Opening Up Data Centers as Interconnections Skyrocket, Pluribus and Dell Power Up AMS-IX

By Arti Loftus, Special Correspondent  |  October 16, 2019

The latest Global Interconnection Index (GXI) predicts private connectivity at the edge is forecast to grow by 51 percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) and expected to exceed a total bandwidth capacity of more than 53 zettabytes of data exchanged annually.

The study also reports that interconnection bandwidth is an essential component for the digital transformation of enterprises and organizations and validates growing data volumes and increasing data exchange velocity across multiple clouds and business ecosystems.

According to the survey, more than one-third of global IT decision-makers are using interconnection to increase the speed of connectivity and resilience, and that interconnecting to multiple network providers across multiple edge locations is the most prominent use case, expected to grow 4x by 2022. The second most popular use case is interconnecting to multiple clouds and services across regions and is predicted to grow 13x by 2022. The third most popular use case is interconnecting to digital business partners for trading, rich media, and supply chain applications, forecasted to grow 5x by 2022.

AMS (News - Alert)-IX (Amsterdam Internet Exchange) is a world leader in providing high-quality interconnection services for all of these use cases. In business for over 25 years, AMS-IX currently operates seven independent internet exchanges globally, with the largest in Amsterdam consisting of 14 points of presence (POPS), 870+ Autonomous Systems (ASNs), and 1150+ ports generating as much as 6.3 Tb/ traffic during peak times.

At the NetEvents conference this month, Pluribus Networks, an innovator in open networking and next generation software defined networking (SDN), announced that AMS-IX has deployed Pluribus' Netvisor ONE operating system and the Adaptive Cloud Fabric, along with Dell (News - Alert) EMC Open Networking hardware, as part of a multi-site network modernization project.

“The cost savings of open networking is certainly compelling, but for our team, it is the fabric-wide visibility together with the SDN automation that makes the Pluribus Networks (News - Alert) solution so valuable to us day in and day out. With this deployment we continue to stay at the cutting edge of networking, further improving network operations and management,” said Bart Myszkowski, AMS-IX network engineer.

To meet the increasing demands on its network and services, AMS-IX determined that moving to open networking solutions combined with SDN would best meet their requirements for performance, automation, flexibility, and cost-efficiency for their platform in Amsterdam.

"Innovation and high-performance services are the foundation of Amsterdam Internet Exchange; it's what they built-their reputation on, and why they've led the interconnect market for 25 years," said Kumar Srikantan, Chief Executive Officer of Pluribus Networks. "This focus on innovation and new approaches led the team to understand the compelling advantages that can be realized once the software is disaggregated from the hardware. Their shift to open networking, with Pluribus software driving automation across the entire fabric, is now delivering the agility and flexibility they need to meet customer requirements well into the future.”

AMS-IX selected the Pluribus Linux-based Netvisor ONE network operating system (NOS), featuring the Adaptive Cloud Fabric (ACF) running on Dell EMC (News - Alert) Open Networking Switches, for its ability to create  an SDN-controlled network fabric that federates together a large number of geographically distributed switches to appear as one logical switch, radically simplifying network operations.

Pluribus ’controllerless architecture leverages the processing power inside the switches that are already being deployed, distributing the intelligence to every switch in the network. The distributed approach to automation lower costs by eliminating the expense of multiple controllers while improving performance. AMS-IX network operators often move around site to site, and now, from any switch, the AMS-IX team can see the entire fabric, troubleshoot the entire fabric, or update policy across fabric. The new level of automation allows, AMS-IX to better serve customers while making their own operations even more efficient and cost-effective.

AMS-IX also benefits from Pluribus Insight Analytics, which leverages embedded Netvisor monitoring telemetry and packet flow data sources to enable pervasive visibility across the network, eliminating the need for expensive probes or complex monitoring overlay networks. With end-to-end visibility into all connections that traverse the entire data center fabric, AMS-IX can analyze and compare actual versus desired performance and implement corrective actions, such as changes to policy or rerouting traffic to implement on-demand modifications to the infrastructure.

“Most data center operators would love to automate their networks to move faster and reduce opex, but typical SDN and network virtualization options are too complex and expensive,” explained Jay Gill, Senior Director of Marketing at Pluribus. “AMS-IX recognized they could bypass those obstacles with Pluribus, getting the benefits of open networking and controllerless network automation along with powerful analytics in a simple solution that just works.”


Arti Loftus is an experienced Information Technology specialist with a demonstrated history of working in the research, writing, and editing industry with many published articles under her belt.

Edited by Maurice Nagle
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