The Open-IX Association has started accepting applications for certification of data centers and internet exchanges in all locations across North America.

The non-profit organization, founded in September 2013 with the goal of opening up the region's internet exchange market, started by accepting applications for facilities in northern Virginia recently. Martin Hannigan, co-founder and treasurer of Open-IX, said demand for certification of facilities in other parts of the region has been high.

“After opening up the application process for the (northern Virginia) market, demand for other regions and interest in achieving OIX certification has been tremendous,” he said.

Open-IX is an industry association whose membership consists of data center, network connectivity and internet exchange providers as well as end-user companies. It has drawn a set of standards which exchange operators and data centers that host them have to satisfy to get its endorsement.

The idea is that a standardized approach to establishing internet exchanges will improve balance in the market currently dominated by a few players, the biggest of whom is Equinix, which hosts and controls some of the biggest and most important exchanges in the US. Other dominant players are Verizon Terremark, CoreSite and Telx.

Open-IX has also been used as a vehicle to expand into the US by European exchange operators, such as AMS-IX (Amsterdam Internet Exchange) and LINX (London Internet Exchange). Both have announced plans to establish exchanges in DuPont Fabros data centers o the East Coast.

DuPont Fabros, a major US wholesale data center provider, announced plans to get its facilities certified by Open-IX. Other data center firms, including Digital Realty Trust, CyrusOne and RagingWire (recently acquired by NTT Communications), have done the same.

In December, AMS-IX announced that Netflix had agreed to become the first customer of its first US exchange. The dominant online video streaming company is an Open-IX member.