What is a cross-connect?

A cross-connect is a physical cable — copper or fibre — that directly links two tenants, or a tenant to a carrier, inside the same data centre. It bypasses the public internet entirely, delivering lower latency, higher security, and dedicated bandwidth. Cross-connects cost $150-500/month each depending on the facility and media type (single-mode fibre is standard). A typical enterprise tenant maintains 4-20 cross-connects for carrier diversity, cloud on-ramps, and peering. Cross-connect revenue is high-margin recurring income for data centre operators and a primary reason tenants cluster in carrier-dense facilities.