An internet exchange point (IXP) is a physical network access point through which primary network providers connect their networks and exchange traffic. Sometimes it is hard to believe that the Internet can be stored in some physical segment. Although it is true, that the internet is stored. While using the Internet, we connect to two networks at a time to acquire data and is known as Peering.

Why is an Internet Exchange important?

Let’s presume, that you as an end user browsing something which is hosted outside India through your service provider, the query will go all the way through the international gateway to Singapore and then come back to you. The time taken to achieve this becomes much.  In order to get this query to be routed locally, IXP’s come in to picture which provides a platform to those providers to host their infrastructure locally and serve the users with lowest possible latency.

In other words if there is no Internet Exchange in a country, the domestic ISPs will have to purchase the transit from nearby foreign ISPs, which will make the internet expensive and the efficiency of the network is also affected. To conclude Internet Exchange Points help to keep the local internet traffic local and avoid the international links. This improves the local internet performance.

Internet Exchange point is often referred as Exchange Point, Peering Exchange, Peering Hub, Internet Peering Point etc. There are a total 880 Internet Exchanges worldwide.

The benefits for an ISP connecting to an Internet Exchange Point are:

Substantial cost saving with local networks hosting global CDNs.

More improved bandwidth.

Reduced latency with a better quality of experience.

High-speed data transfer.

Enhanced Routing efficiency.

How does connecting to the Internet Exchange Point benefits businesses?

Internet exchanges make the internet a swift and easy tool for business use. It helps you retrieve and forward data over the internet and execute tasks. Being close to an IXP can bring the company great advantages and help it to achieve more as costs will be lower, response time will be lower and your data will be safer.

Internet Exchange Points connect cloud service providers too, and Cloud adoption is a structured shift by organizations of minimizing expenditure, lowering risk and attaining scalability of database capabilities. Cloud adoption may be of various types in an organization, depending on the depth of adoption.

Corporate data in the cloud can be easily saved, recovered, or organized with just a couple of clicks on their smartphones and other devices to keep up with clients and colleagues. Users get access to their works, 24/7, via any devices of their choice. This saves the IT team workload and results in customer satisfaction.

Who can benefit from the cloud?

Any company irrespective of size and industry can benefit from the cloud. It is widely used by businesses to use it as a data backup, disaster recovery, software development, database management and to access files and records on the go through compatible devices.

Cloud is one of the most effective ways to improve team performance. By giving access to the applications, information and files that are stored in the cloud. The team can collaborate and work on the same file and update it from anywhere and anytime.

There are two types of cloud public and private cloud. A private cloud is expensive. Public cloud a platform run by cloud service providers like Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure Cloud etc.

To conclude, Internet Exchange Points connects the Content Delivery Networks, Internet Service Providers, Over-the-top Platforms (Video-on-demand platforms), IPTV, Web Hosting Companies, DNS Root Servers, Telecommunications, and Cloud Service Providers.

It makes the process of exchanging data and internet traffic efficient, secured and reliable between the above network providers on a settlement-free agreement.

The first private Internet Exchange Point in India is Mumbai IX, which is now known as DE-CIX India after their joint venture with DE-CIX. DE-CIX India is data center neutral and has presence in Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai and Kolkata with 220+ networks and presence in 8 data centers all over India.