XO, Equinix partner on nationwide 100G services launch

Interconnection and data center provider Equinix, Inc. (NASDAQ: EQIX) says that XO Communications is leveraging Equinix International Business Exchange (IBX) data centers in its previously announced coast-to-coast 100-Gbps network in the United States (see “XO Communications chooses Nokia Siemens Networks for nationwide 100G network” and “XO Communications adds Ciena to 100-Gbps roster”). XO Communications claims that it is the first service provider in the US to deploy 100-Gbps optical technology across a long-haul fiber-optic network on a nationwide basis.

The announcement follows XO’s recent launch of a 100G broadband connection between Equinix data centers in Silicon Valley and Washington, DC.

The benefits of the new network are significant for customers, the company says. A coast-to-coast 100G pipe offers the ability to optimize their network for increased performance and lower latency; high-capacity access to public, hybrid, private cloud providers and high-speed content distribution to improve the end-user experience, and access to carrier business Ethernet services across metro and regional areas.

XO Communications and its partners Nokia Siemens Networks and Ciena deployed the 100G service inside Equinix, leveraging Equinix’s Solution Validation Centers. These centers provide a means to test new technologies and ensure application performance readiness. The centers also facilitate the adoption of new technologies, validate application readiness on evolving technologies, and demonstrate the performance advantages of those technologies when delivered from Platform Equinix, the data center provider asserts. Equinix Solution Validation Centers are located in such global metro regions as Silicon Valley and Ashburn, VA; the company will soon open more in London and Singapore.

XO Communications, along with vendor partners Ciena and Nokia Siemens Networks, officially celebrated the launch of the 100G network and services on October 4, 2012, at an event at the Equinix data center campus in Ashburn.

A longtime Equinix customer, XO is now deployed in 47 Equinix IBX data centers around the world. Customers that require increasingly higher bandwidth services, particularly cable companies, mobile wireless service providers, and telecommunications companies, will now have direct access to 100G services inside Equinix data centers, the company says.

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