As part of efforts to improve performance, services and scalability that are critical to today’s evolving Information and Communication Technology industry, the Internet Exchange Point of Nigeria (IXPN), has acquired Switches capable of 25GE and 40GE ports for its entire network in Lagos.
The Chief Executive Officer of IXPN, Mr. Muhammed Rudman, who disclosed this in a statement in Lagos, said the upgrade of the switches will help the company address the current and anticipated needs of its members.
“The essence of upgrading our core switches is to keep up with global trends and to ensure that the expectations of our members are met, this would allow us to offer 25Gbps and 40Gbps (Gigabits per second) ports to our existing and potential members. Prior to this time, we could only provide a maximum capacity of 10Gbps. With the acquisition of the current switches, IXPN is providing the opportunity to our members to scale and to get access to the latest features,” he said in the statement.
He added that the upgrade will provide more switching platforms for the Exchange customers that need high capacity, and also, boost the scalability of the exchange by accommodating more volume of traffic.
The Internet Exchange Point of Nigeria has recorded an increase in membership, with the connection of 7 new members, making a total membership of 66 getting direct access to multiple internet networks with a single connection. These new members, according to the company are Bitflux, Brainshare Technologies, Cynox-IT, Microsoft, SoftAlliance, WACREN and WIOCC:
This necessitated the addition of a 4th Point of Presence to its list of Lagos POPs, which is at Interconnect ClearingHouse Nigeria Limited’s Data Centre at NECOM House, 15 Marina, Lagos. Thus, members interested in connecting to the exchange point within Lagos Island can now establish their connection at the ICNL data center.
Meanwhile, the Internet Exchange Point of Nigeria (IXPN) is on the verge of launching what can be described as a standard training facility, where its members and the general public will constantly receive capacity building/training in tandem with the fast-growing Information and Communications Technology industry.
The facility, located at the IXPN’s corporate office in Lagos, is set for launch this month and will be used for training IXPN’s members on topical issues affecting their services, with facilitators regularly drawn from local and international organisations.
Speaking on what informed the decision to set up the training facility, the Chief Executive Officer of IXPN, Mr. Muhammed Rudman, noted that the capacity building facility is borne out of the fact that the ICT ecosystem is evolving rapidly and it is has become imperative to have an avenue for increasing the knowledge base of members and generally players in the industry.
“As a regional IXP with 66 members presently connected to the exchange point, we felt it was high time we upgraded our facilities to include capacity building for our members, so as to tackle the current dearth of technical skills in the ecosystem and to also keep our members abreast on the latest trends in internet technologies, ” he said.