The Datacenter Group is set to become the 14th point of presence (PoP) for the Amsterdam internet exchange (AMS-IX).

Founded in 2007, TDCG has only two data centers, to a grand total of 10,000 sq m (107,700 sq ft) of white space. The first facility, in Amsterdam, will be the new PoP to the AMS-IX, and the other, in Delft - the historic town situated between Rotterdam and la Hague, the birthplace of Vermeer and Delft blue pottery - will allow its customers to use the peering infrastructure also. 

17th century Delft pottery
17th century Delft pottery – Wikimedia Commons/Andreas Praefcke

Despite the company’s relatively small data center portfolio, the company claims its facilities are the most energy efficient in the Netherlands, using 100 percent wind power. Both are Tier III certified and boast 100 percent uptime.

The mother of all networks 

The AMS-IX was created as a non-profit in the early 1990s.The Dutch exchange point has over 800 connected networks and has peak traffic of 5TB/s, making it one of the world’s largest internet exchanges. Since its inception, the organization has launched other internet exchanges in Hong Kong and in the Carribean as well as a dedicated subsidiary in the United States, AMS-IX USA. 

Other data center players connected to the AMS-IX include Equinix (which has five PoPs across the city), Digital Realty, Global Switch and Interxion. 

In providing the infrastructure for the exchange of IP traffic, or peering, internet exchanges create a ”network of networks” of ISPs, telecom carriers, web hosters and content providers. This allows customers to benefit from improved network performance, redundancies and decreased costs.