Choosing Dark Fiber For Your Hospital Network

10G is the new 1G. This means that most hospitals are upgrading their networks to keep up with bandwidth demands. The benefits of dark fiber have now become quite clear because of the increase in the size of bandwidth. While this option was once considered rather expensive, hospitals now need the bandwidth, scalability, and security offered by dark fiber. As more hospitals keep growing their networks, it’s important to know how to choose dark fiber for your hospital. Read on to find out more.

How Does it Work

Dark fiber refers to the practice of leasing out unlit fiber straight from the internet provider to the customer. If you are a hospital leasing dark fiber, you are charged with the responsibility of purchasing and maintaining the optical equipment used to ‘light’ it. You might think that this way of doing things puts excessive responsibility in the hands of the customer. While that may be true, it also gives you a lot of control.

The dark fiber engineers install and maintain the infrastructure. All you have to do is turn up the network and take advantage of the secure bandwidth your hospital needs. There are several network architectures. The most common include single entrance, dual entrance, ring, or hub designs. Obtaining dark fiber for your hospital enables you to own a robust, dedicated fiber-optic network.

Advantages of Dark Fiber For Your Hospital

• Security: The most significant advantage of dark fiber is the security it offers. This is a big selling point for hospitals. Hospitals transmit highly sensitive data that should be secure at all times.
• Fixed Cost: While it might not necessarily be less expensive, dealing with a fixed internet access cost will likely save you money over time. Since you will be the owner and operator of the equipment, the cost of maintenance also becomes in-house, making it a relatively fixed spend.
• Scalability: Since you will be the owner of the optical equipment, you can scale wherever you need to. The price from your service provider will not change.
• High Performance: When using dark fiber, you will be dealing with an unlimited bandwidth, which means unlimited internet access. Apart from that, you will be guaranteed that your data is the only traffic in your network. This greatly reduces latency. You are the one who owns and controls the network and equipment. Therefore, you are the one who controls its performance.

There are a lot of advantages to choosing dark fiber for your hospital, with the most significant being security. Apart from that, speed is also another selling point. The Global Datasphere is growing, and it is expected to reach 175 ZB by 2025. This means there is a growth rate of 26% annually. This information from the IDC’s DataAge 2025 report reinforces why it is necessary to own and control your own network and internet access.