These days, everyone is looking for ways to work faster, do more and get the best possible experience along the way. This is especially true when it comes to the internet. As we continue to operate more and more in the realm of cyberspace, our growing needs require faster service and greater bandwidth. In a world where networks are searching for ways to more efficiently manage traffic and reach the end-user as quickly as possible, the internet exchange (IX) is king.
This is why DE-CIX, the world’s leading Internet Exchange operator with the largest and fastest-growing IX in New York, created a system that allows networks to share traffic without going through the Internet and without the cost of private interconnects. DE-CIX’s interconnect layer extends throughout various metro areas, enabling networks to leverage a one-to-many connection to all other networks in the peering exchange via a single port.
For example, an inbound network that provides transport to its business or residential customers can connect to a DE-CIX exchange, which then allows the network to connect to the various content networks peering at that exchange. In this case, content networks can include players like Google, Apple, Akamai, gaming networks like Blizzard or other smaller content.
This process is one hop, with no router in the middle of the connection, and it’s SLA-backed with low latency to all the other content networks involved. This provides networks with diverse connectivity that almost always outperforms transit connectivity between networks. In fact, the DE-CIX platform can allow smaller networks to perform just as well as tier 1 networks that simply peer. The DE-CIX solution provides a single hop connection to reach other networks and content providers. With DE-CIX’s layer 2 connectivity solution, quality and accessibility is assured while enabling diversity through a single connection.
In the era of proliferating content and burgeoning demands, the company works to provide more access to content providers than what is traditionally available on data center-owned exchanges. Alternatively, DE-CIX creates a neutral community that allows for access to locations and data centers that previously had no peering exchanges. This effectively opens up local markets, and because DE-CIX accepts networks connecting in over transport (a method usually avoided by data centers that wanted colocation purchases), networks beyond the local realm of the IX can enjoy these peering benefits as well.
Due to the success of this neutral approach, DE-CIX has been able to create and foster the largest IX in the world, based in Frankfurt, and has been expanding in the U.S. in their New York and Dallas locations. In Dallas, DE-CIX serves a market that cannot leverage the existing disparate exchanges that operate in a one-to-one, data center to exchange fashion.
Catering to communities that are not served by the individual data center operated exchanges is just one of the ways the company differentiates itself. Being neutral also presents a huge advantage by enabling DE-CIX to offer a partnership model with data center operators, transport providers and resellers instead of being in a competitive relationship. DE-CIX can then offer a breadth of connectivity options while providing customers a better experience at lower costs.
Looking to the future, DE-CIX continues to search for worldwide opportunities to bring this quality and value to a growing number of users and customers. As the company builds its strategic range of partnerships and expands its services, networks and end users alike can look forward to a more connected and enabled world.
