Interconnecting Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Fujairah: UAE-IX to extend its presence to further new locations in the United Arab Emirates
Dubai (UAE), 7 December 2020. The leading carrier and data center neutral Internet Exchange operator in the GCC region, UAE-IX powered by DE-CIX, today announces that its award-winning Apollon platform will be extended to further sites and data centers in the UAE, including Khazna Dubai, Khazna Abu Dhabi, and a new point of presence at Smarthub Fujairah. Executives from Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Company (EITC) and DE-CIX, the world’s leading Internet Exchange (IX) operator, signed the contract during this week’s GITEX Technology Week in Dubai. The rollout is aimed to be completed and ready for service in the second quarter of 2021.
UAE-IX is built on a fully redundant switching platform and is the first data center and carrier-neutral Internet Exchange for the Middle East that interconnects global networks and, above all, network operators and content providers in the GCC region. In 2019, UAE-IX deployed DE-CIX’s Apollon Advanced platform to enable hyper-scalability and Cloud Exchange features alongside its global peering services. Customers are connected directly through a virtual local area network (VLAN) and via their access at UAE-IX reaching 50+ cloud providers, from niches to hybrid solutions. UAE-IX is also connected to DE-CIX Marseille, which enables participants to peer remotely with over 80 additional networks.
Fahad Al-Hassawi, Acting CEO of Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Company, says: “Everybody associated with our brand is delighted that we have finalized this agreement that will see us create the first nationwide and entirely data center-neutral interconnection platform. In the new digital landscape, interconnection is essential. Upon completion of this, pending expansion, UAE-IX will become accessible from all relevant sea cables on the traffic highways between Middle East, Asia, Europe and Africa – opening the region’s largest cloud connectivity market place that will be accessible for any type of industry segments, including Finance, Education, Healthcare, Logistics and many others. GITEX 2020 marks the first step of this exciting project and we are looking forward the coming period with great anticipation, having supported DE-CIX with our infrastructure since its establishment in 2012.”
“The global pandemic has told us that data needs to be as close to the customer and the user as possible to increase quality, security and resilience. In addition, latency requirements are getting lower and lower, so it is becoming even more important to also bring interconnection services as close to people and businesses as possible – everywhere on the planet. DE-CIX, the operator of the world’s leading interconnection ecosystem, brings low-latency, high-performance interconnection services to 25 metro regions around the world, connecting over 2100 of the world’s largest networks, available through 500+ data centers in more than 100 countries. With the expansion to more locations in the UAE, DE-CIX is keeping its own promise in offering easy interconnection to our customers anywhere needed – especially in the UAE,” says Ivo Ivanov, CEO of DE-CIX International.
UAE-IX serves more than 80 customers, comprising a mix of global enterprises, carriers, cloud hyperscalers, content providers, and emerging technology platforms, alongside banking and financial services companies. Since before the pandemic in early 2020, UAE-IX has increased its peak traffic by more than 60 percent to well over 200 Gbit/s.
