DE-CIX has confirmed that will launch three interconnection platforms in Africa, as the first step in its expansion to the continent to establish interconnection platforms spread throughout its geography through the DE-CIX as as Service (DaaS) model. Prior to announcing this launch, the company has established strategic partnerships to place its interconnection point in Africawhich he calls AF-CIXin the Rack Center data center, located in the capital of Nigerian, Lagos.
In addition, it has reached an agreement with the Internet and hosting service provider United SA, in Kinshasha (Democratic Republic of Congo), which will allow you to establish the Africa Congo Exchange Point (ACIX). DE-CIS also has another agreement in this regard with the Libyan International Telecommunications Company, to locate a third point in its capital, Tripoli.
The goal DE-CIX has set for these three new platforms to come online is to achieve this by the end of 2022. All three will offer international capabilities and state-of-the-art interconnection services to their respective markets. Among them, cloud connectivity. In addition, the partners will extend the coverage of their platforms to other territories through their own infrastructure. In this way, it will be possible to reach nine African countries from the outset. These are, in addition to the three mentioned, Cameroon, Congo, the Central African Republic, Chad, Niger and Sudan.
The company intends to continue its progress in Africa, opening more offices in various regions and metropolitan areas of the continent in the coming months. For the time being, these three platforms will be the meeting point for traffic flows from Africa both to the continent and abroad. In addition, they will contribute to the creation of east-west and north-south connectivity corridors. This will improve connectivity in the area, as well as the user experience. This will also improve affordable internet access in Africa for businesses and individuals.
With this announcement, the interconnection platforms operated by DE-CIX with a DaaS model rise to 12. And in this case, the DE-CIX exchange points on the peninsula, located in Lisbon, Madrid and Barcelona, will be key to that the connection available in Africa reduces its latency. Due to their position, the points of the peninsula will connect practically all the continents and facilitate data traffic between them. Thus, the three new interconnection platforms in Africa will be connected to the three aforementioned points on the peninsula, which will be the gateway to DE-CIX’s neutral interconnection ecosystem.
Ivo Ivanov, General Director of DE-CIX InternationalHe has recalled that «hehe hundreds of millions of users in Africa deserve digital services of the highest quality, and this requires the best possible local infrastructure. We are happy to contribute to address the increased need for interconnection on the continent, with modern interconnection services designed for business, such as cloud connectivity and direct access to cloud-based applications. It’s time for Digital Africa. Therefore, at DE-CIX we are proud to support Rack Centre, UNITED and LITC in the exploitation of these new interconnection platforms.«.
