FAQs on the Covid-19 situation

As a result of the exceptional situation in which people currently find themselves in, Internet usage is playing an ever greater role – with increasing use of news sites and video streaming and also Skype and WhatsApp video calls. In the last few days we have seen traffic hikes at multiple DE-CIX Internet Exchanges (IXs), including a new all-time traffic peak of more than 9.1 Terabits per second (Tbps), a growth of about 10%. All DE-CIX IXs are able to handle the existing and expected traffic growth without any problems.

Even if all companies in Europe were to operate exclusively remotely with staff all working from home, and the UEFA European Football Championship were to be broadcast in parallel, we would still be able to make the necessary bandwidth available for seamless interconnection.

At the world’s largest Internet Exchange (IX) in Frankfurt we have seen:

• +10% increase in average data traffic
• Over 9.1 Terabits per second data throughput – a new world record
• 50% increase in video-conferencing traffic (Skype, WebEx, Teams)
• 25% increase in online and cloud gaming and in traffic from the use of social media platforms

We are expecting similar results at other DE-CIX locations – Munich and Madrid have already had new all-time peaks in the last few days. All DE-CIX IXs are able to handle the existing and expected traffic growth without any problems.

Yes, the capacity at DE-CIX can be increased easily. This is also done on a regular basis in order to ensure trouble-free management of the data traffic growth of approximately 20% per year. Furthermore, we always retain at least 25% of additional capacity.

Our business continuity plan focuses on reducing the risk of infection while keeping our interconnection services up and running. The plan is regularly reviewed and adjusted as the Covid-19 situation develops. We will keep maintenance work to a minimum to maximize the availability of the platform. Infrastructure capacity upgrades will have priority. If necessary, we will reduce our service offerings in such a way that new customer provisioning will be delayed in order to maintain the operation of the existing interconnection services.

Although many of our teams are working from home now, we – and especially the DE-CIX Customer Service team – are available to our customers as usual. Part of the NOC team is on site and able to conduct tasks in the data centers, if necessary. If needed, we will reduce our service offerings in such a way that new customer provisioning will be delayed in order to maintain the operation of the existing interconnection services.

If you face any Internet connectivity problems at home, please contact your Internet Service Provider directly. They can investigate what the cause of the problem is and help you.

The health of our employees and their families is our priority. At a very early stage, we implemented comprehensive precautionary measures, such as canceling business trips to high-risk areas and a no-handshake policy. Currently, the majority of the DE-CIX staff is working from home. We have prepared a business continuity plan for the case that employees are infected by Covid-19.

As operator of critical infrastructure, we are in close contact with the authorities and will adjust our actions and measures as needed going forward. To a large extent, the DE-CIX global interconnection platform is automated so it can be monitored and maintained remotely (e.g. we run patch robots for connecting cables at some sites). This means that manual physical intervention in data centers is only needed in rare cases, and this can be delayed if necessary.