Equinix reinforces peering leadership with increased port speeds

Equinix has announced the availability of 100Gbps port speeds on the Equinix Internet Exchange™ (IX), its peering platform that enables networks, content providers and enterprise customers to easily and effectively exchange Internet traffic. The increase in port speed is intended to meet the growing bandwidth demands of these customers who leverage IX to obtain significant cost savings by eliminating the need for an intermediary network. Customers such as Netflix and Hurricane Electric are among the companies already taking advantage of these increased speeds.

In today’s digital economy, companies are increasingly interconnecting with one another to fuel growth and realize new business opportunities. Equinix brings together more than 6,300 companies across its global footprint of 100+ International Business Exchange™ (IBX®) data centers. Providing additional peering capacity is essential to continue to meet the needs of this growing, global customer base. In addition to Internet Exchange growth, customers turn to Equinix for the ability to privately peer with one another via cross connects in the same IBX. Equinix estimates that current IP peering traffic enabled via cross connects in its data centers is growing by 15Tbps per quarter.

Equinix Internet Exchange aggregates thousands of peering sessions onto a shared fabric, connecting peers at 19 Internet Exchange Point (IXP) locations in 17 markets around the world. With the enhanced peering capabilities, the service further lowers costs and delivers enhanced end-to-end network performance, speed and reliability. 100Gbps port speeds provide benefits for both existing and new customers of the Internet Exchange. For existing customers that are looking to lower their costs while preserving their current level of peering bandwidth, they can seamlessly replace multiple 10Gbps Internet Exchange ports with single 100Gbps ports. For those looking to increase bandwidth they can immediately add 100Gbps ports as well as add bandwidth in 10Gpbs increments.

As a global leader in Internet peering, demand for the Equinix Internet Exchange is outpacing overall growth in Internet traffic. In fact, the company has witnessed more growth in the past 18 months than the previous four years combined, resulting in Equinix becoming one of the largest peering platforms in the world, as measured by peak traffic (4.37Tbs).

100Gbps port speeds are currently available in nine markets across Asia Pacific and North America, including Chicago, Dallas, Hong Kong, Los Angeles, Silicon Valley, Singapore, Sydney, Tokyo, and Washington, D.C., with additional European markets being added later in 2015.