Equinix Announces New Markets for Internet Exchange Service

Equinix is expanding its Internet Exchange (IX) service into nine new metropolitan areas in the EMEA and Americas regions — Amsterdam, Denver, Dublin, Frankfurt, Houston, London, Manchester, Milan and Stockholm — this quarter and in early 2018.

Equinix Monday also announced the next phase in the evolution of its global platform through the direct physical and virtual connection of its International Business Exchange (IBX) data centers globally, allowing customers to connect on demand to any other customer from any Equinix location.

Greg Adgate, Equinix’s vice president of partner management, tells Channel Partners the combination of the capabilities expands the value partners can provide to their customers.

Equinix’s Greg Adgate

“Partners already take advantage of the Equinix ecosystem of networks, clouds and digital services to build hybrid offers,” he said. “This helps simplify the provisioning interface and accelerates the speed at which they can deliver integrated solutions that drive high-impact business outcomes for their clients. These announcements are intended to build awareness and lay out a vision of how these new capabilities can solve customers’ challenges in new ways.”

IX allows drivers of internet traffic, including ISPs and content providers, to exchange traffic and expand operations globally. With additional services in the Equinix portfolio, including Cross Connects and Equinix Connect, the company offers a comprehensive service suite that provides IP networks with options for managing and exchanging IP traffic.

Services now are accessible from any ECX Fabric location across North America and EMEA, allowing all partner types to interconnect and scale services “securely, seamlessly and rapidly” from many more Equinix locations than before, Adgate said.

“ECX Fabric enables simple, secure connectivity to cloud service providers from a single site reaching across multiple locations,” he said. “This immediately extends the reach of (the) Equinix Alliance Partner and other digital platforms that have services deployed in our IBX data centers, allowing them to sell services across markets without immediately building presence in that market. This allows them to grow a revenue base in a new market before expanding infrastructure to that market. For MSP and SI partners, they can now privately and securely interconnect with digital platforms across a simple consistent interface regardless of which Equinix IBX they are hosting their clients’ solutions. The availability of the entire digital ecosystem through a single interconnection point will allow faster time to market and greater access to high-impact digital platforms.”

As Equinix expands its global footprint, it will offer this full suite of interconnection services within each metro where the company operates.

In addition to the expansions announced Monday, IX currently is offered in 11 metros in the Americas, five metros in EMEA and six metros in APAC.

Equinix will continue to partner in key markets with other…

…internet exchanges, such as AMS-IX, LINX, DE-CIX, TorIX and JPNAP, while also offering the IX service to provide networks with a globally consistent alternative internet exchange platform.

Mike Leber is CEO and founder of Hurricane Electric, which operates its own global IPv4 and IPv6 network.

“As Hurricane Electric expands its reach through Europe, Asia Pacific and North America, it is essential that we partner with the world’s most-networked data center platform,” he said. “The expansion of markets served by Equinix IX will only help to accelerate our business growth as we scale the 6,662 peer networks we pass traffic with to date. The density and reach of peers available on Platform Equinix coupled with the increasing growth of IP traffic from cloud, mobile and IoT are positive indications our addressable market will continue to expand.”