Equinix, Inc. has announced the expansion of the Equinix Internet Exchange into nine new metros in the EMEA and Americas regions in Q4 2017 and early 2018, including Amsterdam, Denver, Dublin, Frankfurt, Houston, London, Manchester, Milan, and Stockholm. The news comes as Equinix also announced the next phase in the evolution of its global platform through the direct physical and virtual connection of its International Business Exchange™ (IBX®) data centers around the world, enabling customers to connect on demand to any other customer from any Equinix location.

The Equinix Internet Exchange allows drivers of internet traffic, including ISPs and content providers, to easily and effectively peer traffic and expand operations globally. It is the world's leading Internet Exchange provider, serving the most networks (1,100 ASNs), carrying the most traffic (7,500+ Gbps global peak traffic), in the most locations (31 metros globally across the Americas, EMEA and APAC). Together with additional services in the Equinix portfolio, including Cross Connects and Equinix Connect, Equinix offers a comprehensive service suite that provides IP networks with the highest quality and lowest TCO options for managing and exchanging IP traffic. As Equinix expands its global footprint, it will offer this full suite of interconnection services within each metro where the company operates.

As IP traffic driven by cloud, mobile, IoT, video, gaming, and data/analytics continues to grow, the need for networks to exchange traffic, or "peer," is accelerating. Equinix is meeting this demand by expanding peering capabilities at the digital edge in proximity to dense populations of users, apps, data and content. This enables service providers and their customers to operate more efficiently, improving end-to-end network performance, speed and reliability while reducing overall IP transit costs.

"As IP traffic growth continues to accelerate, it is more important than ever that the IP peering community has a scalable, reliable and globally consistent Internet Exchange solution in all markets where they want to peer traffic," said Bill Long, vice president, interconnection, Equinix.

In addition to the announced expansions, the Equinix Internet Exchange is currently offered in 11 metros in the Americas (Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, São Paulo, Seattle, Silicon Valley, Toronto, and Washington, D.C.), five metros in EMEA (Geneva, Helsinki, Paris, Warsaw, and Zurich) and six metros in APAC (Hong Kong, Melbourne, Osaka, Singapore, Sydney, and Tokyo).

Equinix will continue to partner in key markets with other Internet Exchanges, such as AMS-IX, LINX, DE-CIX, TorIX, and JPNAP, while also offering the Equinix Internet Exchange service to provide networks with a globally consistent alternative Internet Exchange platform.