Q: What do you hope to achieve by attending this year’s ITW?
At EdgeConneX, we have spent the last two years creating a new Edge of the network across the US. With 20 new Edge Data Centers to date, we have quietly established new exchange points deeper in the network, thereby moving the edge of the Internet. Now that we have developed a solid business model that is scaling, it is our objective to market and educate those in our Internet ecosystem, both domestic and Internationally. We believe that ITW is an ideal conference, if not the best, to meet with our customers, investors and prospects regarding our imminent international deployments and strategy. In addition, we continue to enjoy the fact that the Internet content community shows up in force at ITW. These customers represent a large portion of our ecosystem and we appreciate conferences such as ITW that converge multiple constituencies at a single venue.
Q: How has EdgeConneX expanded its data center footprint in the U.S. in the last 12 months?
EdgeConneX now operates Edge Data Centers in 20 North American markets, making us the largest data center company by unique markets in the region. In 2015, we will add at least another ten facilities to that total. These numbers do not include our international plans, which we have yet to make public.
Q: How is the company helping to bring content closer to end-users in underserved US markets?
EdgeConneX defined and built the market; now, we are helping to educate it. The industry has reacted by adopting a strategy geared towards localisation of content, applications, gaming, cloud, media, CDN and almost everything else. Our first study on the effect of localization on latency will be published soon in cooperation with a leading independent research firm. The findings related to our Edge Data Centers show a ten-fold improvement in latency and a nine-fold improvement in download times. Furthermore, the Mean Opinion Score (MOS), which determines the quality of the video experience for the end-user, went up 30%. Perhaps the most significant study finding is the marriage between higher quality and lower total cost of ownership (TCO) for all parties.
Q: What new markets is the company targeting for expansion in 2015/2016?
EdgeConneX goes to those markets our customers and partners demand. We do not build on speculation, but instead in close partnership with our customers on site selection, making every Edge Data Canter EBITDA positive on Day 1. As mentioned, that has become a global proposition for us – stay tuned.
Q: How is the company also targeting opportunities in the IoT market?
We believe that the Internet of Things requires the Internet of Everywhere. If the infrastructure is not in place to handle latency-sensitive and bandwidth-intensive ‘things’, then the Internet simply won’t work. EdgeConneX is creating the Internet everywhere so that it will work for everything – not just email.
