 Welcome, everybody. This is JSA TV, the newsroom for tech and telecom professionals and JSA radio, your voice for tech and telecom on iHeart radio. I'm Jamie Stato-Gattaya and on behalf of my team here at JSA, welcome to our monthly virtual CEO roundtable. These virtual roundtables lead us up to our on-site CEO roundtables at our C-level networking event, the telecom exchange or techs. Next one up, techs LA, November 7th, Beverly Hills, where we'll talk network infrastructure readiness for IoT, AI, smart cities, blockchain, bringing 5G to the edge and more. So if you like this roundtable today, come here or sit your roundtables live. More info at the telecom exchange dot com. So let's get started. Our topic today is an exciting one, Virginia Beach Tuesdays, the importance of interconnectivity in today's digital world. And it is my pleasure to introduce you to our executive lineup. We have Mr. Greg Twitt, founder and president of Global Links data centers, Vinay Nangpal, the friend of mine, president of Interglobex, LLC, Gary Toplay, president of Metro Fiber Networks Inc., the dark fiber provider in the area, and Rob Houdomi, senior project manager of City of Virginia Beach Department of Economic Development. Gentlemen, welcome. Over the past Virginia year, Virginia Beach is quickly becoming this amazing hub, not just for Virginia, the country, but the world for high speed global communication. We literally have an explosion going on in Virginia Beach, particularly with unbelievable next generation cable systems like cruiser, Mareya and more, this innovative infrastructure and architecture providing more connectivity solutions than ever before. Companies like Equinex, Global Links, Microsoft, more all jumping on board to extend capacity and help meet this growing customer demand for course, high speed, reliable connections for cloud and online services. So we really have an incredible thing happening. I'd like to first go around the horn and ask each of you, what role is your company or local government office playing in the growth of Virginia Beach today as this hub for global communications? Greg, would you like to kick it off for us? Thanks, Jamie. Yes, Global Links has been actively involved in the area. I'm a resident of Virginia Beach and have been for many years. I saw an opportunity when the Telsius Cables were announced a few years ago and started looking for we were interested in building a data center to start. What happened was we with Vinay at an NVTC meeting, he arranged, Rob was involved that meeting as well. I think we had a few others and in particular the Telsius people, Tabata and Guillermo were there and they said to us at that meeting, the message was loud and clear, we needed a carrier neutral co-location hotel if Virginia Beach was to become an ecosystem in the data center world. So at that point, we started to look at our options in the cable landing station area, which is Corporate Landing Parkway in Virginia Beach, which is about three miles from the landing at Camp Pendleton. So we found some very high ground there, high for Virginia Beach at 17 feet above sea level. And we now have 20 acres and out of that 20 acres, we've started with a 11,000 square foot facility and we've got to cat for capabilities and we're building a an uptime tier three level facility that is also in plus one. So our idea is we're a facilitator really. I mean basically what we're doing is a connection into Telsius. We're running two diverse H64 strands from global links into Telsius, the cable landing station, that's Mariah and Bruce and we're about, I think we're about 800 to 900 yards from them on the same side of the road. So we've got a very strong partnership, we've started our build in Telsius and we're well on the way and in the next two to three months we'll be fully lit and operational. At this point, go ahead. I was just going to say unbelievable. What I'm hearing is we've got Kara Neutral, Kolo and data center facilities tier three near the landing station. Proximity, Vinay, you can talk to this, but we've checked off all the must haves from a Kolo data center facility piece and of course that subsea connected to be happening in that facility. Vinay, you see that as the right mix there, the right recipe. Yeah, thanks, Jamie and hi. Good morning, everyone. Good afternoon, depending on which part of the world you're logged in from. I'm Vinay Nakhpal, president of Finaglovics. We provide solutions primarily focused on the conversions of data centers, subsea fiber, and directional fiber. Been in the industry for about 24 years, focused on wholesale retail data center services from a connectivity standpoint for the most part. I also serve on the board of another Virginia Technology Council, a data center and cloud committee. NVTC is one of the leading tech councils in the country and it was primarily through NVTC and supporting some of our OTT customers when I was at DuPont Federal Technology is how I personally got involved in the activity in Virginia Beach. And I think, yeah, Jamie, you're right. I mean, the right ingredients are definitely there and it's starting to take off now. And I think there's a significant potential for Virginia Beach to evolve into being the next kind of an entourage or the digital board for the East and Seaboard of the United States. So thanks for having me here today. I look forward to the discussion. We're honored to have you Vinay, as always. And Gary, you bring that special dark fiber offering to the table. Tell us a little bit more. Yeah, thank you, Jamie. My name is Gary Tarby. I'm president of Cable Associates and it's subsidiary company Metro Fiber Networks. We've been building infrastructure in East Virginia and primary and hemorrhage region for the past 35 years. We saw the need for a dark fiber connectivity to bring other carriers and competitors and whatnot into the area. And when the Cable Annie Station was done, we developed a new network of several hundred miles connecting the local data center, data center sites, as well as connection up into Richmond data centers on into Ashburn. So we feel that we will be a big advantage to the community in Virginia Beach, moving forward in this digital age. Absolutely, absolutely. And Rob, as the representative of the city of Virginia Beach Department of Economic Development, all this must be music to your ears. Tell us more. Yes, Jamie, this has been very exciting for Virginia Beach. I've been, I'm a senior project development manager for the Department of Economic Development and I've been working mainly on other private partnerships, mixed development, health development, that's my career, but about two and a half years ago when Maria announced that we're coming to Virginia Beach, I got involved with the owners, which were Microsoft, they spoke in the tells us, finding a beach and whole location for the cable landing and then site selection for the cable landing station and the data centers that were to follow. So that has been for the last two years, I've been very focused on that and we've seen a lot of activity with new cables being announced recently. This has been Davenport from the city of Virginia Beach and I am the city councilman that leads the regional technology initiative and we are very excited with a lot of the things that are happening right now in Hampton Roads and the city of Virginia Beach. Thank you so much for joining us. And, you know, let's go ahead and set the stage about what's happening in Virginia Beach. It's certainly an exciting time today. I have your map right up on the screen here. And, you know, it's funny, we have a mutual friend, Frank Ray of Microsoft. I remember when he was talking about Maria coming into Virginia Beach, I was thinking, well, what could it be like a five year project? And he's like, no, we're putting our name down as the fastest subsea connection between Europe and US Virginia Beach specifically. And he made that happen. Can you talk about the various subsea projects, all the different states that they're in? And how fast is this all happening? And this is stunning. Yeah, I think you're absolutely right, Frank's a great guy. You're absolutely right. They made it happen in the fastest possible time in terms of, you know, from a history perspective, it's the fastest subsea cable to be built across the Atlantic in under two years, and with the maximum capacity. So the Maria cable, when built and when it was operational as an eight pair system with a capacity of 20 terabits per second per pair, was an aggregate capacity of 160 terabits. I say that when built because a couple of weeks back in Fenera, which is providing the SLTE equipment for the cable, basically improved their improvements and technology can now push 46.2 terabits per second per pair, which is an aggregate capacity of 209.8 terabits per second approximately. So it's over 200 terabits per for the entire system and built in under two years. So which is which is pretty phenomenal. In my opinion, I think I think there are a couple of a couple of very, very significant paradigm shifts here that are taken place. I mean, if you look at the state of Virginia, everybody knows Northern Virginia has evolved over the last two decades to be the leading data center market in the world, according to Loudoun County, over 70% of the world's internet traffic flows through Loudoun County. And it's not just that from an economic development perspective, data centers have contributed to upwards of 180 million dollars a year in terms of economic benefits and the tax revenue for Loudoun County. For the entire state of Virginia, until now, data centers have contributed $10.2 billion to the at the state level. Now, all of that connectivity, all of the data that's been sitting primarily in Northern Virginia and other parts of the state as well, whether it's Boydton, whether it's Henrico County now, or even going down South to Forest City, North Carolina, up until recently, that traffic to leave the east and sea of United States have to be in a route either to the landing stations in Long Island or New Jersey or down south in Florida. So I think what Virginia Beach brings to the table is a very uniquely positioned mid-Atlantic route across the Atlantic. Of course, that location is now leveraged to connect from North America to South America, and subsequently also to South Africa, to the continent of Africa, and ultimately to Asia. So I think the way it's evolving, it's been phenomenal and to answer your question in terms of the system. So Maria was the first system to be operational. That's going by Microsoft, Facebook, and Telseus. Then you had Brusa, which is primarily owned by Telseus only. So while Maria was across the Atlantic connecting Virginia Beach to Bilbao, Spain, you have Brusa, which is connecting Rio de Janeiro to branching units in Portuliza and San Juan in Puerto Rico through Virginia Beach. And then you had the third system, which was SAEX or South Atlantic Express Cable. And that's an interesting system because when it was announced, it was going to go from Cape Town through St Helena, and St Helena, being British Islands, and the EU had some funding approved for that project to get a branching unit in St Helena, and then ultimately connecting through Portuliza, Brazil to Virginia Beach. And in Singapore a couple of weeks back, SAEX announced their second leg, which is going to go east from Cape Town through to Madagascar, Mauritius, Singapore, and Chennai, India. So it's a significant project of approximately 25,000 kilometers. And the fourth one was the Dunand Cable, which Google announced in a partnership with Orange, going from the French Atlantic coast to Virginia Beach. So I think Virginia Beach, it's significant in terms of what's happening there. And additionally, people like Gary and others are actively building additional terrestrial fiber routes to get that capacity distributed where the customers wanted to go. Well, and Vinay, if I could expand on that, you know, what you're seeing is the creation of the crescent moon of technology in the state of Virginia. Everybody knows Ashburn, Virginia. You're starting to see a large aggregation in Enrico County. And you're seeing the creation of the new digital port of technology in the city of Virginia Beach. All of these three localities are working together to make sure that we create one of the most robust connected communities in the world. The city of Virginia Beach has taken a lot of action in terms of city council action to make sure that we are becoming more and more business friendly in terms of the technology industry. We believe that this is part of our future and we believe we play a key role in the state in making sure that we bring in this bandwidth to make sure that Enrico County and Ashburn, Virginia continue to flourish. And I have to say, Mayoral candidate who can talk telecom. I'm excited. That's so new. Let's just talk about that. I think not just that, Jamie. I mean, you know, Rob and his team, what they have done over the years in being extremely friendly to the industry, both from a data perspective, from a subsea fiber perspective and terrestrial standpoint, I think that's also definitely led to where we are at now. And this growth is only going to continue for the foreseeable future. And, you know, let's, let's just switch our map here and talk. We're focusing on Virginia Beach, but the impacts of what we're seeing internationally. You know, Vinay was talking about it in terms of, on his map in terms of the subsea cables for sure. But I'd actually like to give this one to Rob. How many continents are now directly connected to Virginia Beach by the new subsea cables that we've discussed? Well, Jamie, right now with the Maria connecting us to Europe and Bruce connecting us to South America, we're currently connected to two. But as Vinay was saying, there are plans to connect from South Africa and also over to India. So it's growing rapidly. There's other cables that are being discussed right now. But currently we're connected to two different continents, but seem to be three, four, maybe five. Well, and Jamie, what you're seeing is due to our location on the eastern seaboard, it makes the most sense to connect into the city of Virginia Beach in terms of our proximity to so many different locales. We've created a business friendly environment and are currently working on something that will be a first of its kind in the nation called a cable landing protection zone, which will ensure the landing of a significant amount of future cables as we believe that we are the new entry point for continental United States. Unbelievable. And I love that cable label protections. And why haven't we done this earlier? Another great example of how Virginia Beach is teaching other key landing cities to be a step ahead. Love that. Exactly, Jamie. And as you're well aware, we have the largest naval base in the world right here. We have the second largest port on the east coast. And so we're working with the Navy and with the Port of Virginia to make sure that we're finding, you know, the least intrusive routes so that we don't interrupt naval operations because we love the Navy in our region and that we don't mess up any of the shipping routes because the Port of Virginia provides a lot of the goods and services to the Midwestern part of the country. And so there's a lot of excitement about, you know, we love ports in Virginia Beach. Now we're creating this digital port and everybody is very, very excited about it. I love that. I love that. So many of our different country men, if you will, and women from naval professionals to our government. The most patriotic region in the world. Yeah, I just love that. I love that. Yeah, I just want to quickly show them the cable protection zone. If you look at countries like Australia, New Zealand, Singapore being out in countries, you know, they have embraced cable protection zones in a significant way. To Ben's point, I think this is going to be significant for North America for Virginia Beach to be the trendsetter to really embrace and implement those protection zones. So that ultimately there are additional cables also being brought into Virginia Beach. Yeah, this will be the first cable protection zone in North America. Yeah, and there's a lot to learn from those Eastern countries that and to know that we're doing it for the first time in North America is so impressive. Gary and Greg, you guys have an interesting perspective from from that layer one perspective from the dark fiber and from the data center colo insights. What are the major OTTs and content players that are really jumping in playing an active role in this new subsea capacity? Gary, did you want to start first? Well, we're seeing a tremendous amount of activity from carriers. All wanting to get to the landing station and get to the colo, to the Greg center, which is it's unbelievable. A lot of them we've got nine disclosures they haven't yet committed, but but it's it's a lot of players that aren't in our community now and it's all been driven by the landing of this subsea cable. And I think we're just going to continue to see more and more and they're all huge players and we're all and some that obviously you and myself weren't even aware existed or didn't know of so it's it's really been truly amazing. And I think Greg he's probably you know we've had a lot of conversations with Greg and and I know he's seeing a lot of activity on his end far as you know people want colo there and to get to these subsea cables. Yeah and of course if we're talking OTTs obviously the three big ones are Amazon sorry not Amazon but Microsoft, Facebook and Google. But aside from that I mean we have 12 commitments at the moment and a number of signed commitments as Cox Business made a joint press statement with Global Links and Cox Business that they've signed agreements with us that's the very latest one. But we've got all the major dark fibre providers coming to us and we're talking to more every day and I'm talking 12 at the moment. Apart from that I mean pretty much everything that the internet brings is coming our way could be VoIP, drones, mobility. The whole one is coming our direction in relation to this. I mean it's a lot better than we ever thought. Truly a digital port getting back to what Ben had had coins there and Rob and Ben I'll start with Rob first. Why Virginia? Why now? Hi Ben. Well you know you look at the way that Loudoun County has led you know all of the Eastern Seaboard in terms of becoming an aggregation for technology. You know a lot of times when we hear people talk about the Silicon Valley, the East they're talking about specifically Aspern, Virginia. You've seen the evolution of Enrico County with the new Facebook facilities there in the Water Rope Technical Park and now you're seeing the emergence of a new digital port previously you know all the transatlantic cables you know typically went between the New York, New Jersey area and the United Kingdom and then the South Florida you know Boca Raton, Miami area to you know some of the different continents in the southern hemisphere and now you're starting to see that we have a quicker linear route mileage to Aspern, Virginia and Enrico County but not only that we have the most business friendly environment also and on November 7th we're going to have I would conjecture to say one of the only cities in the United States that has a mayor that has run on a technology platform and making sure that we create an environment that is conducive for all technology related ventures and so we believe very wholeheartedly that this crescent moon of technology is going to power not only the state of Virginia but all of the eastern seaboard and we're working real hard to make sure we take the right steps and the appropriate steps and we're learning as we go but we're getting there. Unbelievable and it's so heartening to hear the local government support and technology you know unbelievable. We are all in on this we're all in on this. Can I can I say there are three words and it's diversity, latency and security that brings people to Virginia Beach. Sorry Rob, didn't mean to jump in. Why Virginia now was um previously all the cable all the transplant cables were coming into either New York, New Jersey area, Bokertown, Florida, two in Jacksonville there was nothing in the Midland at all and when Superstorm Sandy hit New Jersey, New York area damaged some cables kind of a wake-up call that we gotta have diversity like Greg just said and Virginia Beach was a perfect fit. All right so Gary for those of us who are considering Virginia Beach as a case study for advancing the connectivity in our own communities other communities outside of Virginia what advice do you have any challenges that have turned into opportunities for you? Well I think it's all been an opportunity for me but I think Virginia Beach has been proactive in supporting you know with tax situations with just opportunities whether it be the you know the ease of permits or things are just being working with us instead of you know restricting or making it difficult to operate. I think Virginia Beach has been very proactive and they have been in a lot of cases over a lot of years and in a lot of different situations and I think it's driving the force in other communities and within our region that need to kind of be more proactive and look forward instead of just as is because it's changing so rapidly that if if the other communities don't get on board with this philosophy they're just going to get left behind and it's really maze of Virginia Beach has been so proactive in doing so. So a last question gentlemen I'm going to round the horn ask each of you what does the future of Virginia Beach look like to you in your first of all um take a look in the next year to three years ahead what do you see Virginia Beach look like in the next year to three years ahead um I feel like Ben we have to start with you first. Oh thank you Jamie. Well you know I think you're going to continue to see Virginia Beach emerge as the new destination for these transatlantic cables. I think that you're going to see uh in RICO County continue to emerge as a destination for large scale and hyper scale data center operations and then Ashburn Virginia is going to continue to operate as the uh you know the epicenter for cloud computing and cloud storage and as a result Virginia is going to lead the way in the nation for making sure that we provide all of the technology solutions for the rest of the country and that's what our goal is is to be the gold standard for technology and I think that we're moving in that direction we've got a lot of great partners in northern Virginia and in the central part of the state and even in uh you know more of the western part of the state in Boynton Virginia we love Microsoft we love Facebook we love Google and we are actively pursuing every opportunity that exists out there right now and when I become the mayor on November 7th that's only going to intensify. Love it. Vinay? Sure thanks Jamie. Yeah I think I completely second what Ben said uh I mean people you know when you talk about the number of cables that are there like the moment in Long Island in New Jersey and Florida so between the two locations combined there are a total of 35 subsea cables so Florida has 22 in Long Island and New Jersey has 13 connecting to 44 countries around the world 34 countries to the state of Florida and 10 countries to Long Island in New Jersey so my point being that you know if you look at the city of Marseille that's been a great example for a public-private partnership that Rob was alluding to earlier and they've got 13 subsea cables now by the end of next year it's going to be 17 I think there's a significant potential from that perspective for Virginia Beach as a diverse location I also believe that in terms of the data center market itself to continue to go elsewhere and go beyond Ashburn which we are seeing now ready to take place whether it's Prince William County whether it's Stafford County whether it's Henrico County or other places I think that will continue to happen and also we'll have larger and larger terrestrial fiber cables I'm going to have a sample of a 3456 strand cable the subsea cable comparatively is a smaller one this is a four fiber pair cable so we'll have more advances in technology take place in terms of fiber count we have more capacity pushed through and I think ultimately it's going to benefit the industry and Virginia Beach will continue to grow to be a significant connectivity hub globally love it love it and Greg I'm sure you must agree with that Senamin yes but both of those and from our perspective I feel that we're going to fill our properties and probably end up with four maybe 400,000 square foot of CLS's and data centers along with that I think that Virginia Beach is in a really good position because of all this to in the next two or three years to attract a lot more enterprise and be a very strong city in the future. Gary? Well I think they're all correct in in what I'm my philosophy and my thinking about this all these subsea cables and everything coming into Virginia Beach are all going to be requiring a way out of Virginia Beach to other communities such as Ashburn I know we spoke of Ashburn. We don't want to take it all out of Virginia Beach Gary. No well I know that but it's going to connect everything but I think we're going to see these cables going south as well and we've got we've got the lowest latency 100% underground route currently going into Richmond and only into Ashburn but I see it going into Charlotte and Atlanta and other areas south being in the central location which is going to bring all these subsea cables to Virginia Beach and it's going to open so many opportunities in Virginia Beach and I just I just see a tremendous amount of growth in the technology space in Virginia Beach over the next three to five years or one and Jamie if I could when you have companies like Global Inks making the types of investments that they are you know we're starting to see that a a technology ecosystem is starting to develop in Virginia Beach also and so this goes right hand in hand again with the crescent moon of technology and what Vinay was talking about you know there there are going to be other opportunities for co-location data center facilities and we're hoping to get some of those opportunities here and Global Inks has been an excellent partner that has provided us some great opportunities here in the city of Virginia Beach is committed to making sure that everything that they do is successful. Absolutely Rob any closing thoughts about the future of Virginia Beach? Sure Jamie I think in the next three years we we are very well positioned to receive many more cables I would say between four and six at least we've had two beachhole beachhole locations diverse locations for the cables to land with Camp Pendleton and Sandbridge and then after the cables land of course they have to build a cable landing station and data centers which we have Corporate Landing Technology Park which has a 325-acre park with 160 acres right now show already available for development for new data centers and cable landing stations also we've taken a lot of initiatives with Ben's leadership. Virginia Beach cut its tax rate on computer equipment for data centers from four dollars per hundred to 40 cents per hundred which makes us the lowest tax rate in the state. We're also doing cable protection zone as you said and also the all these cable landing stations data centers need a tremendous amount of power Corporate Landing is pertinent by many energy data center part the power is there it's ready to go and we also are also creating a technology for corporate landing so we've got the area and we've got the land for the development and cable landing center so we're ready to work for business and we're excited about the development. Wow I just love this it's Virginia Beach success story truly when government and technologists work together to create such an international gateway how we are so thrilled and excited eyes are all on Virginia Beach thanks gentlemen for your insights again our all-star panelists Mr. Greg Twitt, Founder and President of Global Links Data Centers, Benay Nagpal, President of Interglobex, Gary Tapley, President of Metro Fiber Networks, Rob Houdami, Senior Project Manager of City of Virginia Beach Department of Economic Development and Ben Davenport by a phone thanks for calling in Ben Virginia Beach Councilman and Mayoral candidate get out the votes. That's right Jamie and next time you come to Virginia Beach we're going to take you on a tour. Oh I'm there I am so there you know I'm a Virginia myself so I couldn't be multi. This wraps up our latest virtual CEO roundtable coming us in person November 6th and 7th at the telecom exchange in LA where Benay is joining us he will be joining other dot leaders from Microsoft AWS and more on best partnering practices when working with cloud and content providers on building necessary network infrastructure perfect topic of course I'm sure 100% certain Virginia Beach will come up so come come CRC levels in person limited seats are available be telecom exchange.com and to feature your thought leader here next time on our monthly virtual CEO roundtables go ahead and email us pr at jsa.net thanks for tuning in to JSA TV the newsroom for tech and telecom professionals and JSA radio your voice protect and telecom on iHeart radio until next time happy networking