DE-CIX Nordic expansion: What’s happening?

DE-CIX, a leading Global Internet Exchange (IX) operator and home to the largest carrier and data centre neutral interconnection ecosystem globally, has announced today its expansion to the Nordic region. DE-CIX will be opening IX platforms in Norway, Denmark, and Finland. So, what does it involve and what does it mean?

Talking about the company’s expansion to Northern Europe, Ivo Ivanov, CEO of DE-CIX International, said: “The Nordic region comprises on some of the world’s most highly developed digital markets. “However, the interconnection infrastructure available in the region does not match the digital maturity of the economy in the Nordics. The region has seen significant growth in data centre investments for the concentration of hosting, storage and cloud deployments, and a high concentration of enterprises and manufacturing presence. 

“It is important for the related interconnection infrastructure to get closer to these investments, to serve the connectivity demands. DE-CIX has seen strong support from the Nordic data centre community for our plans to expand to the region, in which we will localise our interconnection capabilities for these markets, at the same time as integrating them into the DE-CIX European and trans-continental interconnection ecosystem,” Ivanov said.

What does DE-CIX’s expansion mean for regional connectivity?

The Internet Exchange operator’s expansion to Norway, Denmark and Finland will serve the regional connectivity needs, according to the company, and will be boosted by new transatlantic and intercontinental submarine cables bridging the Nordics with North America and Asia. DE-CIX will fully integrate the Nordic exchanges into the company’s existing leading carrier and data centre neutral interconnection ecosystem – the largest such in not only Central and Southern Europe, consisting of more than 10 IXs (2100+ connected networks), but also North America, with currently 5 IXs (400+ connected networks). The new DE-CIX Internet Exchanges in the Nordics will have presence in all relevant data centre facilities in the respective markets.

For the market entry into the Nordics, one of the initial partners which will support DE-CIX from Day 1 is BULK Infrastructure Group AS. BULK Infrastructure is Norway’s leader in building and operating sustainable digital infrastructure, data centre, colocation, fibre network and industrial real estate. The DE-CIX interconnection platforms will be available in the BULK data centres in Oslo (OS-IX) and Kristiansand (Campus N01) (Norway), as well as Esbjerg (Campus DK01) (Denmark).

“This partnership with DE-CIX will further enhance the options for customers to interconnect and access a range of services in addition to the already low latency access to major markets combined with the greenest cheapest energy in Europe,” says Gisle M. Eckhoff, Executive Vice President of Data Centers at BULK Infrastructure. 

“We are seeing an increase in demand for low cost highly sustainable solutions and with these new DE-CIX Nordics locations we are helping to support that gravity shift North. We are delighted to build on our previous investments to unlock the potential of the Nordics and look forward to working with DE-CIX to enable more customers to take advantage of renewable, long term sustainable data centres,” he said.

With the new DE-CIX IX platforms in Norway, Denmark and Finland, the company is extending its global footprint to overall 32 locations in Europe, North America, the Middle East, and Asia. The combined connected customer capacity of all DE-CIX locations worldwide exceeds 85 Terabits, making it the largest neutral interconnection ecosystem in the world.