DE-CIX celebrates its 25th anniversary

DE-CIX celebrates its 25th anniversary

 

The world’s leading Internet Exchange operator DE-CIX celebrates a quarter of a century of Internet history “Made in Germany” this year. 1995 heralded the birth of DE-CIX (German Commercial Internet Exchange) in the old post office in the Gutleut quarter of Frankfurt. This was the moment when three Internet service providers – MAZ from Hamburg, EUnet from Dortmund, and XLink from Karlsruhe – connected their networks. The aim was to promote global digital interconnection and establish efficient and cost-neutral data exchange via Internet Exchanges. Today, DE-CIX – with over 20 locations in Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and North America – is an important element of the global interconnection infrastructure, and  DE-CIX Frankfurt is the largest Internet exchange in the world. 

“Back in 1995, Frankfurt was already the telecommunications capital of Germany, and in the meantime it has developed into Europe’s largest Internet hub. In the mid-nineties, data streams between different providers had to cross the Atlantic twice – even if the sender and recipient were actually only a few kilometers apart. With the idea of the interconnection of networks, we were dead right. DE-CIX was in the right place at the right time, because high-speed information exchange was exactly what we could offer our customers. It heralded the birth of a world-wide success model,” DE-CIX CEO Harald A. Summa recalls the early days.

From then until today: Technical innovations during live operations

The technological progress at DE-CIX can be seen, among other things, in the development of the speed of data transmission. 25 years ago, the standard connection to DE-CIX was still 10 Mbit/s via Ethernet. Today, this has increased by a factor of ten thousand to 100 Gbit/s, and thanks to the DE-CIX Apollon platform up to 400 Gbit/s is even possible today in DE-CIX in Frankfurt. Today, DE-CIX in Frankfurt achieves peaks of up to 8.1 Terabits per second data throughput. There is no Internet Exchange (IX) in the world where more data is exchanged.

In the meantime, DE-CIX uses patch robots in the data centers in order to connect customers. One initial success story for these robots – to date the only ones of their kind in the world – was the largest migration in the company’s history. “In 2018, we achieved an important milestone with the new location in the Kleyerstrasse Campus in Frankfurt,” Harald Summa reports. “It was an enormous migration of over 450 customers during live operations – equivalent to open-heart surgery”. Through the use of the robots, a port can be provisioned in just a few minutes, without the need for a technician to actually be physically present. During the migration, a total of more than 15 kilometers of fiber-optic cable were laid.

From Frankfurt to the world – the international expansion of the DE-CIX success model

In parallel to the expansion of DE-CIX in Frankfurt to further locations and the expansion of further Internet Exchanges in Germany, DE-CIX opened its first international Internet Exchange, UAE-IX in Dubai, in 2012. With that, the starting gun was fired for rapid expansion, which experienced another highlight in 2015 with the setting up of DE-CIX New York. “We brought our trailblazing model into the US market filled with motivation and passion. The fact that today we are already the largest neutral Internet Exchange in the New York metropolitan region has exceeded our expectations,” Ivo A. Ivanov, CEO DE-CIX International, reminisces. The international expansion continued in 2016 with DE-CIX Madrid, the fastest-growing IX in the world. With the opening of interconnection hubs in Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, and Delhi, the company enjoyed an exceptionally successful entry into the Indian market in 2018, followed in 2019 by entering South East Asia, with DE-CIX Malaysia. Today, DE-CIX operates more than 20 IXs in Europe, the Middle East, India, South East Asia, and North America, with close to 1900 connected networks from over 100 countries.

The Digital Triangle: 5G, artificial intelligence and IoT as drivers of digitalization

As a result of the continuing digital transformation of companies, the migration of data and processing workloads to the cloud, streaming content in higher and higher resolution, and new technology areas like 5G, artificial intelligence, and the Internet of Things, data traffic is currently growing massively. What is especially important for future-oriented technologies is the lowest possible latency, and having the data close to the customer. “Here, it is more about quality than volume. The more local the set-up, the shorter the data packet transit times are. Our goal is to further improve the Internet ecosystem, and to simplify access to it,” says Ivo A. Ivanov.

DE-CIX is working on the development of solutions based on the consideration of the three key factors 5G, AI and IoT. “Software-defined Internet Exchanges may well be a solution not only to fulfill these requirements efficiently and rapidly, but also to enable fast and inexpensive expansion of the interconnection sector with less dependency on hardware. Software-defined infrastructures will also bring more growth and encourage greater productivity. The DE-CIX success story will continue,” Ivanov concludes.

Detailed content relating to DE-CIX’s first 25 years can be found on the anniversary website. The content is presented with the support of our partners Interxion, Angola Cables, Axians, Nokia, Itenos and Telemaxx.

A selection of the biggest moments in the history of DE-CIX and the Internet can be found here.

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Cloud Computing and its Importance

 

What is Cloud Computing?

The cloud consists of software and services that stay and operate on the Internet instead of having any physical elements like a local computer or on premise network servers. Cloud Adoption is a structured shift by organizations of minimizing expenditure, lowering risk and attaining scalability of database capabilities. Cloud adoption may be of various types in an organization, depending on the depth of adoption.

Benefits of Cloud Computing:

  • Cost Reduction: The cloud does not require the company to invest in new hardware, storage infrastructure and maintaining an in-house IT infrastructure (variable expenses). In the cloud, assets are made accessible on-demand and excessive resources can be returned/replaced, thus cutting costs. Likewise, the company may not splurge money on appointing IT staff to supervise the infrastructure.
  • Flexibility: Cloud computing offers more flexibility to businesses. Employees can obtain files using web-enabled devices such as smartphones, laptops, and notebooks. Sharing documents over the internet around the clock and to work online at any place has helped in internal and external collaborations of the business.
  • Scalability: Cloud enables users the ability to upscale or downscale infrastructure as and when required with ease, which results in optimal usage of resources. Companies can have high-performance resources available at the fingertips with professional clarifications without any up-front investment.
  • Mobility: Corporate data in the cloud can be easily saved, recovered, or organized with just a couple of clicks on their smartphones and other devices to keep up with clients and colleagues. Users get access to their works, 24/7, via any devices of their choice. This saves the IT team workload and results in customer satisfaction.
  • Agility: In Cloud computing, new IT resources are only a click away, which means that companies reduce the time spent to make those resources available to you just in minutes. These resources can then be more seamlessly and efficiently. This results in quick development of businesses’ market.
  • Disaster Recovery: There is no way one can prevent or control natural disasters which can cause great damage to the organization. But through cloud computing, the data can be stored in the cloud which guarantees that data will always available, even if your equipment like laptops or PCs, is damaged.

Types of Cloud Computing:

cloudcomputing types

Types of Cloud Computing Services:

cloudcomputing services types

Platform-as-a-service (PaaS) refers to the supply on-demand software for developing, examining, delivering and managing applications.

Software-as-a-service (SaaS) is a method for delivering applications-as-a-service over the Interne (cloud computing) as per the demand and on a subscription basis.

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) is the most basic category of cloud computing services that allows you rent IT infrastructure: physical or virtual servers, storage and networking from a cloud provider on a pay-as-you-go basis.

Who uses Cloud Computing & Why?

Every type of companies use cloud computing irrespective of size, industry, It is used for a wide variety of cases, such as data backup, disaster recovery, email, virtual desktops, software development, etc. Even healthcare companies are using the cloud to create treatments for individual patients. Bank and financial sector companies are using the cloud to detect real-time fraud and its prevention. And video game makers are using the cloud to deliver online games to players around the world. One of the major use case is, running on premise data center is not simple, so the industry chose to use cloud computing. When it’s about scalability, cloud computing lays out a very resilient solution.

Security Concerns of Cloud Computing:

  1. Data Infringement: Data leakage can have grievous impact on company, its brand and reputation, employee, and customers’ hope and belief. Loss of vital intellectual property could have competitive and financial indications also.
  2. Seizing of Accounts: Attackers can hijack the account and use your credentials to remotely enter the data saved. They can counterfeit and tamper the data.
  3. Malware Injection: Cloud computing can be injected with malware scripts and codes which run as SaaS to cloud servers, through this the attackers can snoop in all the important information.
  4. Insufficient Training & Knowledge: Proper knowledge of cloud services should be provided to employees that manage database of the company. Deficiency of this may impact decisions relevant to privacy.
  5. Mutual Liability: Cloud surveillance is a common burden for the clients and service provider. This partnership between client and provider requires the client to take preventative actions to protect their data.
  6. Data Loss: Data on cloud services can be lost through a malicious attack, natural disaster, or a data wipe by the service provider. Losing essential facts and figures can be harmful to businesses that don’t have a recuperation plan.

Limitations of Cloud Computing:

  1. Internet Connection: In order to enjoy the features of cloud computing, your organization should always have an internet connection.
  2. Data confidentiality: Data & cloud protection must be powerful because then it won’t be perilous for data confidentiality.
  3. Downtime: Cloud computing systems are internet-situated, service outages are always an unfortunate possibility.
  4. Technical Issues: For technical issues, one has no choice but to call your hosted provider’s technical support.
  5. Vulnerable to attacks: Saving data in the cloud may cause consequential challenges of information heist since in the cloud every data of a company is online.

Some of the leading cloud providers like Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure, etc are on the list of 50 connected cloud providers at DE-CIX Frankfurt.

 

The role of data centers in an interconnected world

 

From storage evolution to digital revolution

“Internet Exchange Points,” comments  Gabriel Willigens, Head of the Business Unit DataLogistIX at Itenos, “live in data centers.” There’s a good reason for this: that’s where data lives. Today, data centers are the warehouses of the digital economy, providing a home not only for the data itself, but also for the platforms and applications that have become so ubiquitous in the modern world. And central to the seamless functioning of these applications and delivery of content is interconnection – which is why IXs like DE-CIX also make themselves at home in highly interconnected data centers in order to nurture digital ecosystems there.

But clearly, it hasn’t always been like that. Prehistoric data centers (those that existed long before anyone even thought of coining terms like “digital native”) were computer rooms located in company office space, housing – seen in retrospect – massively oversized and underpowered computers, and connected to nobody and nothing outside of the premises. It was a combination of the evolution of computing technology (not only miniaturization and transistor density, but also the capacity for computer resources to be shared amongst multiple users) and the increasing desire to connect networks with each other which together spawned the commercial Internet. With this, a new type of dedicated data center facility developed, along with new business cases for their operators. And so began the business of colocation – without which the Internet as it is could never have developed.

The co-dependent development of the Internet and data centers

To gain access to the Internet – today, as it was back then – connectivity is an essential precondition. In the mid-90s, with the advent of the World Wide Web, networks outside of the USA still needed to connect directly with the American backbone in order to access the new-fangled Internet. “An e-mail from one ISP to the other went to Washington and came back on the same line to be delivered to the provider next door. This was of course very expensive – a 2-Mbit direct route to US was a big thing. It was a privilege to have such a line, but costs were too high,” Harald A. Summa reminisces about the early days.

When DE-CIX first connected networks in Germany back in 1995, the first data center where the networks housed their networking equipment was a computer room in a disused post office in Frankfurt. But while connecting the first three German networks could be handled in such a space, it became necessary for the fledgling Internet Exchange to move to a dedicated colocation facility, as more and more networks wanted to connect their servers locally as well – so in 1999, DE-CIX moved to Interxion’s first Frankfurt data center, FRA 1. This was the beginning of a strong and mutually beneficial friendship, without which the Internet would not be what it is today.

The pioneering spirit of interconnection – no limits

Coming up to the turn of the millennium was a time of enormous growth in the market of data center services – companies that wanted to connect to the Internet but did not want to invest in their own in-house infrastructure began placing their servers in already functioning data centers, where the facilities could be shared between all tenants. The more companies and networks that accumulated within these data centers, the more attractive they became for other companies and networks to interconnect with. Digital ecosystems began to evolve, and the colocation market boomed. As Gerd Simon, at the time the Managing Director of Interxion in Germany, explains, “The mood was very energetic back then, there was a pioneering spirit – everything was possible. There were no limits. Everyone was looking for possibilities to develop their business, and looking for conversation and business partners in order to do that.”

Using DE-CIX as a way of then interconnecting networks not only within a building, but also between data centers, became a success story for the digital hub of Frankfurt – which has developed into one of the areas with the largest data center density anywhere in Europe.

Getting closer to the edge and increasingly interconnected

Certainly, the development of the colocation business model was not without its hiccups. With the bursting of the dotcom bubble in the early 2000s, these once flourishing colocation facilities emptied – the yawning white space in limbo as it waited for the hoped-for recovery. And bounce back it did; slowly at first, but with the emergence of the iPhone in 2007, a new form of Internet access demanded increasing infrastructure to feed a new generation of services to a willing world. Offering services for an increasingly mobile end user meant that networks needed to get closer to the user. This meant that networks needed to be connected with more data centers, and data centers needed to be connected with each other – and this needed to be done on both a global and a local scale.

The Internet was, after all, a global phenomenon. Local connectivity became the enabler for access to the world. Connecting to an Internet Exchange like DE-CIX functioned as a portal to the entire globe – it brought businesses to users, but it also brought users to these businesses.

From a refurbished office space to virtual infrastructure

From a couple of servers in a stand-alone rack, to containers for building modular data centers, through to purpose-built data centers offering managed IT services to SMEs, on to large colocation facilities with around 10,000 square meters of white space (equivalent of nearly 2 football fields filled with racks of servers); and onwards and upwards to major data center campuses and hyperscaler data centers offering upwards of a million square meters of computing space (in which, for example, the major platform providers and cloud service providers run their services). The variety of sizes, designs, and purposes that all fall under the term “data center” almost belies definition.

Datacenter-infographic-decix

And going beyond these, data centers are taking on new conceptual forms. On the one hand, there are several initiatives seeking to federate a wide variety of data centers and services to create a virtual, open, neutral, and distributed cross-border infrastructure. In so doing, quality assurance and compliance requirements are being addressed, to enable customers simplified and secure control over their processes and their own data in the cloud, as well as data governance and interoperability, to gain the necessary flexibility for emerging digital services like AI. One example of such an initiative is the European project GAIA-X.

On the other hand, we see the emergence of edge data centers – highly localized, miniaturized processing capabilities to provide almost real-time responses and so enabling scenarios like autonomous transportation. Thus, the concept of the data center has always evolved alongside its potential to be used for the coming generations of digital services and digital business.

In the evolution of the data center as a building – from an office space in the early days, to refurbished commercial space, to purpose-built buildings, to modular containers on the one hand and hyperscalers on the other, and through to the minimalistic concepts now evolving in the edge data center space – land has also played a key role. Property owners and developers even in the late 1990s began to realize that a building with connectivity was more valuable for companies wanting to get online. Connectivity started to become a defining element of commercial property, and with this, digital had begun to have a real and lasting impact on the analog world.

The data center as mission-critical for companies, the cloud, and the Internet

By the second decade of the digital millennium, demand for data center space had developed radically, and data center operators realized that refurbished standard buildings no longer offered them what they needed to provide a modern service. Concepts like security, accessibility, and reliability were becoming business critical for their customers – from startups to global enterprises – and therefore also for the data centers themselves. So a new industry developed in the design and construction of new, purpose-built data centers.

In the early 2010s, the data center industry began a process of professionalization. Designs began to offer fail-safes against potential down-time and single points of failure, and classification systems began to offer potential customers a rating system on which to base their IT outsourcing decisions. Designs ensured redundancy in terms of connectivity and power. Sites were chosen for their proximity to other networks, to fiber, to power stations, and for their distance from geographical, environmental, and structural dangers.

This last point hinges on the fact that the analog world can also have a significant impact on the digital world. Jens Prautzsch, Managing Director of Interxion in Germany, describes it thus: “If you enter a data center, go past the security, into the data rooms, you feel the heat, you feel the noise, and you think, wow, what is in there? And then if you have in mind all the services, the customers that are in there, the systems and platforms that are running there, you feel the responsibility. You understand how important it is that we do a great job.”

decix-infographic

 

Exploring the edges

The more interconnected data centers operating within close proximity to one another, the greater the interconnectivity gravity becomes, attracting more and more data center operators to build nearby, bringing more and more networks that want to access and participate in the increasingly dense ecosystems of digital hubs. The mushrooming interconnectivity in Frankfurt, for example, nicely illustrates the profound effect that digitalization has been having on our world for the last two decades. Without these ecosystems of data centers, the networks connected to them, and Internet Exchanges like those from DE-CIX interconnecting them, the Internet would not, and could not, have developed as it has.

The data center landscape of the future

So, where is the data center heading now? Well, probably in as many different directions as there are data center concepts today. The edge is a whole new territory to be explored, to be populated with sensors and processors and connected to fog and cloud computing solutions for further processing and storage. Looking in another direction, data center designers and hardware manufacturers have been engaged in an ongoing process of increasing energy efficiency – a trend which is set to continue well into the new decade. Here, not only is the infrastructure being designed to consume less power, and the heat generated in the data centers is being redirected into local heating networks, but data centers are being designed to operate in climatically opportune, but thoroughly unexpected places. Take, for example, mines, churches, or even underwater locations.

Whatever the future of data centers and the Internet as a whole may bring, DE-CIX will be there, together with our many data center and connectivity partners all over the world, providing the portal to the next generations of interconnection. Without these valued data center and connectivity partners – providing access to DE-CIX in more than 500 data centers, in over 80 countries, across four continents – without you, DE-CIX would not have a story to tell.

 

10 Reasons to peer: 1. Peering Raises Your Revenue

10 Reasons to peer: 1. Peering Raises Your Revenue

 

Peering is a process in which two or more networks exchange traffic, and it can help you to make the most of your resources and expand your network for the benefit of your business.

From reduced cost to improved user experience, peering has many benefits for all sorts of organizations, from small hosting providers to Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and content delivery networks, and on to enterprises. In our new article series, we take a look at 10 different reasons why you should give peering a go. In the first installment of our “reasons to peer” series, we explain how peering can help you to make more money by offering a better service to your customers.

Shortest possible path to your target networks

If you are an ISP or a carrier, you provide your customers access to other networks. These customers can, and often do, have more than one provider, which puts you into direct competition in terms of delivering the customers’ traffic. If not steered manually by the customer, there is exactly one reason that decides who delivers the most traffic to the customer: The network who can deliver the shortest path wins the largest amount of traffic.

Peering helps you to shorten the paths to other networks compared to classical IP transit. With transit, it could well be that the customer’s target network sits behind multiple transit carriers, and if your competitor can offer a path with fewer hops, the traffic will go through their network. With peering, you can offer direct or shorter routes to the networks your customers are trying to reach.

More traffic, more revenue

So, to put it simply: By introducing peering and offering direct and shorter routes to networks, you win more traffic from your customers and competitors, which means more revenue for your business.

 

OTT & VoD data traffic in India grew 1,317% during Covid, gaming rose 1,007%: Ivo Ivanov

 

What has been DE-CIX’s experience handling data traffic in India?

There were huge changes in data traffic. In India, the four DE-CIX locations noted a strong rise in traffic from internet usage – up to 192% since the pandemic hit the country. The demand is enormous, and DE-CIX has further increased its geographical presence lately in order to offer new connectivity options closer to the users in different geographies around the globe, as well as doubling our backbone capacity in India for seamless and secure interconnection.

 

Could you share some statistics on data consumption?

There was a significant growth in traffic. For instance, between February to December 2020, OTT & Video on Demand grew a whopping 1,317%, while gaming grew at 1,007%. Similarly, ISP traffic grew at 397%, whereas traffic from content delivery networks rose 328%. Data traffic at social & online media grew by 210% during the same period.

 

What were the data consumption trends for rural India?

Rural data consumption has increased in comparison to urban India, but this figure is only for mobile data usage.

 

With respect to India’s data consumption story, have you witnessed any trends and how do you plan to evolve with it?

What is clear from last twelve months is that all areas of business and private life rely more heavily today than ever before on digital applications. But beyond the virtual desktop and video streaming, where we certainly saw enormous jumps in usage during 2020, we have also seen specific sectors taking leaps ahead with digital applications and services, ranging from e-health to logistics and mobility applications, and on to the finance sector – but also education, administrative services, and even agriculture. This transformation has not been caused by Covid, but accelerated by it.

So last year, we developed and announced DE-CIX Enterprise Interconnection Federation services that allows enterprises to create their own interconnection ecosystem (closed user groups or virtual private ecosystems) based on their security, performance and compliance requirements. For instance, a bank can create its own closed user group in the DE-CIX ecosystem and invite all its stakeholders like data analytic companies, transaction providers, cloud connectivity providers and corporate and residential internet access providers to interconnect with the bank’s network directly. This increases the performance, efficiency, and security of the data exchange.

 

DE-CIX recently increased points of presence (PoPs) in India. What is the rationale behind it?

We embarked on this expansion for connected network operators. We are able to bring a lot of internet content closer to the users across India. By announcing these four very important locations, we will have our key markets fortified for interconnectivity solutions. In last 12 months at DE-CIX India, we have unambiguously demonstrated to the industry how we have significantly impacted and redefined the market, such that we have become the market leader with a customer base of 310+.

The lowest latency of internet traffic is more crucial than ever. DE-CIX India will continue to enable more platforms across the country, as close as possible to the users. This is key to cover the future demand for the best possible performance on all digital applications, including live sports streaming, gaming, virtual desktops and cloud connectivity in general, real time adoptive robotics in the manufacturing section, etc.

DE-CIX is also in discussion with LEO satellite operators to support their expansion plans to deliver great internet experience in remote areas. LEO satellites have a strong business case. They cost lower compared to common satellite technology. Second, maintenance is easier. Third that they are low cruising allows a much better performance on the latency side. They perform lower than 25 milliseconds, which is today absolutely okay for online gaming, and bandwidth is much higher, in range of tens of gigabits, and is sufficient enough to serve house calls and offices. So my expectation is that on account of much less capex and open on the operator side, the products will be affordable.

 

What is your view on India’s digital journey going ahead?

In 2021 everything related to digitisation of entertainment, gaming, live sports, education, healthcare, digitised cars etc will gain prominence. In the B2B world, digitisation of processes, usage of cloud services and use of a distributed data exchange, which is not on premise with the enterprises and needs to be placed in hyper scale data centres and needs to be distributed across the country.

 

 

Domain Name System Explained

DNS Explained

The DNS (Domain Name System) is one of the most significant internet services in existence, without which we wouldn’t be able to access any online content or even send an email. In fact, every time we try to connect to a website or any other online service, DNS root server help our computers find and reach the desired addresses. To acquire information online, humans search through domain names like amazon.com, myntra.com; DNS involves translating this into IP addresses for the content to load.

How does DNS Root infra work?

When a user types an address name into the browser, the operating system checks the information in local cache system. If not found, a query seeking to match the domain name with its IP address is send over the Internet to find the website which is often provided by your ISP(Internet Service Provider). The first server the ISP interacts with is the Recursive Resolver which is the first designed to receive queries through applications such as web browser. The recursor will make requests to the website assuming that it already has a response cache and if not it goes through DNS hierarchy in order to satisfy the client’s DNS query. The recursive talks to first type of DNS server called Root Server. It translates the human readable hosts into IP addresses. The top level domain (TLD) server is the next step in the search for a specific IP address, and it hosts the last portion of a hostname (In amazon.com, the TLD server is “com”). The TLD server will then return the Authoritative Name Server where the desired domain is stored. This is when the server that made the request sends a query to the authoritative server hosting the zone of the domain in question. Once the request has reached the authoritative server, it will respond to the requesting server that is recursive resolver with the IP address for www.example.com. The browser can send request to view the website’s content using the IP address that it received.

DNS Diagram

 

 

 

Types of DNS Queries:

  • Recursive Query:In recursive query, a DNS client provides a name resolution, and the DNS Resolver “must” provide an answer – it either responds with either a relevant answer that is record, or an error message if it can’t be found.
  • Iterative Query:In an iterative query, the name server, will not go and fetch the complete answer for your query, but will give back a referral to other DNS server’s, which might have the answer. This process continues with additional DNS servers down the query chain until either an error or timeout occurs.
  • Non-recursive Query:In this kind of query, DNS resolver already knows the answer. It immediately returns because the answer already exists in the cache. In such cases, a response is immediately returned to the client.

recursive & non recursive query

 

 

 

The whole process of requesting a server might seem complicated, but in real, query resolution take place in a blink of an eye. This is just a step-by-step process which is faster than tenths of second.

DE-CIX India is an Internet Exchange in India that hosts Route Server Peering and DNS Root Servers to improve the DNS queries by its connected networks and helps them to optimize the time required to resolve the DNS queries. There are 13 such DNS root servers available in the world out of which DE-CIX India hosts 4 of them such as PCH, Verisign, RIPE Atlas Probes and K-Root Server. DE-CIX India currently interconnects around 175+ networks and all these networks are able to peer with these DNS root servers through its platform. Reach out to us in case if you wants to peer with these DNS root Servers.

We hope the above blog seems more informative to you and able to value add to your knowledge. Do let us know your feedback / concerns if you think something needs to be corrected or added.

 

Cloud and interconnection – The importance of ecosystems

Cloud and Interconnection – The importance of ecosystems webinar was held on 1 Dec 2020 at 4 pm IST. The webinar has insights about the latest trends in cloud and interconnection industry.

The webinar was presented by Mr. Harald Kriener, Director Business Development Cloud Services, DE-CIX also known as Cloud Expert and Mr. Sudhir Kunder, Sr. VP National Head – Sales, DE-CIX India and moderated by Mr. Wolfgang Tremmel, Head of DE-CIX Academy.

In the webinar they discuss about the global updates in the Cloud market and the recent updated in the Indian Cloud market and the importance of cloud exchange and cloud ecosystem. You can download the presentation slides below.

You can watch the recorded webinar here.

To know more about DirectCLOUD service click here

To stay updated about our upcoming webinars, subscribe to our newsletter below.

 

The guide to cloud computing in India

Cloud computing is evolving at a rapid pace and has changed the face of the IT industry in India. Companies are constantly progressing their developments to adapt to these new technologies. Many of them are allocating a good part of their revenue to be invested into cloud connectivity. These kind of trends form a solid basis for cloud computing in India. From communication to data storage to application development, the cloud offers game-changing opportunities for every business across all industries.

 

What is cloud computing?

Cloud computing is a technology that can deliver services like database, analytics, servers, software, networking, storage, etc. – over the internet. Using cloud computing, companies do not have to physically maintain servers. The cloud can help to:

– Create new apps and services

– Deliver new software

– Host websites

– Store, backup, and recover data

– Analyse data

– Stream video

 

What are the different types of clouds?

1. Public cloud: Here, the entire computing infrastructure is located on the cloud, i.e., on the premises of the cloud computing company that is offering the cloud service

 

2. Private cloud: Here, everything is in-house or there is a dedicated infrastructure for your use, placed in a data center. You host your own computing infrastructure and it is not shared. Private networks offer the highest level of security and control.

 

3. Hybrid cloud: This makes use of both public and private clouds. You host your essential application on your private cloud while the secondary applications are hosted on the public cloud.

 

4. Community cloud: This cloud is shared between organisations with a common goal

 

Cloud companies in India

Some of the cloud service providers in India, offering the best cloud computing services, are Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure, and Digital Ocean. IBM Bengaluru, Cisco Systems, VMware, Sify, and CtrlS are the most important providers of private cloud enterprise offerings in India.

 

Future of Cloud in India

The ever-changing cloud computing infrastructure in India has made it necessary for every IT company to switch to this technology to stay relevant in the market. The cloud rapidly altered the IT landscape leading to situations where not switching to the cloud may lead to losing significant opportunities in business.

Cloud spending in India is estimated to grow at 30% p.a. to reach $ 7.1 to 7.2 billion in 2022. India’s public cloud market is projected to grow from $2.6 billion to $8 billion with a CAGR of 25% between 2018 and 2023.

Government of India has empanelled service providers like Microsoft India Pvt Ltd, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL), Hewlett Packard Enterprise India Ltd (HP), IBM India Pvt Ltd, and Sify Technologies Ltd etc. as a part of GI Cloud (MeghRaj) initiative. The goal of this initiative is to monitor and improve e-services for government departments and agencies.

 

Factors that can help in driving the growth of cloud in India

  • Fastgrowing market
  • Availability of suppliers for cloud services
  • Competitive pricing
  • Government initiative like GI Cloud (Meghraj)
  • Rise of startup ecosystem
  • Growth of skilled talent availability
  • Advanced technologies like AI
  • Rise in data centers
  • Global cloud companies focusing on Indian market
  • Rise in SaaS companies

 

Cloud providers like Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure, and AWS have started setting up their data centers in India. The idea behind this is to stay close to the customers and to take care of regulatory requirements of various entities. India has more than 200 data centers out of which top 3 cloud providers own 5.

The Indian IT market has started to understand and appreciate the scalability, flexibility and agility that cloud brings. Accordingly, we can expect a huge increase in adapting the available cloud services in the near future.

Who should connect?

  1. Enterprises, who are using services running in the cloud. To secure the reachability and quality of these services, a secure and stable cloud connectivity is needed.
  2. Internet Service Providers (ISP) can improve their own service portfolio by providing the enterprises with transport into the desired cloud.
  3. Data centers (DC) can also benefit from cloud connectivity by offering the same to their own customers.
  4. Cloud Service Providers (CSP) with own cloud services can extend their footprint and offer cloud connectivity to enterprises and ISPs.

 

How can DE-CIX help you to connect with the cloud service providers?

DE-CIX gives you an access to different cloud service providers. DE-CIX’s DirectCLOUD service is a dedicated connection between your infrastructure and the chosen cloud service provider. The connection is established via SD-WAN, which is transported from your business to DE-CIX. DE-CIX then extends this VLAN to the cloud. All of this is done within DE-CIX’s cloud ecosystem for end-to-end cloud connectivity.

At the moment DE-CIX can connect you with Microsoft Azure Cloud, Oracle Cloud, Google Cloud Connect, and AWS Cloud. Stay tuned – there is more to come. To learn more click here

 

Best ISP Practices: While connecting to an Internet Exchange

Internet Exchange is a physical infrastructure through which Content Aggregators and ISP’s exchange internet traffic. More advancements in IX technology have been seen over the last 10 years.

Normally, the success of an IXP should be measured by its ability to sustainably contribute to the development of the Internet ecosystem within its community. Growth in the number of members connecting to IX encourages to exchange the internet traffic and keep it local.

Members connect to Internet exchanges to peer directly with other ISP & content networks which results in lower reliance on Internet transit, with improved reliability & efficiency. As per Peering DB, there are now more than 600+ public internet exchange points. The main features of IX are to provide route-server peering.

The peering policy of an IXP is normally categorized as Bilateral & Multilateral (Route Server) Peering.

  • The Bilateral Peering policy allows each network operator to choose which other network operators it wants to exchange traffic with. Peering connections must be manually established through coordinated technical action taken by both parties in the peering relationship.
  • Multilateral/Route Server Peering policy allows all the operators connected to the IXP to automatically exchange traffic with each other by making a single connection to a central service called a Route Server. This makes it easy for network operators to establish and manage large numbers of peering relationships at the exchange.

While configuring these peering at IX, many issues have been reported with respect to misconfiguration of routers by new members. Some of the issues reported include unwanted broadcasts, MAC Flooding, ICMP redirects, misconfiguration of Rules & Filters.

ISP’s should be aware of the best practices while connecting to Internet Exchanges.

Download this documents presented at JANOG on “IX Configuration Best practices

DE-CIX India provides Bilateral Peering & Route Server Peering through its world-class infrastructure backed by DE-CIX. This allows 220+ Networks to interconnect with each other.

 

Understanding the Gaming Sector of India

With around 40-50 million youth internet users, The video gaming industry is a developing market in India and is expected to grow rapidly. According to a survey conducted by KPMG, the game development company stands at 275 currently, citing that in 2010, there were only 25 companies in India. The number speaks about the increasing development and potentiality of the gaming country in India.

number of online gamers india

 

The gaming industry in India was introduced in the early ’90s. Hand-held gaming consoles became a vogue. A couple of years later, smartphones were introduced. The number of people accessing smartphones with data gradually was increasing. Online gaming is now available at one easy click. The recent obsession of Facebook games like Candy Crush, Clash of Clans and the most popular one PUBG has caught the attention of the young Indian crowd – spending hours at length on the interface. Games based on well-known events like Kaun Banega Crorepati, IPL, Khel Kabbadi, and T20fever.com, etc. are becoming a trending initiator of entertainment amongst the teenagers & millennials.

Value of gaming industry in India

                       (Source: https://www.statista.com/statistics/235850/value-of-the-gaming-industry-in-india/)

As of the year 2019, India is ranked as one of the top five mobile gaming markets in the world in numbers. The Indian online gaming industry is assumed to generate earnings of INR 11,900 crores and the number of users projected to become 628 million by then by the end of 2023. With a business of $890 million in 2018, the video game sector is still underdeveloped in contrast to other Asian countries, such as China and South Korea. However, many video game companies are rising to invest, and India could become a prime market for this sector. One of the factors that drove the growth of the video game market was its large number of cybercafés with more than 100,000 in 2006, 40% of which were used to play online.

Boom of gaming industry in India

 

The industry is also seeing investments from global gaming giants, including Tencent, Alibaba, Nazara, Youzu, and others. Tencent’s PUBG, for example, is said to have changed India’s mobile gaming environment forever. Media reports state that PUBG is adding Rs 200 crore to Rs 300 crore to Tencent’s income from India and is also a part of DE-CIX India’s connected peering network.

Advantage of Gaming Sector in India

  • World’s enormous youth population has a potential market
  • World’s second huge Internet population attracts new tech culture which includes gaming.
  • Accessibility of creative talent of Engineers, Designers which come at cheap price and great quality.
  • Huge skills based Programmers across IT, Testing and Arts.
  • World-class automation and advanced technology for setting up all relevant gaming development, publication and event setups.
  • Existence of significant development centers like Microsoft, Nvidia, UbiSoft, Zynga, Electronic Arts, Disney, Playdom, Sony, Digital Chocolate, etc

Facts:

  • 22.2cr gamers devote an average of 42 minutes per day on mobile games.
  • Close to 60 percent of India’s online gamers are below the age of 24, according to industry estimates. Young internet users have a higher tendency to play online games, generally on mobile devices.
  • There are about 250 million game developers in the country, up 10X from 2010 when there were just 25 million.
  • User penetration in the Mobile Gaming is at 19.9% in 2018 and is expected to hit 26.0% in 2022.
  • It is assumed that 294.48 billion and 98.4 billion will be spend on digital ads and mobile internet ads respectively in the year 2021.
  • 95% are mobile centric games.
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