Subscribe

Hetzner peers with NAP Africa for mutual benefit


Cape Town, 18 Apr 2017

Hetzner now peers directly at NAP Africa in Isando via a 10Gbps circuit, joining the largest active peering community in Africa, including many content distribution networks (CDNs).

As South Africa's largest specialist hosting company, hosting in excess of 330 000 Web sites and a multitude of other services through its self-managed server platform, Hetzner's content is now easily available to all network operators at the various Internet eXchange points (IXP) in South Africa.

"NAP Africa in Cape Town was our first exchange link a few years ago, and we're pleased to now interconnect with them in Johannesburg too. This peering has mutual benefit as we now directly connect our large volume of hosted content with the many CDNs and ISPs located there," says Athena Turner, Hetzner's Marketing and Communications Manager.

By having a presence at NAP Africa and JINX, Hetzner has significantly increased its reach into the local Internet landscape through its open peering policy. Combined with JINX peering a year ago, over 65% of their local traffic is now routed over these exchange points rather than via costly transit links.

"Through our peering points at NAP Africa and the JINX, hosted by Hetzner in Samrand, we contribute in excess of 4Gbps of traffic to the exchange points, which continues to grow on a weekly basis," adds Turner.

Hetzner actively supports such initiatives, and advocates for settlement-free peering i.e. the voluntary and free exchange of traffic between two networks, for mutual benefit, such as NAP Africa, to:

* reduce the cost of Internet connectivity to the public.
* reduce latency with simplified routing.
* increase network resilience by offering multiple connection options.

Hetzner now peers with most of the large network operators in South Africa, including Openserv, Neotel, Telkom Internet, MTN Business, Vodacom, Optinet, VOX, Google, Microsoft, Hurricane Electric, Cloudflare, Borwood and iBurst amongst others.

Hetzner's carrier-neutral Data Centre in Samrand is located close to major fibre routes and telecoms infrastructure, enabling easier interconnects, lower latencies, and better performance.

With redundant transit links and peering points, all terminating on 10Gbps interfaces, Hetzner is well connected to provide a best-in-class hosting experience. Through its transit links, Hetzner has access to four cable systems for international transit, while most local traffic is exchanged at the internet exchange points.

Hetzner encourages any network operators to peer with them, either at the exchange points or directly.

To set up peering with Hetzner, see their PeeringDB entry at https://as37153.peeringdb.com and e-mail peering@hetzner.co.za.

Share

Hetzner

Hetzner is a leading player in the South African Web hosting environment. Established in 1999, the company has grown in stature and expertise, currently servicing over 330 000 active domains. It was founded with the vision of providing reliable Web hosting solutions coupled with outstanding customer support to the SME and mid-corporate markets.

By consistently delivering exemplary customer service and cost-effective Web hosting, dedicated servers, colocation and custom hosting solutions, Hetzner continues to grow its market share, making it the largest company to specialise in Web hosting in South Africa.

Visit its Web site for more information: www.hetzner.co.za

NAP Africa

NAP Africa is a neutral, layer 2 Internet eXchange point (IXP), located within each of the Teraco data centres in South Africa.

* Neutral, layer 2 Internet eXchange (IX) point
* IPv4 and IPv6 are available;
* Flexible and scalable connectivity available from fast Ethernet to 10 Gigabit Ethernet;
* Online peering and traffic management tools; and
* Available within every Teraco data centre facility.

See: https://www.napafrica.net/

Editorial contacts