For years, disaster recovery planning focused primarily on redundant servers, redundant power, and redundant storage. Those elements remain critical, but they only solve part of the availability equation.
Applications are only as resilient as the networks connecting them.
A single fiber cut, carrier outage, routing issue, or upstream provider failure can interrupt connectivity even when every server remains online. As organizations continue moving workloads between cloud platforms, SaaS providers, AI environments, and enterprise locations, network diversity has become just as important as infrastructure redundancy.
That is where a carrier neutral data center provides a measurable advantage.
Instead of relying on a single telecommunications provider, organizations gain access to dozens of independent carriers, diverse network paths, Internet Exchange connectivity, and direct peering opportunities. The result is a disaster recovery strategy that protects against far more than equipment failure.
At 1623 Farnam, more than 60 carriers, the Omaha Internet Exchange (IX), and a highly interconnected ecosystem allow organizations to build resilient network architectures that would be difficult or impossible to replicate elsewhere in the central United States.
The Biggest Mistake in Disaster Recovery Planning
Many organizations believe they have network redundancy because they purchased two circuits.
Unfortunately, those circuits often share one or more common points of failure.
Examples include:
- Both services originate from the same carrier.
- Both routes use the same conduit entering the building.
- Both circuits rely on the same regional backbone.
- Both providers ultimately depend on the same upstream transport provider.
On paper, there are two connections.
In reality, there is still one failure domain.
True resiliency requires diversity across multiple layers.
What Carrier Diversity Really Means
Carrier diversity is much more than ordering service from multiple providers.
A resilient architecture typically includes:
- Multiple independent carriers
- Physically diverse fiber entrances
- Separate backbone routes
- Diverse upstream providers
- Independent routing policies
- Multiple cloud connectivity options
- Internet Exchange peering where appropriate
Each additional layer reduces the likelihood that a single event will interrupt critical services.
This approach aligns with broader industry guidance emphasizing redundancy and diversity as foundational elements of communications network resilience.
Four Practical Failover Architectures
Rather than treating redundancy as a checkbox, organizations should design around realistic failure scenarios.
1. Dual Carrier Architecture
The simplest improvement is using two completely independent carriers.
If Carrier A experiences:
- Fiber damage
- Backbone congestion
- Regional outages
- Routing instability
traffic automatically shifts to Carrier B.
This approach significantly reduces dependency on any single provider.
2. Dual Path Connectivity
Carrier diversity becomes even more valuable when combined with physically diverse paths.
Imagine two carriers entering a facility through opposite sides of the building using different conduit systems.
If construction crews accidentally sever one route, the second remains unaffected.
Physical diversity often matters just as much as provider diversity.
3. Internet Exchange Plus Transit
Organizations increasingly blend traditional Internet transit with Internet Exchange connectivity.
This architecture provides two complementary traffic models.
Transit
- Global Internet reach
- Broad destination coverage
- Simple deployment
Internet Exchange
- Lower latency to participating networks
- Direct peering
- Reduced dependency on transit providers
- Improved routing flexibility
Rather than choosing one or the other, many organizations benefit from using both.
4. Multi Homed BGP Design
For larger enterprises, Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) enables intelligent routing across multiple providers.
Benefits include:
- Automatic failover
- Load balancing
- Route optimization
- Greater control over traffic engineering
- Reduced downtime during provider issues
Combined with multiple carriers inside a single facility, BGP becomes a powerful resiliency tool.
Why Carrier Density Changes the Conversation
Every carrier added to a facility increases potential connectivity options. That matters because disaster recovery planning is rarely static.
Business requirements evolve. Cloud strategies change. Acquisitions occur. New AI workloads emerge.
Rather than relocating infrastructure every time networking requirements change, organizations operating inside a dense interconnection environment can often expand connectivity using existing cross connects.
This flexibility shortens deployment timelines while supporting long term network evolution.
More Carriers Mean More Recovery Options
Imagine a regional carrier experiences an extended outage. Organizations operating in facilities with only one or two providers may have limited alternatives.
Inside a carrier rich environment, network teams can quickly evaluate additional connectivity options without relocating infrastructure.
That flexibility becomes especially valuable when supporting:
- Hybrid cloud deployments
- AI inference environments
- Financial services
- Healthcare applications
- Enterprise SaaS platforms
- Disaster recovery sites
Instead of rebuilding infrastructure elsewhere, organizations can often redesign connectivity within the same ecosystem.
Resiliency Is About More Than Downtime
The cost of network outages extends well beyond lost connectivity.
According to Uptime Institute’s 2025 Annual Outage Analysis:
- More than half of organizations reported their most recent significant outage cost over $100,000.
- One in five experienced outage costs exceeding $1 million.
- Network related issues continue growing as a cause of serious outages alongside traditional infrastructure failures.
Those figures reinforce why network architecture deserves the same attention as compute and storage.
Why the Midwest Matters
Many organizations naturally focus on coastal connectivity hubs.
However, central U.S. interconnection locations provide important advantages for resilient network design.
A geographically central location can help support:
- Balanced east and west traffic flows
- Regional disaster recovery strategies
- Lower latency across national deployments
- Diverse routing opportunities between major metropolitan markets
When paired with significant carrier density, these advantages create a strong foundation for business continuity planning.
How 1623 Farnam Supports Carrier Diversity
As a carrier neutral data center, 1623 Farnam provides organizations with access to one of the Midwest’s most interconnected network ecosystems.1623 Farnam also helps organizations simplify multicloud connectivity while maintaining the flexibility needed to support future growth.
Rather than limiting customers to a small number of telecommunications providers, organizations can build architectures that support both current requirements and future growth.
The facility offers:
- Access to more than 60 network carriers
- Carrier neutral connectivity options
- The Omaha Internet Exchange
- Flexible cross connect opportunities
- A central U.S. location that supports regional and national network strategies
Whether the goal is implementing dual carrier connectivity, adding Internet Exchange peering, deploying BGP across multiple providers, or creating geographically resilient disaster recovery architectures, organizations can design solutions that avoid unnecessary single points of failure.
Building Resiliency Starts with Network Choice
Disaster recovery planning should never begin after an outage occurs. It starts with architecture.
Choosing a carrier neutral data center gives organizations the flexibility to combine multiple carriers, diverse physical paths, Internet Exchange connectivity, and intelligent routing strategies into a network designed for resilience from day one.
As digital infrastructure becomes more distributed and AI, cloud, and enterprise workloads continue increasing network demands, the organizations best prepared for tomorrow’s disruptions will be those that invest in connectivity diversity today.
Whether you’re connecting to cloud platforms, optimizing application performance, supporting AI initiatives, or expanding enterprise infrastructure, the right interconnection strategy can help reduce complexity while creating new opportunities for innovation. Contact us today to learn how our strategy can help you today.
