Segra: Enterprise Services Covering the 4 Cs

With a telecom heritage built over a century, Segra is one of the largest independent fiber infrastructure bandwidth companies in the Eastern U.S. In addition to owning and operating nine data centers and an advanced fiber infrastructure network throughout the region, Segra provides Ethernet, MPLS, dark fiber, advanced data center services, IP and managed services, voice and cloud solutions, all backed by its industry-leading service and reliability. Customers include healthcare and higher education organizations, carriers, enterprises, and governments.

Segra is Synonymous with Connectivity

Faster and more reliable connectivity gained prominence during the pandemic. But along with the need for increased capacity came a heightened focus on cybersecurity. For organizations looking for safe, secure, and reliable services, Segra provides a one-stop shop for fiber and managed services for its customers.

The threat of security breaches is real and the exponential increases in connected devices and data processing requirements equate to ever increasing potential vulnerabilities. Segra data centers provide peace of mind for customers and ensure compliance with even the strictest standards. Segra has deep expertise in risk management and partners closely with organizations to meet the growing challenges of doing business in the digital age.

Segra continually looks at ways to expand offerings, whether through strategic growth that adds to their data center geographical footprint or with additional technologies in the data center space, such as container orchestration and DaaS, as well as offerings in the managed services arena such as SASE deployments.

Mid-Atlantic Market and Beyond

Segra’s data centers focus exclusively on enterprise services, offering high-availability data center services throughout the mid-Atlantic, serving Virginia, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia. With the vast network of Segra’s fiber footprint, along with ample options for connectivity, Segra’s data centers are uniquely positioned to offer clients on-net data center and colocation services.

Segra’s nine enterprise colocations total over 265,000 square feet of space, headquartered in Charlotte, N.C., and located throughout the region. Not only because of its impressive network, data centers and products, but also its exceptional customer service, Segra is unmatched in the industry.

Segra Connectivity, Cybersecurity, Collaboration, and Cloud Solutions

Connectivity Solutions

• Segra’s SD-WAN solution securely supports application growth, and intelligently steers traffic for consistent performance over multiple connection types including MPLS, LTE and broadband. It simplifies multi-site networking by providing security, fail-over, application prioritization, and diverse connectivity options.
• Segra’s DIA provides a dedicated, secure, reliable connection to the Internet that has guaranteed bandwidth. The site is connected to the Segra Internet POP by a local access loop. The bandwidth on the loop is dedicated and not shared across many users, preserving the Internet connection speed.
• Segra’s Long-Term Evolution services keep out-of-office employees and remote sites securely connected to customer’s network. LTE Secure Access is an add-on solution for customers that need an affordable secondary network connection to keep their critical voice, data, and Internet traffic safe. LTE Secure Backup automatically switches your location to a private, wireless connection to the Segra WAN, so the company network and the Internet can still be reached, keeping corporate data, VoIP and Internet services up while the access is restored.

Cybersecurity Solutions

• The Hosted Firewall service applies security policies to all Internet traffic traversing a customer’s network. Segra configures the service from the customer’s chosen protection level then activates, monitors, and manages it. All Hosted Firewall customers are served from a carrier-grade, geo-redundant platform that is housed in a data center environment, ensuring the best customer experience and highest level of protection.
• DDoS protection appliances are located at high-volume entry points on the Segra core network where attacks are most likely to occur. The appliances automatically inspect all traffic as soon as it arrives at an entry point, immediately discarding malicious packets while sending legitimate packets to their destination. During this process, other network services continue to operate without interruption.
• Segra’s SOCaaS combines Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) solutions which enable organizations to gain all the benefits of having a powerful and flexible SIEM without the hardware or personnel investment needed. Segratakes care of all the infrastructure, maintenance, upgrades, patches, capacity planning, backups, and security of the system and platform.

Collaboration Solutions

• Converged data and voice networks are the most efficient and effective way to manage communication systems. Our converged voice service combines data and voice into a single infrastructure that offers an integration platform for legacy devices such as analog phones, PBX and fax machines with one’s IP network. The voice lines can be configured as analog lines, PRIs or trunks based on the customer requirements.
• Segra’s IP Fax allows customers to easily migrate fax machines from analog phone lines. Using a supplied Analog Telephone Adapter device, fax machines are easily connected to Segra’s internet service, bypassing the need for dedicated analog phone lines, expensive fax board hardware or dedicated fax servers.
• Segra’s SIP Flex solution delivers the benefits of VoIP with customer’s existing phone system. Segra’s SIP solution functions on cable, DSL, Internet access and wireless transports and maintains all the features of an organization’s PBX/IP BX phone system.

Cloud Solutions

• Segra’s IaaS platform takes the data center headache out of customer managed server environments. Connect via our private fiber network into our 24/7/365 staffed, highly available data centers, and leverage all the compute and storage resources needed to run the most critical applications.
• Segra’s BaaS solution provides end-to-end security and reliability. The BaaS application is part of our managed services platform supporting both physical and virtual servers with a flexible protection plan that allows our clients to create a protection plan that aligns with the business value of their data. The application provides capabilities such as data retention, data protection, monitoring and reporting, and centralized management.
• Segra also offers consulting expertise, which customers can leverage to build a strong foundation for cloud success. Segra can expedite changes to services and offer on-call support and troubleshooting for connectivity and bandwidth issues, plus offer assistance and advice for users of Segra’s suite of cloud solutions.

Helping Customers Overcome Challenges

Many companies are dealing with staffing issues like recruiting and retention during the current “war for talent”.  By choosing to move out of their company-owned facility and into a Segra data center, they no longer need to retain the staff to their IT stack. By subscribing to cloud services, the customer no longer has the burden of managing the underlying hardware, hypervisor, and OS, so their team members can focus on the applications serving their enterprises and customers.

Organizations can suffer significant financial losses and damaged reputations at the hand of ransomware and data breaches. This is one of the reasons a reliable data center partner like Segra is vital to companies of all sizes in any industry.

One example of a customer challenge mitigated by Segra is a mid-size healthcare provider out of Wilmington, NC. Located between Cape Fear River and the Atlantic Ocean, their data centers were constantly impacted by hurricanes. So, Segra worked with them to provide a custom disaster recovery solution via Charlotte, NC. The customer has colocation in SDC in Charlotte of a Cohesity appliance used to replicate imaging file to a secondary location and then replicate all their virtual machines to Segra’s DRaaS in Charlotte. In the event of a disaster, Segra was able to failover all virtual machines to run in Charlotte and point to the secondary image store in the colocation facility.

Remote Work and the Future of IoT

Companies continue to enable remote workers, a shift ignited by the pandemic, and no longer want to staff their offices and on-premises data centers, so they are looking for data center space to run their workloads. Colocation takes the worry out of managing a facility. Segra offers audit compliance, power, cooling, 24x7x365 staffing with Segra FTEs, as well as physical security for colocation customers.

Cloud products take it a step further. Companies are able to run their traditional workloads in the Segra Cloud and take advantage of Segra’s hypervisor management, OS management, SEIM service, immutable Backup and Restoration, as well as Disaster Recovery services.

Many companies are also looking for low network latency between data centers to meet the requirements of their applications. Examples include IOT (Internet of Things) applications, stretch clustering, and an active/active application architecture. Segra data centers offer extremely low latency and number of hops on their data center network fabric, and with their Express Cloud Access product, Segra offers connectivity to public cloud providers for companies choosing to run a hybrid cloud architecture.

Compliance, Customer-Centric and Backed by Cox

Segra’s world-class data centers meet the strictest industry standards and are compliant with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA), Statements on Standards for Attestation Engagements (SSAE), and the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS). All Segra facilities are SSAE 16 SOC 2 Type II-certified and are monitored continuously. Additionally, as one of the largest independent fiber infrastructure bandwidth companies in the eastern U.S., Segra can provide customers with the fiber connectivity they require for DRaaS.

Segra is small enough to be agile with unmatched customer service and is nimbly customer-focused to be able to customize services to meet customers’ needs. On the other hand, Segra is an independently operated subsidiary of Cox Communications. Segra owns its own fiber network and data centers, with a path to diversity.

Segra CEO Kevin Hart shared, “At Segra, we help provide our customers the freedom to grow, we are invested in their future.”

Built on a 125-year legacy of connectivity, Segra owns and operates over 30,000 route miles of advanced fiber infrastructure network throughout the mid-Atlantic and Southeastern United States. With 90 facilities, including 14 sales offices and 9 data centers serving 44 markets, Segra is one of the largest independent fiber network companies in the Eastern US. Segra has a broad and dense service footprint that provides state-of-the-art Ethernet, MPLS, dark fiber, advanced data center services, IP and managed services, voice and cloud solutions, all backed by its industry-leading service and reliability. Customers include healthcare and higher education organizations, carriers, enterprises, and governments. For more information about Segra’s technology and commitment to customer care, visit segra.com.