I noted earlier this week that we hadn’t seemed to have heard much from Equinix (NASDAQ:EQIX, news, filings) about its Ethernet Exchange offering lately. Then just yesterday, LightReading posted this excellent Q&A with Equinix’s Jim Poole. It’s almost as if someone was listening… But anyway, they certainly aren’t going away and they offered a few details on where they are with this new product.
- A total of 36 customers have signed on, a dozen or so more than they started with, and they expect to add ‘quite a few more’ by the end of 2010
- While they expect to be in 19 metros by the end of 2011 and 4-5 more by the end of 2010, they’re currently open for business in 8: LA, NYC, Chicago, DC, Silicon Valley, London, Paris, and Tokyo.
- They do not provide connectivity between exchanges, like CENX but in contrast to the network exchange plans of tndm.
There’s more in there as well, definitely worth a read.
So we will finish the first year of the Ethernet Exchange with three main participants. One powerful colocation specialist looking to complement its existing product line, one wholesale tandem switch operator looking for new pastures who has allied with interconnection specialist Telx and who just bought a top international IP and Ethernet backbone as well, and a pure play startup led by the founder of the Metro Ethernet Forum itself. Definitely an asymmetrical cast of characters, maybe we can put together a reality TV show for it. Hah.
I actually figured there would be a few more entrants by now. Three’s not really a crowd, not in the bandwidth business.
If you haven't already, please take our Reader Survey! Just 3 questions to help us better understand who is reading Telecom Ramblings so we can serve you better!
Categories: Datacenter · Ethernet
Join Our LinkedIn Group
I am not sure these platforms even make it. The need to provide middleman aggregation left the carrier model a decade ago with MAE East, MAE West, etc.
Rob – thanks for highlighting that LR interview with Equinix. It is certainly an interesting line up. I guess it will all boil down to how much the exchanges plan to charge for their services. As anyone familiar with the wholesale game knows, there ain’t much margin to skim. The real challenge rests with getting enterprises to buy and connect over the exchanges.
🙂 You know, one thing I try to do on this site is provide links to good content elsewhere – sometimes in a post like this but most often up in the Rambling’s Choice section. Too many of the trade journals act like islands, as if there are no other sites on the internet worth reading. I don’t cover everything and I don’t generate all the useful stuff in the sector, so I do try to do my part in linking it all together!