Cassava Technologies-owned Africa Data Centres (ADC) is now offering remote peering through its partnership with INX-ZA, which operates neutral, community-run Internet exchange points in South Africa.
Remote peering enables an organisation to peer without a physical presence at the local exchange point and this offers a more cost effective way to directly access an internet exchange (IX), without the need for infrastructure at the exchange point.
Announcing the deal today, ADC says through this partnership, it has been bringing free peering from any of Africa Data Centres facilities to INX-ZA's Johannesburg Internet Exchange (JINX), the oldest IXP in the country, as well as its Cape Town Internet Exchange (CINX).
The company says “remote peering makes multi-region peering more accessible, efficient, and simple to manage because Africa Data Centres has more internet exchanges at its facilities than any other colocation provider on the continent”.
Tesh Durvasula, CEO of Africa Data Centres, comments: "Bringing remote peering to the table is just one more way Africa Data Centres is helping customers reap the benefits of peering at INX-ZA without having to build and manage their infrastructure in Europe."
He explains that instead of setting up a point of presence to access internet exchanges, customers can now connect directly to them using existing infrastructure.
"Having this ability not only reduces capital expenditure and complexity. Deployments can be achieved in a matter of minutes rather than months."
Also, Durvasula says: “Using a remote peering provider or organisations in every industry can add scalable bandwidth capacity on flexible terms to access a wide range of IXs. The company in question will still need its own autonomous systems number in order to peer with other members but will maintain full control over peering and routing policies."
Africa Data Centres has more internet exchanges at its facilities than any other colocation provider on the continent.
Tesh Durvasula, CEO of ADC.
In addition, he says, the introduction of remote peering lays the groundwork for more businesses to peer at IXs around the world.
"It is a faster and more cost-effective way to access a wide range of IXPs, reducing the number of suppliers and general network costs. Connectivity can be managed simply, without the expense of purchasing physical port or having to deploy equipment at each exchange point."
According to Durvasula, customers will be able to apply to INX-ZA for ports in the way they have always done, and Africa Data Centres will cover the costs of ports and cross-connects, although the customer will maintain the technical relationship with INX-ZA directly.
"This next step makes sense to us and takes our relationship with INX-ZA to a new level while saving our customers time and money. It's a win-win situation," he says.
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