What is the Bifrost cable?
Bifrost, which spans over 20,000 km, is a subsea cable system that directly connects Singapore to the west coast of North America via Indonesia through the Java Sea and Celebes Sea. The cable system also connects Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines, the United States (Guam, Oregon), and Mexico. The cable's main trunk runs from Singapore to the US via Indonesia, including branches to other locations. The Bifrost project is a collaboration between Amazon, Meta, and PT. Telekomunikasi Indonesia International (Telin), and Keppel Telecommunications & Transportation Limited (Keppel T&T).
Flexential’s connection into the Bifrost Cable System's (Bifrost) Winema, Oregon landing station, connected to Flexential's infrastructure and is now ready for service.
This connection illustrates the growing movement by submarine cable operators to connect to data center locations.
When Bifrost becomes fully operational, it will be the newest subsea cable system connecting Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines, Guam, and North America.
Bifrost is the third large-scale, multi-tenant cable system to terminate in Flexential's Hillsboro campus, enhancing global connectivity and establishing the region as a vital hub for trans-Pacific communications.
Location matters
A big focus of this connection is the location.
In Hillsboro, Flexential operates five Hillsboro data centers, including the Network Access Point (NAP) of the Northwest. These locations directly connect to APAC subsea cables and more than 300 on-net carriers across the Flexential platform. They also provide direct access to the leading cloud service providers and local carrier hotels.
Another key element of Flexential’s presence with submarine cable operators is its Flexential Fabric, an advanced, software-defined interconnection solution that enables direct, secure connectivity to distributed infrastructure and digital ecosystems through a single port.
Flexential Fabric allows Flexential's customers to manage secure, private virtual connections to the internet, data centers, clouds, and partners—on-demand using a customer-driven portal interface within the Flexential Xperience Portal (FXP).
"Subsea cables transmit 99% of intercontinental internet traffic, and Hillsboro is a prime geographic gateway to the Asia Pacific (APAC) region," said Ryan Mallory, Chief Operating Officer at Flexential.
Focus on expansion
Flexential’s pact with the Bifrost cable comes as the company expands its data center footprint in the U.S.
The company has 112 MW available for purchase, including 94 MW available for high-density workloads.
As its continued investments enable AI-driven market needs, Flexential currently has 36 MW of contiguous space in both Douglasville, GA and Hillsboro, OR, totaling 72 MW available for lease.
Expansions made in the Denver, CO area also open 22 MW of available data center space, which became available to lease in the second half of 2024.
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Sean Buckley
Sean is responsible for establishing and executing the editorial strategies of Lightwave and Broadband Technology Report across their websites, email newsletters, events, and other information products.