AMS-IX renews partner program
Customers can resell AMS-IX ports as part of their own service portfolio
Amsterdam, April 6, 2010 – Amsterdam Internet Exchange (AMS-IX), one of the largest Internet exchanges worldwide, launches its renewed AMS-IX Partner Program (APP2010). It enables members, customers, third parties and even other exchanges to expand their product and service portfolio via AMS-IX with one of the largest, professional and neutral exchanges. A lot of parties worldwide showed their interest in the partner program, including partners from Germany, the UK, France, Italy, Russia, Poland, Bulgaria, and also from North America, the Middle East and Asia. It will be possible to connect customers in these countries locally to the exchange in Amsterdam.
The APP2010 was made possible after a recent migration of the Internet exchange platform to MPLS/VPLS. Customers will be connected to the AMS-IX Internet peering-VLAN via the partner backbone and a reseller port of 10Gigabit Ethernet, which is divided in smaller portions for client ports with a speed of 100Mbps or 1000Mbps. Customers connect to the exchange as if they are connected directly and have the same opportunities and rights as other associated parties. This way AMS-IX addresses the needs of its partners and members to allow the connection of several MAC addresses via one port. The reseller port of 10GE is only available for parties in the APP2010.
The renewed partner program will make it easier for new members of the Amsterdam Internet Exchange to connect remotely to the exchange. For existing partners it will result in a higher margins and reduced levels of administration. It also offers the opportunity to sell AMS-IX ports to customers with minimal initial traffic levels in both capacity and cost efficient set-up. Members can obtain advantages at many levels including access to the Internet exchange from 100 Mbps onwards. They will have to deal with one party only, instead of several parties as a carrier, co-location and the exchange itself.
The service is tested locally with partner NL-ix, Jan Hoogenboom, CEO: “Both AMS-IX and NL-ix have the mission to facilitate ‘peering’ for any interested party. The fact that the two main exchanges work together in providing ‘peering’ ports in so many cities is a large step forward for the Dutch peering society.”
Breedband Nederland was the first trial customer. “Normally we would have to order a private connection to AMS-IX all-the way from Arnhem to Amsterdam. With this new service we both can save money by connecting locally, as well as that we can peer for that money on two exchanges at the same
Time”, said Dave Aaldering, CEO, Breedband Nederland.
“The renewed partner program is a response to the growing demand of parties worldwide to be connected to the Amsterdam Internet Exchange. There are many requests from Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Asia, especially. For countries in such locations, it is not always easy to gain access to Western Europe and the APP2010 makes it easier for them. We expect to attract a lot of new members with the partner program”, said Job Witteman, CEO, AMS-IX. “The impact on the traffic exchange will however be relatively low as we expect that mainly smaller parties will expand their service portfolio. Nevertheless, a lot of unique routes will be added to Internet peering in Amsterdam.”