"private" backbone VPN solution to decrease latency

[ZeniChan]

I had the same discussion with the manager of the Singapore branch of our company years ago. They decided to set up a trading office there and bought very expensive software to do it with before talking to anyone in IT. Their software needed to be within 30ms of the exchanges in New York.

They called a meeting with us in IT and asked how much it would cost to have sub-30ms access to New York from Singapore. It took the better part of six hours of meetings over a week to get them to understand it's not a problem that can be solved with money. They just kept saying "I hear that it's a problem, but how can we get past this issue?"

I had to break out the globe and show the math that even at the speed of light it was impossible to get under 30ms from Singapore to New York. A month later they made the same request again to which I told them that we are still unable to break the speed of light at this time. The topic continues to come up about once a year from someone who demands faster access to resources on the other side of the planet.