Digital Realty introduces Digital Open Internet Exchange

Digital Realty Trust, Inc. has announced the launch of Digital Open Internet Exchange, a global, first of its kind in North America, open-interconnect and peering environment that aims to accommodate the Internet community’s demand for more independent and cost-effective exchange options. The initiative is expected to strengthen the company’s global ecosystem.

“Digital Open Internet Exchange is a game-changer for the entire IP and networking community, and for our customers,” said Michael Foust, Chief Executive Officer at Digital Realty. “By creating a truly open Internet exchange environment, we are supporting the community’s desire for neutral exchanges that are more efficient and cost-effective than those available today. The end result for our customers will be immediate access to enhanced interconnectivity and Internet peering capabilities across the more than 30 markets in our global portfolio.”

A critical component of the Digital Realty Ecosystem, Digital Open Internet Exchange provides the Internet community with the necessary data center infrastructure to support its global initiatives around developing truly neutral and member-governed Internet exchanges, a model that has proven successful across Europe. The company is expected to operate as an endorsed data center partner with the governing bodies and endorsed IXPs (internet exchange providers) of Internet exchanges in each of the major exchange locations in North America, Europe and the Asia Pacific region. The initial rollout for Digital Open Internet Exchange will take place in the New York metro area and Northern Virginia, followed by deployment in several other U.S. markets.

“We understand that the costs and limitations associated with connecting to the existing Internet exchanges in the U.S., as well as peer-to-peer interconnecting, are simply too high.” said John Sarkis, Vice President of Connectivity and Carrier Operations at Digital Realty. “This initiative establishes the optimal exchange environment, making it possible for Internet service providers (ISPs), content delivery networks (CDNs) and content producers to interconnect with their peers as well as to other exchanges from our data centers at a significantly lower cost than they pay today, while also improving the quality of service they can provide to customers. By empowering the community to take control of the way it operates the exchanges, we will enable organizations within business ecosystems—like-minded and vertical industries—to connect with each other in and across all of Digital Realty’s 120-plus global locations.”

The Digital Realty Ecosystem provides customers with a neutral, efficient and connectivity-rich environment to connect with carriers, business partners and service providers. It also provides an underlying, redundant infrastructure for carriers and service providers to deliver their entire portfolio of products and services to customers in any Digital Realty data center, without capital-intensive deployment costs.