Rai Way, proprietary network and data centre for growth

Five edge data centres are ready to be made available to the market. But Rai Way has also lifted the veil on a new content delivery network (Cdn): a platform that leverages its own 6,000 kilometres of fibre to allow anyone who wants to to exploit the infrastructure for their own services. In the latter case, throwing down the gauntlet to the international Cdn suppliers (such as Akamai and Amazon, one might say) and addressing broadcasters and those who transmit content via the Internet network that requires special attention when, for example, it comes to live events, with their peaks capable of triggering the start of the infamous wheel.

Rai Way, the tower company 65% controlled by Viale Mazzini, is starting a roadshow from Milan to present its first five edge data centres. The next stops will be in Florence, Genoa, Turin and Venice, where the first completed points of a network that envisages, in the horizon of the business plan, the creation of other data centres in the Centre and South. "With the Evolution Tour, we want to enhance the territories where we have built our first data centres, contributing to the country's digital transformation," says Luca Beltramino, director of Rai Way's data centre division.

Certainly for TowerCo, listed on the stock exchange since 2014, led by CEO Roberto Cecatto and chaired by Giuseppe Pasciucco, this is a business segment that joins the core business, with 2,300 broadcasting towers, 21 regional offices and three control centres. All of this in the wake of an industrial plan that envisages 240 million in development investments up to 2027 (50% of which, 120 million, is earmarked for the start-up of the data centre network).

Precisely with regard to the latter - the data centre inaugurated yesterday is located in Siziano, in the province of Pavia - Rai Way is evidently betting on an increase in demand for cloud and services, driven by the combined effect of a growing hunger for data, fuelled by the advance of generative artificial intelligence and the saturation of traditional markets in the Flap area (Frankfurt, London, Amsterdam, Paris) that could benefit Italy.

Open doors, therefore, to anyone who decides to turn to Rai Way for a data centre service. This is the bet of the company that, as mentioned, yesterday also unveiled its new content delivery network (Cdn), designed to offer high performance, reliability and security in the distribution of live and on-demand content over IP networks. Thanks to the widespread presence of points of presence (PoPs) throughout Italy, edge Cdn aims to guarantee low latency (response time to a stimulus, essential for the most advanced services) and a superior user experience. "Our edge Cdn is an ideal solution for the distribution of media content in a fast and scalable way," emphasises Roberto Zarra, deputy Broadcasting & Media and New Business Sales of Rai Way.