Fiber Paths and Failsafes: Why Your Network Design Matters

Fiber Paths and Failsafes: Why Your Network Design Matters

Modern infrastructure isn’t designed to prevent failures. It’s designed to remain operational when failures occur. In this episode, Michael Reid speaks with Kevin Schlosser, Interconnection Product Manager at NTT Global Data Centers, about the principles of resilient network design and why redundancy has become essential for AI, cloud, and enterprise infrastructure.

The discussion explores fibre diversity, bandwidth growth, multicloud connectivity, and the architectural decisions that help organisations build resilient digital infrastructure.

Why is network redundancy critical for modern infrastructure?

Resilient infrastructure starts with expecting failure rather than avoiding it. Kevin explains how multiple carriers, diverse fibre entry points, and carefully planned network paths reduce single points of failure and improve business continuity across enterprise environments.

Fibre diversity is more than adding bandwidth

True redundancy requires physically diverse network paths rather than duplicate connections travelling through the same conduit or facility. The conversation explores why network architecture should prioritise resilience, operational flexibility, and long-term reliability alongside performance.

How is AI changing network infrastructure?

Growing AI workloads are driving significant increases in bandwidth demand across data centres. Kevin notes that 100 Gbps connectivity is becoming a common enterprise requirement, while demand for 400 Gbps services continues to grow as organisations prepare for AI, high-performance computing, and increasingly data-intensive applications.

Building resilient infrastructure for the future

As cloud adoption and multicloud architectures continue to evolve, organisations need connectivity that can scale without increasing operational complexity. Software-defined networking, automation, and resilient infrastructure design will play a critical role in supporting future AI and cloud workloads.