9 September 2010 – Interxion, a leading European provider of carrier-neutral colocation data centre services, announced today that France-IX, the largest Internet exchange in France, is now operational in its Paris data centres.

France-IX, with the support of its founding members – Google, Akamai, Jaguar Network, and Neo Telecoms, has made agreements with the PANAP exchange to migrate all of its customers to France-IX in 2010 and for SFINX Internet Exchange to interconnect to France-IX. This will make it  France’s largest exchange representing over 70% of French Internet Exchange traffic and by the end of the year it is predicted that it will be carrying in excess of 100Gbps of traffic.
 
This partnership will provide Interxion’s French customers with the widest range of peering opportunities available, reducing latency and transit costs; and France-IX members will be able to expand their applications infrastructure seamlessly in the security of Interxion’s Paris data centre campus.

“Unlike London, Amsterdam and Frankfurt, Paris had no single, large-scale, neutral Internet Exchange until now – a situation which has meant that many carriers chose not to exchange traffic in Paris.  Although many IXPs were present in Paris, there wasn’t really a strong place for peering,” said Franck Simon, Managing Director, France-IX. “France-IX addresses and resolves these issues, providing a technically advanced and highly professional neutral exchange enabling Paris to join the front rank of Europe’s Internet interconnection hubs.”

“Our partnership with France-IX will give our customers an unprecedented range of cost-effective connectivity and peering options,” said Fabrice Coquio, Managing Director, Interxion France.

The launch of France-IX further enhances Interxion’s connectivity offer, with 18 of Europe’s leading public Internet Exchanges connecting at Interxion facilities, giving access to over 2,000 ISPs and providing unprecedented and cost-effective peering opportunities to customers across Europe.

"Since its founding in 1998, Interxion has been an active promoter of public Internet peering-points across Europe, helping Internet Exchanges develop their infrastructures and providing our customers the best access to networks. We are pleased to be supporters of this broad-based and popular initiative,” said Kevin Dean, Interxion CMO. “From the start, Interxion has played an active role in jump-starting this project that will lead France’s efforts for a strong national Internet Exchange, enabling Paris to join the top tier of Europe’s Internet interconnection hubs.”