DATAIX

DATAIX

Full name	DATAIX
Founded	2009
Website	www.dataix.ru/en
Members	490[1]
Ports	2518[2]
Peak	4.1 Tbit/s[3]

DATAIX is an Internet exchange network between telecom operators and content generators in Russia, Europe and Asia. According to the Internet Exchange Report by Hurricane Electric Internet Services, DATAIX is one of the largest networks in the world by the number of participant. Its peak traffic, the size of which exceeds 4.1 Tbit/s.^[1][2][3] The headquarters of the company is located in St. Petersburg.

History[]

The Ciena 6500 system at the Equinix AM4 data center in Amsterdam

Equinix Data Center in Amsterdam, where GlobalNet equipment is installed

DATAIX was launched in St. Petersburg in 2009. The first Internet exchange point was located in the Information Exchange Center in the building of the Saint Petersburg State University of Industrial Technologies and Design (18 Bolshaya Morskaya Street). The founders used their own money as investment. At the start, DATAIX purchased part of the fiber-optic network, and partly built it specifically for the project (for example, the route from the data centers on Tsvetochnaya Street, where VKontakte was hosted, to Borovaya Street). Also, they leased or purchased capacities in Moscow.^[4] Peering LLC, which owned the DATAIX network, was closely connected to the relatives of Pavel Durov: half-brother Mikhail Petrov, who worked at Selectel, and his mother Albina Durova (the latter owned 25.5% of the company from July 2012 to November 2013).^[5]

In 2013, a DATAIX point of presence was opened in Kyiv. DATAIX served the Ukrainian traffic of the VKontakte social network, with caching servers of the social network on the site.^[6] In the following years, DATAIX became a major player in the Ukrainian traffic market. In 2016, the largest telecommunications companies of the country Kyivstar and Ukrtelecom were connected to the DATAIX exchange point, and at that time up to 2 Tbit/s of traffic passed through it.^[7]

In 2015, the national operator of Moldova Moldtelecom was connected, becoming the fourth in the group of connected national operators (Ukrtelecom, Kazakhtelecom, and the National Traffic Exchange Center of Belarus).^[8] In the same year, Novatel, a member of Deutsche Telekom, joined the DATAIX network through a point in Frankfurt.^[9]

In 2016 DATAIX participants got the opportunity to establish a direct session with Hurricane Electric, the largest operator in the world in terms of the number of IPv4 and IPv6 prefixes. The maximum network load in 2016 was 2.2 Tbit/s, the channel capacity between Moscow and St. Petersburg reached 0.4 Tbit/s.^[10]

In 2017, DATAIX officially entered the Euro-IX Internet exchange association, and also launched points of presence in Sweden (Stockholm) and Latvia (Riga).^[11]

In March 2018, it was announced that Global-IX and DATAIX are merging under the brand of the latter, but on the base of the GlobalNet infrastructure, which includes its own highway communication networks on the Moscow-St. Petersburg-Helsinki-Stockholm route. Companies are counting on the synergy effect of the GlobalNet MPLS network and the DATAIX traffic exchange point services.^[12][13][14]

In 2019, the number of PoPs in 7 countries increased from 28 to 34. Points of presence in Rostov-on-Don, Amsterdam, and Frankfurt am Main were added. As of December 2019, the total port capacity for clients is 59.431 Tbit/s. Another national operator, Uzbektelecom, has joined the DATAIX participants. In September 2020, the company launched a fiber-optic communication line along a short route along the M11 "Neva" expressway. This FOCL became GlobalNet's second trunk route on the "St. Petersburg-Moscow" section.^[15]

In March 2021, the IX DDoS Protection service was launched to protect participants of the DATAIX peer-to-peer network from DDoS. It is based on the IX Security 32 system and is available to DATAIX participants at no additional cost.^[16]

Network features[]

DATAIX connects the traffic of telecom operators and content generators in Russia, Europe and Asia. 38 points of presence in a united traffic exchange network are located in seven countries:^{[13][2][17][3]}

• Russia: St. Petersburg, Moscow, Samara, Ufa, Yekaterinburg, Chelyabinsk, Rostov-on-Don, Novosibirsk, Krasnodar;
• Ukraine: Kyiv, Kharkiv, Odessa;
• Kazakhstan: Nur-Sultan;
• Germany: Frankfurt;
• Sweden: Stockholm;
• Finland: Helsinki, Espoo;
• Netherlands: Amsterdam.

The total length of the networks is more than 7 thousand km, and the total throughput capacity of external channels reaches 4 Tbit/s.^[13][3]

The number of participants (ASN) exceeds 480, of which 80% are telecom operators and 20% are content generators. Peak load of communication channels exceeded 4.1 Tbit/s. According to the results of 2020, the total number of ports in the DATAIX network is 4054, of which 732 are ports with throughput capacity of 100 Gbit/s (0.1 Tbit/s) each, 3150 ports with capacity of 10 Gbit/s and 129 ports of 1 Gbit/s.^[13][17] As of September 2019, DATAIX is ahead of the Russian network MSK-IX in terms of the number of participants.^[1]

As of July 2021, the total capacity of the customers ports is 106.5 Tbit/s, and the peak utilization of the network has reached the mark of 4.1 Tbit/s.^[18][3]

Events[]

DATAIX regularly takes part in meetings of the Internet exchange association Euro-IX, at GPF conferences (Global Peering Forum),^[19] EPF (European Peering Forum),^[20] ENOG (Eurasia Network Operators Group).^[21] The company also hosted the first large-scale conference for the telecom market in St. Petersburg — GlobalNet Telecom Day 2019.^[22]

Owners and management[]

DATAIX is owned by GlobalNet. GlobalNet CEO is Alexey Zakrevskiy.^[3]

See also[]

• List of Internet exchange points by size

References[]

External links[]

• DATAIX official website
• DATAIX looking glass
• Statistics