Stuck in the Middle Mile With You

A new class of network provider has emerged, optimizing connectivity between the office and the cloud. What do they offer? How do they do it? And what’s happening between the core backbone and local access?

TeleGeography Principal Analyst Erik Kreifeldt is in the house, and Greg is asking the big questions about internet middle mile.

Erik has spent much of the last year developing new research tools dedicated to the mysterious "middle mile" and he comes bearing insight on provider types, the role of cloud connectivity, adoption use cases, and even the origins of the "middle mile" term of art.  

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Key Takeaways

Middle Mile as a Distinct Category

There is a distinct category of service provider focused on cloud connectivity that is different from traditional enterprise WAN service providers and cloud service providers. This segment offers a purpose-built option for connecting to the cloud and potentially other network destinations. It is described as a "non-Telco option" in its most basic form.

Internet Plus

Even if an enterprise chooses to use the internet for connectivity, that is not the end of the story. There are plenty of options available to augment internet connections to ameliorate the disadvantages and improve the experience.

Middle Mile is Developing Its Own Personality

The middle mile segment is often purpose-built, agile, and leverages modern technologies such as software-defined networking.

Providers in this space work on areas of differentiation, including offering good interfaces and billing creativity. Billing is often aligned with cloud services (e.g., aligning with pay-per-minute charges rather than long-term contracts), and provisioning can be more agile, allowing services to be turned up or down quickly. This segment represents some of the first commercialization of software-defined networking.