Hello SwiNOGers,
At Technopark in Zurich, where I work for a small startup, there is still no native IPv6 connectivity available. From what I gather, some of the other 300 companies in this compound also struggle to get decent Internet connectivity. To the extent that some, including ourselves, resort to using flat-rate unlimited wireless 4G/LTE connections. Which is an acceptable work-around for resilience and off-loading traffic that is not sensitive to higher latency, such as e-mail, bulk up-/downloads, streaming, or off-site backup...
Although there is an inversion going on where transmissions migrate to wireless which traditionally were cable-bound (for ex. telephony), and vice-versa (for ex. broadcasting), I started digging a bit into the history:
Until at least 2008, Swisscom had a "National MPLS Lab" full of Cisco gear in a room right next to our offices. If I recall correctly, Swisscom had set this Lab up after it had acquired Xmit and the Unisource alliance broke up. From that Lab at Technopark, there were trunks of fibers running directly to Swisscom's large facilities in Herdern and in Binz. But so far, I was unable to locate those fibers. Were they really ripped out, or are they still there? Or, were they just abandoned? But who owns them? Could we illuminate a pair, or two?
Further research indicates IXEurope had setup _two_ Data Centers at Technopark where they operated Telehouse Internet Exchanges (TIX) in 2005/2006 [1, 2]. Until at least 2007, when Equinix had acquired TIX/IXEurope [3]. What happened to the two Data Centers at Technopark? Did Equinix move the TIX to its other colos in/near Zurich? Did the "over 60 ISPs" move who were apparently peering at TIX? Could we illuminate just a pair of the bunch of fibers that likely are still buried between Technopark and Hardstrasse 235, or Josephstrasse, etc.?
Apparently, at least COLT still maintains a PoP at Technopark with fat pipes (likely from the TIX area). But so far, we were unable to get an offer for IP Transit from them, or their re-sellers.
Also Rackspace has at least offices in a building adjacent to Technopark. Back in 2007/8, there were rumors that Google was building a data center nearby (cooled by water from the river Limmat).
We just became a RIPE member and got our IPv4/6 PA allocations and an AS Number as a LIR. Now, I am looking at our options to get cost-effective IPv4/6 Internet connectivity for our offices at Technopark, as well as scalable IP Transit and/or co-location with housing for our physical server appliances in two geo-redundant data centers in or near Zurich.
For example, it would be great to peer at SwissIX, provided that we can find some affordable L2/3 transport between Technopark and Josephstrasse, which is literally just up the road.
Thanks for any hints what happened to those resources at Technopark (TIX, Data Centers, transmission lines, etc.) since 2008 while I was working abroad, Rolf
[1] IXEurope Connects Switzerland's Internet Exchange Points http://www.equinix.ch/newsroom/press-releases/pr/123269/ixeurope-connects-sw...
[2] IXEurope Expands Swiss Datacentre Footprint http://www.prweb.com/releases/2006/08/prweb419626.htm
[3] IXEurope Acquired by Equinix https://news.netcraft.com/archives/2007/06/28/ixeurope_acquired_by_equinix.h...