France-IX expands points-of-peering in Marseille

France-IX, the international internet exchange point provider, will expand its network in Marseille this summer by opening a second point-of-presence (PoP) in Jaguar Network’s MRS01 data centre. This expansion, made possible by the ongoing growth of its first Marseille PoP, meets the high resiliency requirements of its existing members and increases capacity for new users looking to benefit from peering in Marseille.

Forging a Marseille community of peers

As a telecom hub, the France-IX internet exchange point’s primary mission is to interconnect different internet networks over a single platform and so provide maximum efficiency, performance and economic value. The opening of its second site in Marseille sees a continuation of this aim.

“When we launched France-IX in Paris in 2010, we had to fix a chaotic situation: the French networks community was split into just under ten internet exchange points and the international community had decided to exclude France from its interconnection plans, even though this country was, and still is, highly attractive in terms of connectivity,” said Franck Simon, Managing Director at France-IX. However, France-IX never intended Paris to be its only focus, as Franck explains: “We always believed in the success of Marseille and we have been working on building an international peering community in this city since 2012. The results of our efforts are now being realised and Marseille is even attracting interest from other internet exchange points. We will continue to do all we can to avoid the community becoming split - the power is in the community.”

Enhanced resilience

With the opening of its second Marseille site, France-IX will be able to offer an alternative as well as a complement to its members that are already connected through its first PoP. Two differentiated end-to-end paths of dark fibres will be deployed to interconnect the two sites, allowing a permanent interconnection between the two PoPs and delivering real benefits to the disaster recovery plans of the networks already present in Marseille.

Kévin Polizzi, President of Jaguar Network, a well-known operator in the data centre and cloud computing market, explains that the site is very well suited for risk-management: “We designed and built the site with the needs of wholesale operators, cloud providers and enterprises in mind, in order to provide a complete and certified range of services.”

Anticipating future demand

France-IX has already interconnected over 20 networks at its first PoP in Marseille. This community consists primarily of French and international content delivery networks along with French, Middle-Eastern and African operators, which collect the content.

“We will replicate the equipment deployment that we have in our first PoP at the Interxion MRS1 datacentre. These switches and routers can connect in excess of 60 optical ports. We estimate that at least a dozen additional members are likely to become connected before the end of 2015,” concludes Franck Simon.

Jaguar also foresees this upward trajectory. “We’re seeing a rise in demand from the EMEA region (Europe, Middle-East, Africa), which confirms the international status of Marseille. By joining forces, we are confident that the number of peers will double in 2016,” says Kévin Polizzi.