Ethernet Europe: Exchange Rivals Play Nice

EuroBlog Michelle Donegan 4/13/2011

7:00 AM -- LONDON -- Ethernet Europe 2011 -- With three rival Ethernet exchanges on one panel here at the annual London show, there was always the potential for some friction and name-calling.

At Light Reading's previous Ethernet event (in New York, November 2010), chief editor, events, Carol Wilson anticipated an Ethernet Exchange Smackdown. Here in London, there was no sign of that. (see Ethernet Exchange Smackdown?)

In fact, it was more of a love-in than a smackdown, with no fights for superhero Heavy Reading Senior Analyst Stan "Etherman" Hubbard to break up.

Equinix Inc. (Nasdaq: EQIX), Telx Group Inc. and CENX Inc. managed to provide updates on their businesses without any gauntlets being thrown down, any barbed comments and no offers to take the debate outside. (See Ethernet Exchange Smackdown? and Etherman Hits Europe.)

So were they really just being polite, or were they playing it cool?

It seems that, now they all have services up and running, they're more interested in providing updates on how their relatively new businesses are doing:

Equinix's General Manager of global networks, mobility & content, Jim Poole, said his company now has 45 participants in the exchange and that it's active in 15 markets. Equinix plans to add Singapore and Sydney by July, and a further three or four markets are planned to be connected by the end of the year. Depending on demand, those new markets potentially could be Miami, Denver, Sao Paolo and Zurich.

CENX's Senior VP of worldwide development, Eric Gillenwater, said live traffic was now flowing through multiple exchanges and that there are about 30 to 40 pairs of carriers trading traffic.

Telx's VP and General Manager, Glenn Calafati, said his company has added two new data centers for its Ethernet Exchange -- one in Dallas and another in Clifton, New Jersey. (See Telx Adds Ethernet Exchanges in Dallas & NJ.)

For more of our Ethernet Europe coverage, please see these stories:

— Michelle Donegan, European Editor, Light Reading Mobile