Netflix signs on to New York Open Internet Exchange

Netflix, the world’s leading Internet television network, is the first customer for AMS-IX New York. This location is the first Internet Exchange for Netflix to connect to that has been established under the Open-IX initiative in the United States. This agreement follows Netflix’s connection to AMS-IX in Amsterdam earlier this year.

Open-IX is an initiative started by a group of Internet network operators, content owners and distributors, and other market parties, including Netflix, that encourages the development of the neutral and distributed Internet Exchange model in the US. The ultimate objective of Open-IX is to reduce interconnection complexity and associated costs in this country, which have been more complex and higher than in Europe, where the preferred Internet Exchange model is more common.

AMS-IX’s counterpart AMS-IX USA Inc. reached agreements with Digital Realty (NYSE: DLR), DuPont Fabros Technology, Inc. (NYSE: DFT), Sabey Data Centers and 325 Hudson in the first week of November to operate and build an Open-IX Internet Exchange in the New York/New Jersey area. Depending on the market demand and the willingness of other data center providers to partner with AMS-IX USA Inc., additional locations may be added. AMS-IX will also deploy distributed Internet Exchanges in the Chicago and Silicon Valley markets, which are currently planned to go live in respectively the first and second quarter of 2014.

“We are very pleased to have Netflix as the first customer of AMS-IX New York. One of the main reasons to broaden our scope to the US is to offer our US-based customers the value of a neutral and distributed Internet Exchange. Netflix is the first customer to take advantage of this,” said Job Witteman, CEO of AMS-IX.

“Netflix has been one of the key drivers of the Open-IX initiative. With our connection to AMS-IX New York we can finally get benefit from the European Internet Exchange model in the US,” said David Temkin, Director of Network Architecture and Strategy and Chair Board of Directors of the Open-IX Association. “Moreover, our experience with AMS-IX in Amsterdam made it an easy choice to connect to AMS-IX New York as well.”