New Equinix internet exchange connects Ireland to 25 markets

16 Mar 2018

Equinix Ireland managing director Maurice Mortell. Image: John Ohle Photography

Equinix’s new IX will enable ISPs and content firms to exchange traffic and expand globally.

Global data centre giant Equinix has established a new internet exchange (IX) in Ireland that will connect businesses with infrastructure and digital ecosystems in 25 other markets.

As internet traffic driven by cloud, mobile, internet of things (IoT), video, gaming and data analytics continues to grow, the need for networks to interconnect is accelerating, said Maurice Mortell, managing director of Ireland and emerging markets at Equinix.

‘This makes our indigenous businesses more competitive and makes Ireland a more attractive base for global companies’
– MAURICE MORTELL

“Equinix IX enables our Irish customers to interconnect with customers and partners across their digital supply chain, benefit from new business opportunities and create additional value,” Mortell said.

“This makes our indigenous businesses more competitive and makes Ireland a more attractive base for global companies.”

Edge-to-edge connectivity

A key way to meet the demand for cloud, mobile, IoT and high-definition video content is to expand peering capabilities at the digital edge or as close as possible to dense populations of users, apps, data and content.

The new IX will make it possible for content platforms and ISPs to serve content faster and with less latency in these 25 additional markets.

In addition to the expansion announced today, the Equinix IX is currently offered in 11 cities in the Americas, including: Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, São Paulo, Seattle, Silicon Valley, Toronto and Washington DC.

It is also available in 11 cities in Europe – Dublin, Frankfurt, Geneva, Helsinki, London, Manchester, Milan, Paris, Stockholm, Warsaw and Zurich – and six cities in the Asia Pacific region – Hong Kong, Melbourne, Osaka, Singapore, Sydney and Tokyo.

Equinix serves 1,100 autonomous system number networks worldwide and carries 7,500Gbps of global peak traffic in 31 cities around the world.

“Equinix plays a growing role helping many of these to interconnect and exchange traffic. Our global base of 9,800 customers is already highly interconnected across multiple markets, and no other data centre or exchange operator is growing faster or has more peers or traffic.”

Equinix acquired TelecityGroup in January 2016 for $3.8bn, increasing its data centre footprint globally to 145 sites, including three in Dublin.

John Kennedy is a journalist who served as editor of Silicon Republic for 17 years

editorial@siliconrepublic.com