The heart and soul of interconnection

The annual report 2021 looks back on the second year of the Covid-19 pandemic – a year during which the world began to stabilize into the “new normal”. The insatiable demand for digital applications and data-driven services was further boosted by the transformation that has occurred in the last couple of years – a steady process of digitalization, of optimization of workflows, of the expansion of methods of communication and entertainment, and the increasingly fine-grained interconnection of the planet.

In the remarkable year 2020, DE-CIX experienced one milestone after the other. The year show us how important a functioning, secure, and reliable digital infrastructure is for all areas of life. Within just a few days in March 2020, average global data traffic rose between 15% and 30%, depending on the region. This resulted in the largest annual increase in peak traffic at DE-CIX Frankfurt in its entire history – reaching 10.3 Terabits per second. 

In 2019, milestones were achieved for many of our exchanges, and DE-CIX Frankfurt continued its success by breaking its own peak traffic world record. As well as entering the South East Asian market, our team was busy around the world, extending the reach of existing locations, setting up further enabled sites and access sites, and developing new services. On our 25th birthday year, we can see that the Internet and the digital infrastructures on which it is based have come of age.

In 2018 the DE-CIX world kept growing and responding to our customers’ needs and demands. We further broadened our interconnection footprint with the aim of making interconnection as easy as possible for our customers, wherever they need it. We therefore focused on both new services and new locations in 2018. The success of this interconnection strategy was demonstrated in the considerable growth in customer numbers, connected customer capacity, and turnover. 

In the 2017 financial year, DE-CIX successfully maintained its position as the world leader in operating Internet Exchanges. Consolidated total turnover across all parts of the company rose by 9 percent from 2016 to reach 31.8 million Euro. The DE-CIX Internet Exchanges in Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and North America, which now total 13 worldwide, saw consolidated customer growth of almost 14 percent in 2017 and meanwhile serve more than 1,500 customers from over 100 countries.

2016 was another year of excellence in interconnection and global growth for DE-CIX. Cutting-edge, world-best interconnection technology, peak traffic of 5.6 Terabits per second (Tbps), and connected capacity up well above 20 Terabits in Frankfurt. But DE-CIX is much more than the sum of its technological parts. DE-CIX is where networks meet, certainly, but that also means it is where the people behind and within those networks meet. 

DE-CIX Management GmbH has experienced a successful year 2015 – both in its home market of Germany as well as in its international subsidiaries – with high growth rates in customer numbers, reseller partners, and data traffic. In particular, a spectacular increase in data traffic over the Frankfurt exchange (43 percent up on 2014 figures) and in connected capacity (up 44 percent) show a direct correlation with the popularity of 100GE ports, where sales having more than doubled in 2015.