Equinix, Inc., a leading global provider of network-neutral datacenters and Internet exchange services, and DE-CIX Management GmbH, the largest Internet Exchange for Central and Eastern Europe, have announced a partnership in which DE-CIX will operate a new state-of-the-art Internet exchange, which will be called ALP-IX, within Equinix's Munich Internet Business Exchange (IBX®) datacenter. The agreement will bring a state-of-the-art peering fabric into the Equinix center, enabling Equinix customers in Munich to directly exchange, or "peer, Internet traffic to increase reliability, improve performance, and reduce the costs of network traffic exchange.
Equinix and DE-CIX are leaders in providing network-neutral platforms for the interconnection of enterprise, service provider and content networks. Located in Frankfurt, Germany, DE-CIX is a non-profit, neutral and independent Internet exchange that offers direct and settlement-free IP interconnection to the largest aggregation of networks in Central and Eastern Europe. Serving more than 250 leading Internet providers from 30 countries, DE-CIX customers include Internet service providers, broadband providers, content delivery networks, web hosting providers, and incumbent operators. Equinix is the global interconnection and peering leader, serving the world's leading ISPs, broadband providers, international networks, content delivery networks, enterprises and major content providers.
The ALP-IX service will be initially available for customers at the end of this month, offering 1GBit/s ports and 10 GBit/s ports on single mode fibre connections. The service builds upon the deployment that DE-CIX currently operates at the Equinix Frankfurt-City (FR1) IBX center where DE-CIX public peering ports are available to Equinix customers.
"As Equinix expands its global service offering across the US, Europe and Asia-Pacific, the company is committed to providing high-performance platforms for exchanging Internet traffic, said Eric Schwartz, president of Equinix Europe. "Partnering with Internet exchanges like DEC-IX, who have an existing critical mass of quality Internet service providers and connected parties operating within their system, will enable Equinix customers to scale their peering relationships to reduce costs and increase performance.
"We are enthusiastic about our new partnership with Equinix and the interconnection benefits that this relationship will bring to all of our customers, said Harald Summa, managing director of DE-CIX. "As peering continues to be the primary method for data transfer between the world's networks, this relationship will help to ensure that networks can execute peering relationships in the most efficient and convenient manner possible.