Reflecting the trend of previous years, connected customer capacity on the DE-CIX Internet Exchanges grew by 14% to more than 140 terabits, and connected networks ended the year at over 3,600 worldwide.
With close to 60 exabytes of data throughput globally during 2023, DE-CIX experienced 23% growth in total traffic volume. DE-CIX Frankfurt, one of the largest IXs in the world, achieved peak traffic speeds exceeding 16 Terabits per second (Tbit/s), while the global peak traffic across the company’s interconnected platforms rose to over 22 Tbit/s.
In terms of geographical expansion, the interconnection specialist took platforms into operation in a further 14 metro markets in 2023, increasing its reach to more than 50 metro markets globally, spanning North America, Africa, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. Six DE-CIX-owned IXs (five in the Nordics and one in India) and three DE-CIX as a Service IXs (two in Africa and one in Jordan) were taken live during the year, while two further IXs were launched in Mexico. The first three of DE-CIX’s new model of dedicated Cloud Exchanges were also added to the global footprint during the year, in the USA and Japan. Technical work was also undertaken on a further six platforms, taken live in early 2024.
Meeting Interconnection Needs of Enterprises and Organizations
The interest in DE-CIX’s enterprise-facing services grew strongly in 2023, with a 50% increase in cloud connections year on year and close to 4 terabits of booked capacity to clouds by the end of the year. The company extended its backbone network to circumnavigate the planet and interconnect the vast majority of its operations, enabling globally-operating enterprises to build their own worldwide networks using the DE-CIX infrastructure. In addition, the company established a Customer Success Management, Presales and Consulting team in 2023 to support the design, implementation, and delivery of customized solutions for enterprises and large-scale customers, providing a service unique in the enterprise interconnection market.
“With the continued success and growth of DE-CIX around the world in 2023, we see 2024 as a pivotal point in the history of the company. Twelve years after our first international expansion, we have now built up a crucial geographical presence around the globe to achieve our strategic goals,” said DE-CIX CEO Ivo Ivanov. “We enable organizations of all types and sizes to provide secure, scalable, and controllable digital experiences for their customers and staff by leveraging the strength and reliability of a global interconnection ecosystem. This has become even more critical for both infrastructure providers and enterprises with the current and sustained boom in AI. The whole realm of innovation demands digital infrastructure networked in a fine mesh to allow data to flow where it is needed. These infrastructures must also be interconnected with the relevant recipients to allow the seamless interweaving of human and artificial intelligence in order to create societal and economic benefits for people and businesses. At DE-CIX, we are working with our excellent team and our valued partners to make this future a reality.”
DE-CIX Expands in North America
DE-CIX North America, the largest neutral interconnection ecosystem on the North American continent, covers six locations in the US: the five IXs New York, Dallas, Chicago, Phoenix, and Richmond, and the dedicated Cloud Exchange established in Seattle in 2023. Double-digit growth in network connections across the North American ecosystem in 2023 brought the total to over 500, and total connected customer capacity increased by 27% to close to 25 terabits.
Peak data traffic at DE-CIX New York – the largest IX in the Northeast and the largest data center and carrier neutral Internet Exchange on the east coast – grew by 22% to 1.6 Tbit/s, while at DE-CIX Dallas it increased by 43% to 897 Gigabits per second (Gbit/s), rapidly closing on the 1 Tbit/s milestone by the end of the year. Connected customer capacity at DE-CIX New York grew by 16%, adding up to 14 terabits, with 280 networks connected to the IX. In Dallas, there were over 150 networks connected by the end of 2023, and connected customer capacity increased by 33% to over 7 terabits. Total connected customer capacity at DE-CIX Chicago grew by 55% to 2.3 terabits, while connected networks increased by 50% to 48.
Additionally, the expansion to Mexico in late 2023, with IXs to go live in 2024, means that DE-CIX’s Internet and Cloud Exchanges in Mexico City and Queretaro will act as a gateway for traffic flows between North and Central America and serve the needs of network operators and enterprises in Mexico for interconnection and cloud connectivity.
Europe: Significant growth and Northern Expansion
The DE-CIX Southern European region, which includes the IXs in Madrid, Barcelona, Marseille, Lisbon, and Palermo, is the largest neutral interconnection ecosystem in Southern Europe, with close to 500 network connections distributed across 13 data centers. Customer capacity of the Southern European IXs increased by 31% to close to 12 terabits in 2023. DE-CIX Madrid achieved peak data throughput of 1.5 Tbit/s, an increase of 44% on 2022 levels, while in Marseille traffic increased by 35% to more than 350 Gigabits per second (Gbit/s).
In Germany, the DE-CIX ecosystem comprised 1800 network connections and counted more than 86 terabits of connected customer capacity in 2023, spread across six IXs in Frankfurt, Hamburg, Munich, Dusseldorf, Leipzig, and the Ruhr Region (Ruhr-CIX powered by DE-CIX). Enterprise connectivity was also an important growth area for DE-CIX in Germany, with the number of cloud connects increasing by more than 50% in 2023.
DE-CIX Frankfurt – the largest Internet Exchange in Europe and one of the largest in the world – saw 15% growth in peak traffic, rising to over 16 Tbit/s during the year. Overall, 40 exabytes of data were exchanged at DE-CIX Frankfurt in 2023, an increase of almost a quarter compared to 2022. In addition, DE-CIX introduced a new generation of optical transceivers, the 100G LR-1, in Frankfurt and successfully migrated over a thousand customer access ports to the latest Nokia SR14s FP5-based routers. The migration was necessary to meet the high demand for 100GE and 400GE access ports, while also supporting future growth in Frankfurt.
In Northern Europe, DE-CIX expanded to three Nordic countries during the year, taking five locations live. The Internet and Cloud Exchanges in Oslo and Kristiansand (Norway), Esbjerg and Copenhagen (Denmark), and Helsinki (Finland) provide network operators and enterprises with high-performance interconnection services and are interconnected with DE-CIX Hamburg, the most important IX in Northern Germany and a gateway to the German ecosystem.
Africa: Strong First-Year Growth
2023 saw the establishment of the first two DE-CIX as a Service (DaaS) IXs on the African continent, AF-CIX (African Cloud Interconnection Exchange) powered by DE-CIX in Lagos, Nigeria, and ACIX (Africa Congo Internet Exchange) powered by DE-CIX in Kinshasa (Democratic Republic of the Congo). Both IXs grew strongly in their first year, connecting in total 34 networks across the African ecosystem, including Internet service providers, carriers, mobile operators, and systems integrators supporting enterprise digitalization in Africa.
Middle East: High Demand for Neutral Interconnection
Due to strong demand, in 2023 further locations were added to DE-CIX’s existing Middle-Eastern ecosystem, joining UAE-IX powered by DE-CIX and DE-CIX Istanbul: Aqaba-IX powered by DE-CIX went live in 2023, while the technical prerequisites were put in place during the year for IRAQ-IXP powered by DE-CIX and Pakistan Internet Exchange (PIE) powered by DE-CIX, which were taken live in early 2024. By the end of 2023, more than 6 terabits of customer capacity were connected across the entire region, up 16% on 2022, and network connections grew by 25% to close to 180.
In 2023, UAE-IX powered by DE-CIX had the highest peak traffic of any IX in the Middle East, growing by 53% to reach 598 Gbit/s. Furthermore, the number of connected networks grew to 105, making it the largest IX in the region. One significant development in 2023 was the connection between UAE-IX powered by DE-CIX and SmartHub IX Fujairah, which enabled the partners to establish a seamless nationwide integrated ecosystem for the first time.
In 2023, DE-CIX Istanbul also continued to grow as a neutral interconnection and cloud exchange for Internet service providers, content delivery networks, other network operators, and enterprises of all sizes from Turkye, the Caucasus region, and the Middle East. DE-CIX Istanbul saw an increased demand for access to the platform, resulting in 15% growth in connected networks.
India: Significant Growth and New IX
In 2023, DE-CIX India not only grew in terms of customers, but also geographically: DE-CIX India opened its fifth IX, introducing new interconnection possibilities in Hyderabad, a major center for the tech industry. The DE-CIX India ecosystem thus covers five markets: Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata, and Hyderabad. The total connected customer capacity of the DE-CIX India platforms increased by 18% and grew to close to 10 terabits, with more than 600 network connections across the ecosystem.
At the region’s flagship IX, DE-CIX Mumbai – the largest Internet Exchange in the Asia Pacific – data throughput at peak times increased by 32%, reaching 1.5 Tbit/s, and connected customer capacity grew by 14%. DE-CIX Delhi’s peak traffic rose by 24%, reaching 245 Gbit/s by the end of the year, with connected customer capacity rising 16% to 1.6 terabits. At DE-CIX Chennai, traffic increased by more than 70% to 114 Gbit/s, and connected customer capacity by 35% to 1.2 terabits.
East and Southeast Asia: Network Growth and Location Expansion
In Southeast Asia, DE-CIX announced its market entry to Indonesia in 2023, the largest market in the region by population and network count, establishing a joint venture company, PT DE-CIX Indonesia Pratama, with IDMarco Digital Solusi, a subsidiary of the Salim Group. In addition, the technical groundwork was carried out for the establishment of a third IX in Malaysia, Penang-IX powered by DE-CIX, launched in early 2024. These developments bring the coverage of the DE-CIX Asia platform, the first distributed IX in Southeast Asia, to seven markets: Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Johor Bahru, Penang, Bandar Seri Begawan in Brunei, Manila (as an IX partnership with operator GetaFIX), and Jakarta.
Throughout Southeast Asia, the total number of customer networks connected climbed by 21% to 86 networks in 2023. The connected capacity increased by 44%, reaching 1.9 terabits by the end of the year.
