Equinix adds 3 locations, 16 customers to its Ethernet exchange

Equinix might not have been the first service provider to develop an Ethernet exchange, but its presence as a global neutral interconnection and collocation provider created the right foundation to enter into this new market segment.

"The Internet exchange was very similar 10 years ago with most Internet exchange happening over a public exchange now the vast majority of the Internet exchange is private because as backbones matured people started establishing NNIs and those occur in our facilities as well," said Jim Poole, general manager for global Network and Content Service Providers for Equinix. "From an Ethernet perspective, we view that the Ethernet exchange as a series of products that carriers look to us for a solution in how they interconnect."  

But Equinix is not resting on its laurels either.

This week the service provider has lit up three new European markets--Amsterdam, Frankfurt and Paris--in addition to its Marketplace online portal that connects buyers and sellers of Ethernet-based services. In total, Equinix's Carrier Ethernet Exchange operates in 10 major markets: Amsterdam, Chicago, Frankfurt, London, Los Angeles, New York, Paris, Silicon Valley, Tokyo and Washington, D.C.

Since launching its Carrier Ethernet Exchange last fall, Equinix now has a total of 38 participants with the addition of 16 new customers, including 2Connect, Allstream, FiberLight, Global Telecom & Technology, Glowpoint, Internet Solutions, IP Networks, Layer 42, Megapath, Nimbus Exchange, PacNet, Peerless Network, SSE Telecom, Virtela, Voxel and XO.

With its Marketplace for Carrier Ethernet Exchange, an online portal for connecting buyers and sellers of Ethernet-based services, service providers will be able to promote wholesale Ethernet services to other carriers by creating profiles, listing qualifications, uploading ‘lit building' lists , and responding to requests for quotes.

Poole said out of its existing 605 current customers, they are engaged about 250 in various stages about adopting the Ethernet exchange service. "We're still early days on this as a product, but Ethernet is still early days and we expect that there will be far more than 250 Ethernet providers globally as time goes on," he said. "Most of the ones who are currently with us on the exchange are also in early stages of their rollouts."

Going forward, Equinix plans to continue growing its global Ethernet exchange footprint. By Q2 2011, Equinix plans to light up an additional 10 markets: Atlanta, Dallas, Denver, Hong Kong, Miami, Seattle, Singapore, Sydney, Toronto and Zurich.

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