TL;DR
- As enterprises shift to hybrid and multi-cloud architectures, a data center’s connectivity options matter as much as its physical location.
- 365 Data Centers’ expanded partnership with Megaport adds nine new Points-of-Presence, bringing its connectivity footprint to 15 U.S. facilities.
- The move reflects a broader industry shift: colocation providers are increasingly judged on their connectivity ecosystem, not just power and space.
# # #
For years, choosing a colocation facility largely came down to three questions: How much power is available, how reliable is the site, and how close is it to my end users. Today, a fourth question carries just as much weight: How easily can I connect from this facility to the cloud platforms, networks, and digital services my business actually runs on?
That shift is playing out visibly in the market. 365 Data Centers recently expanded its partnership with Megaport, a global Network-as-a-Service (NaaS) provider, adding nine new Points-of-Presence across facilities in Fort Lauderdale, Detroit, Chicago, Commack, Philadelphia, Rancho Cordova, Richardson, Smyrna, and Herndon. The expansion brings Megaport’s footprint across 365’s platform to 15 facilities nationwide – a scale-up worth examining for what it signals about enterprise infrastructure decisions more broadly.
Why On-Demand Connectivity Matters More Than Ever
Enterprises rarely run on a single cloud anymore. A typical mid-market or enterprise IT environment might touch AWS for compute, Azure for productivity tools, and a specialized platform like Oracle Cloud or IBM Cloud for a legacy workload that hasn’t migrated yet. Managing separate physical connections to each of these providers used to mean long procurement cycles and rigid, hard-to-change infrastructure.
Software-defined connectivity platforms change that equation. Instead of provisioning a dedicated line to each cloud provider individually, customers can provision, scale, or retire connections on demand through a single interface. That flexibility matters most when business needs shift quickly, such as for a merger, a new regional office, or a sudden capacity spike shouldn’t require months of lead time just to get connected.
Edge Markets Are Where This Plays Out
It’s worth noting where these new connections are landing. Markets like Commack, New York, and Smyrna, Georgia, aren’t traditional hyperscale hubs; they’re regional edge markets, closer to where mid-sized businesses and regional offices actually operate. As AI workloads and latency-sensitive applications push more compute closer to end users, connectivity in these secondary markets becomes just as important as in major metros.
This is a trend worth watching across the industry: Colocation providers are extending carrier-neutral, multi-cloud connectivity into markets that previously lacked it, narrowing the gap between edge and core infrastructure.
What This Means for IT Decision-Makers
For organizations evaluating colocation partners, a few practical takeaways emerge from this kind of expansion:
- Ask about the connectivity ecosystem, not just the facility specs. A data center with excellent power density but limited network options can still create bottlenecks.
- Favor providers offering on-demand, software-defined connections over fixed, long-term circuits, especially if your cloud strategy is still evolving.
- Consider regional and edge locations carefully. As more colocation providers build out connectivity in secondary markets, businesses gain more flexibility in balancing latency, cost, and resilience.
The Bigger Picture
Partnerships like this one reflect a maturing colocation market, where facilities are increasingly valued as connectivity hubs rather than just physical real estate. As hybrid IT becomes the default rather than the exception, the providers that make multi-cloud connectivity simple – rather than something customers have to engineer themselves – are the ones best positioned to support enterprise growth in the years ahead.
Click here to read the full announcement.
