Equinix signs up additional European-based carriers to Ethernet exchange
Equinix, a provider of global data centre services, today announced that European-based carriers Exponential-e, Hibernia Atlantic and Tinet have signed up to participate in the recently announced Equinix Carrier Ethernet Exchange platform, a development programme to define enhanced solutions for the exchange of data traffic between carriers providing Ethernet services.
The new European-based participants bring the total number of carriers involved in the global programme up to nine.
The Equinix Carrier Ethernet Exchange programme will establish a platform for multi-provider carrier Ethernet interconnection that meets Metro Ethernet Forum standards. The project focuses on Ethernet Network to Network Interconnection (E-NNI) as well as complementary features to enable a variety of benefits to participants. The initial deployment locations include London, New York, Chicago and Silicon Valley at Equinix International Business Exchange (IBX) data centres.
"In order to offer Ethernet WAN solutions outside of our own geographical service area we currently need to establish separate interconnection relationships with other carriers on an individual basis; this process is both complex and time-consuming," said Mukesh Bavisi, VP of Engineering at Exponential-e. "Equinix already plays a strategic role in our peering relationships with other Tier 1 service providers, so it is a natural choice that we leverage its carrier-rich interconnection hubs to develop an Ethernet interconnection infrastructure."
"At Tinet, we are focused on helping local and regional service providers fulfill their global networking requirements and deliver international VPN services to their corporate customers," said Paolo Gambini, Chief Marketing Officer of Tinet. "In particular, we are seeing an uplift in demand for our global Ethernet Extension services. Traditionally, we have leveraged our vast network footprint and a number of Ethernet Network to Network Interconnection (E-NNI) agreements we have developed with various providers worldwide for fast and secure Ethernet delivery. Now with Equinix's new carrier Ethernet platform, we can further remove the technical complexities, making interconnections both quicker and easier to facilitate. This in turn means we are better able to support the growing network demands of our wholesale customers."
Demand for carrier Ethernet services is forecast to double within five years, according to Infonetics Research. Additionally, in the past 12 months, Equinix has seen a significant increase in customer inquiries for a platform within Equinix that would enable carriers to easily interconnect their Ethernet networks.
"With more than 360 networks, Equinix's data centres are some of the most carrier-dense in the world; this makes them the ideal location for us to interconnect with complementary Ethernet service providers that operate beyond our Trans-Atlantic footprint," said Fergus Innes, VP of Sales EMEA at Hibernia Atlantic. "Based on the feedback from our customers, we believe that this new platform will enable us to expand our Ethernet offerings into multiple communities."
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