-exist with our clients ’ existing hardware ,” Raza says . “ We work alongside that hardware and enable companies to spend half the money while gaining twice the capacity in that section of the network . It ’ s a compelling case : our clients have fewer switches to maintain with more fiber capacity . The more equipment we can help eliminate from the budget , the more money clients will save .”
12 | SNB . COM // CONNECT TECHNOLOGY SUMMER 2015