Hurricane Electric operates its own global IPv4 and IPv6 networks and is considered to be the largest IPv6 backbone in the world as measured by the number of its interconnections to other networks. By offering IP transit services to the France-IX community in Marseille, Hurricane Electric will benefit from reaching a wider customer base within the EMEA region, offering additional value on France-IX members’ connection ports.
Currently, the France-IX internet exchange in Marseille has attracted 29 interconnected networks including those originating from France and serving local markets and also nationwide operators and operators from the US, Europe and increasingly from Middle-East and Africa.
Franck Simon, Managing Director at France-IX, explains the success of the peering node partly by the role that Marseille plays as an international gateway: "A few years ago we saw its potential and decided to bet on it. Marseille was already connected with multiple cables going to the African continent, the Middle-East and further afield into Asia. More of these cables, with even bigger capacities, are expected to be rolled out by the end of 2016 and into the beginning of 2017. With such an advantage, Marseille naturally stood out as the perfect place nearest to central Europe for African and Middle-Eastern operators to interconnect with both French and English content providers.”
The new partnership with giant network, Hurricane Electric, aims to satisfy an expressed need from the France-IX community to access additional services over their connections to the IXP.
The speed and ease of set-up, as well as management, are key reasons why Hurricane Electric was drawn to France-IX Marseille and chose to become the first partner there. Mike Leber, Hurricane Electric CEO, says: “Hurricane Electric can provision IP transit by the gigabit to any member of France-IX within the span of a few days. France-IX members ask the internet exchange for the set-up of a private VLAN between our port and theirs and we provide the service within 24 hours. With the marketplace programme, we are also able to meet requests from more networks, as the France-IX infrastructure is spread out over two datacentres in Marseille - Interxion and Jaguar Network.”
In addition to Marseille, Hurricane has also joined the France-IX marketplace in Paris, where it reaches a community of 320+ networks from various and diverse organizations.
