Berlin Businesses

We talked to Gerald and Ulf about the NL-ix extension to Berlin and what this could bring Berlin businesses.

Gerald has been in the Telecommunications industry for 25+ years now, holding multiple positions in sales and consulting.

Ulf has been connecting people to the Internet since 1992 and has worked for several ISP's, Carriers and Exchanges in networking and management functions.

What would you say NL-ix brings to Berlin businesses that they haven’t got already?
Ulf: I would say that if your business is located in central Germany and you start using NL-ix you will see an immediate difference. That applies to a lot of enterprises in central Germany who will find it easier to go to Berlin than Frankfurt. There are a total of about 150 businesses with their own network infrastructure co locating in NTT Berlin 1, IPB, and Speedbone (the three Berlin data centers with NL-ix PoPs). Hooking up to NL-ix will be a simple process for them.

Gerald: The breadth of the NL-ix portfolio will also give them more interconnection options. This makes NL-ix a good partner to help businesses improve and round out their overall Internet connectivity and service offering.

Ulf: NL-ix has a different way of doing things that I think our customers in Berlin will appreciate. People will find that, unlike traditional IXs, NL-ix is a commercial problem solvers. NL-ix has a history of helping ambitious and innovative smaller businesses solve their connectivity challenges.

Gerald: Latency also matters with the rollout of 5G, or when you are moving content to eyeballs, or running things like gaming or telephony. The NL-ix route latencies are arguably the lowest in Europe.

What services do you think will be most popular and why?
Ulf: Peering is the easiest way to reach the unique AS networks NL-ix brings to the mix. The current incumbents jointly present about 130 distinct ASNs. NL-ix carries about 450 unique ASNs – that’s a lot of new peering opportunities. Many businesses currently pay for transport to and peering in Frankfurt and want added redundancy and offload points. And businesses that only peer in Berlin will like the idea of a local backup with a heap more networks, a topology that can bypass Frankfurt, a broad portfolio of services, and a world-class track record.

Gerald: I think businesses that are thinking of spending money to connect in Frankfurt am Main will be delighted to have a local option. Now that NL-ix is on the doorstep, they can use NL-ix instead - and save money. Plus they will be able to manage their peering more easily, using the graphical peering configurator tool which is very popular with NL-ix customers.

Ulf: …..not to forget many more interconnection options. The Open Peering Initiative and our blended transit offerings will make a big difference in the Berlin market by enhancing network topology and improving reachability towards many other significant markets across Europe. There are services like EU-Routing, which connects you to the networks of all major exchanges in Europe, or the Joint Transit product, which combines the best routes of major Tier 1 providers. These will gain traction, but I think that will take more time.

Who do you think will be most interested?
Ulf: In Berlin there are a lot of very innovative digital businesses, many of which have become very successful. Quality of interconnection – routes, latency, resilience and reach – really matter to them. Companies that are scaling up or addressing new markets will also be interested. Let’s say a business feels it has outgrown the local exchanges or is having issues distributing traffic in and beyond Germany; if they peer with NL-ix, they can access about 300 networks over and above the ones they could reach locally so far. Even if they extended their network to Frankfurt, they would still benefit from peering at NL-ix.

Gerald: In time, I think NL-ix will also attract organisations that don’t peer but use transit or other connectivity services. Say a company just uses transit they might consider running IP transit and peering on a single port with NL-ix. That’s a smooth and risk-free transition because we can provide the full interconnection stack of IP transit, peering, and more on a single port. And there’s no extra cost as they’re using spare capacity on the same port. It’s a very cost-effective proposition.

Ulf: I think the services will have a broad appeal far beyond Berlin - across central and eastern Germany as well, and potentially over the border into Poland and the Czech Republic. Anyone who is interested should get in touch, and we will work out a way you can get to know NL-ix at no risk. I’m certain this can improve your interconnection and deliver tangible business benefits.