5 new Gcore CDN points of presence



Gcore CDN continues to expand globally. In the last 4 months, we’ve developed our network presence in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. These regions have fast-growing internet audiences that are very attractive for global and local web services. We’ll talk about the new locations in detail, explaining why we decided to open new PoPs there, what providers are connected, what the hardware configuration looks like, and how latency in the regions has changed.

Asunción, Paraguay

It’s important for us to develop our business in different regions, and hard-to-reach regions are no exception, especially if there’s high internet activity there. That’s why we’ve chosen Asunción, Paraguay, as one of our new locations.

There are a lot of internet users in this country: 4.92 million in January 2021. Moreover, the number of internet users in Paraguay increased by 309,000 (+6.7%) between 2020 and 2021. That’s why we decided that our customers must have access to this audience with minimal latency.

To make this possible, we partnered with Telefonía Celular del Paraguay S.A.E. We supplied our new partner CDN caching servers with the following hardware:

• 1 × Supermicro SYS-1028U-TN10RT+
• 2 × E5-2690v4-768GB RAM-2 × 7.68TB+7 × 3.2TB SSD

This equipment is now successfully installed at the Tigo Business Paraguay Data Center, which is one of the most advanced facilities of its kind in the country and a holder of the Uptime Institute’s Tier III certification.

The data center in Asunción, where our servers are located. We didn’t have time to take a picture of it ourselves, so we took it from an external source: Uptime Institute

As you can see, this allowed us to significantly reduce latency in the region.

Buenos Aires, Argentina

Buenos Aires, Argentina, and the entire Latin American region have long attracted customers’ attention.

We opened our first point of presence in this city in 2020, but it would be wrong to leave it at that. As early as January 2021, the number of internet users in the country was 36.32 million, and the number of internet users in Argentina increased by 1.2 million (+3.5%) between 2020 and 2021! We, therefore, decided to strengthen our presence in this region and open another PoP in Buenos Aires in 2022.

We delivered new CDN servers to the data center of our partner, Telecom Argentina, one of the largest operators in the country. The list of hardware includes:

• 1 × Arista 7280sr2a
• 2 × Lenovo SR645
• 2 × AMD EPYC 7502-1024GB RAM-10 × 8TB SSD

This hardware is now installed in the $100 million Telecom Argentina Data Center, which is equipped with a complex arrangement of backup power grids, water supplies, and fire and security systems. The facility is staffed 24/7 by engineering and technical teams.

Telecom Argentina’s data center in Buenos Aires, where our servers are located. We were so focused on the hardware that we forgot to take photos again. Luckily there is Foursquare!

As a result, we significantly improved our CDN performance in the region:

Ramallah, Palestine

Another PoP we’ve established in the last 4 months is located in Ramallah, Palestine.

Why did we decide to set up a point of presence here? The answer is simple: this vibrant place is full of internet users. At the beginning of 2022, internet penetration in Palestine was 70.6% of the total population. Moreover, analysis shows that the number of internet users in Palestine increased by 86,000 (+2.4%) between 2021 and 2022. We decided to open a new PoP there to provide you access to this audience with reduced latency.

To do so, we partnered with the local provider, Paltel, a company trusted by the local community. According to our statistics, in Palestine, Paltel users generate the largest volume of traffic to our CDN. That’s why we decided to place CDN caching servers at Paltel’s data center.

The CDN servers have the following hardware:

• 1 × Dell PowerEdge R630
• 2 × E5-2690v4-768GB RAM-8 × 7.68TB SSD

As a result of the new PoP opening, we have significantly reduced the CDN latency in Ramallah and throughout Palestine.

Nairobi, Kenya

Let’s move on to Africa. This region is as important to us as Latin America is, so we’re continuing to expand our presence here, as well. Another one of our new PoPs is located in Nairobi, Kenya.

As of January 2022, there were 23.35 million internet users in this country. The internet penetration rate in Kenya at the beginning of 2022 was 42% of the total population. Furthermore, analysis shows that the number of internet users in Kenya increased by 1.6 million (+7.4%) between 2021 and 2022. This was all a good enough reason for us to open a new PoP there.

We contacted and partnered with Kemnet, a local provider, and supplied its data center with the following hardware:

• 1 × Dell PowerEdge R630
• 2 × E5-2690v4-768GB RAM-8 × 7.68TB SSD

Now, traffic in the country is distributed through Kemnet’s network. Let’s see the result:

Panama City, Panama

Another new point of presence is located in Panama City, the capital of Panama. As of January 2022, there were 2.94 million internet users in the country. If you can deliver content to them quickly, you’ll have access to this audience. To help you do that, we decided to open a CDN PoP right in Panama City, the country’s largest city.

To this end, we’ve agreed to cooperate with the major local provider, Intered. We prepared and sent them three servers:

• 1 × HP DL360 Gen 8
• 2 × E5-2695v2-768GB RAM-8 × 3.84TB SSD

This equipment was placed at Intered’s data center in Panama. Let’s take a look at how this reduced the CDN latency in this region:

Go global faster

We’re not stopping there! We are continuing to make Gcore CDN even more convenient and efficient for our customers. Our infrastructure knows no boundaries. Gcore’s engineers are developing it all around the world, including Africa, Latin America, and other regions. That’s why we already have more than 140 PoPs worldwide, and that’s not all. Stay tuned.