Equinix Reinforces Peering Leadership with Increased Port Speeds

With 100 Gpbs, customers can scale network capacity while significantly reducing costs

REDWOOD CITY, Calif., June 2, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Equinix, Inc. EQIX, the global interconnection and data center company, today 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.

Highlights / Key Facts

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.

Quotes

Bill Long, vice president, interconnection, Equinix

"Equinix strives to provide the best value for customers interconnecting IP traffic as their traffic volumes increase and they evolve from transit to public peering to private peering. Providing a cost effective 100G IX option provides customers with a valuable new tool for peering more efficiently."

David Temkin, director of global networks, Netflix

"As video usage continues to grow exponentially on the Internet, its robustness relies on continual improvement of public Internet Exchange platforms such as the Equinix Internet Exchange. The massive scalability that a 100G-capable platform provides leads to greater efficiency and helps us continue to deliver a great Netflix experience to our members around the world."

Mike Leber, president, Hurricane Electric

"As the world's largest IPv6 network, Hurricane Electric is focused on providing our customers with the highest quality transit service at the lowest price across North America, Asia, and Europe. To keep our costs low and reduce network latency, Hurricane makes extensive use of Equinix's globally deployed campus peering environments which allows us to interconnect with companies we need to, either through their Internet Exchange platform or through private interconnection."

Additional Resources

Why you need to develop a broader peering strategy [blog post]
More about the Equinix Internet Exchange [website]

About Equinix
Equinix, Inc. EQIX connects the world's leading businesses to their customers, employees and partners inside the most interconnected data centers. In 33 markets across five continents, Equinix is where companies come together to realize new opportunities and accelerate their business, IT and cloud strategies. www.equinix.com.

Forward Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from expectations discussed in such forward-looking statements. Factors that might cause such differences include, but are not limited to, the challenges of acquiring, operating and constructing IBX centers and developing, deploying and delivering Equinix services; unanticipated costs or difficulties relating to the integration of companies we have acquired or will acquire into Equinix; a failure to receive significant revenue from customers in recently built out or acquired data centers; failure to complete any financing arrangements contemplated from time to time; competition from existing and new competitors; the ability to generate sufficient cash flow or otherwise obtain funds to repay new or outstanding indebtedness; the loss or decline in business from our key customers; and other risks described from time to time in Equinix's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. In particular, see Equinix's recent quarterly and annual reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, copies of which are available upon request from Equinix. Equinix does not assume any obligation to update the forward-looking information contained in this press release.