As the new fully functioning LINX point of presence (PoP) goes live at the NGD data centre near Newport, the facility has now been named, ‘Home of LINX Wales’.
This follows the previous announcement at the London Internet Exchange (LINX) member conference in London that Next Generation Data (NGD) – now part of Vantage Data Centers – was to become the home of LINX Wales.
Launched in 2015, LINX Wales was present only at the Stadium House data centre facility in Cardiff with the expansion to NGD due to go live in March of this year.
However, the project was delayed due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the regulations put in place. LINX Wales is part of LINX’s other regional interconnection services in London, Manchester, Scotland and USA.
LINX service delivery manager, Neil Ratcliffe has been overseeing the project and commented, “It’s been great to be able to get back out into the data centres and continue larger projects like the NGD install.
“We’ve been keeping a close eye on government regulations and as soon as we were allowed, we wanted to complete the project so local networks in Wales can start benefiting from everything that LINX and peering has to offer.”
Justin Jenkins, UK president and COO Europe at Vantage Data Centers added, “We are delighted our Newport facility has become a major point of presence for LINX Wales. Our customers now have straightforward access to the LINX Wales PoP and the networks peering locally.”
“By keeping traffic local to Wales their networks will benefit from considerably lower latency with fewer hops and improved control, therefore ensuring an enhanced and seamless end user experience.”
Deputy Minister for Economy and Transport Lee Waters had this to say, “I’m pleased to see that LINX have invested in Wales and that the new Internet Exchange is now up and running in Newport.
“The Welsh Government looks forward to LINX Wales and its new community of members developing as a valuable asset that will contribute to the broader digital economy in Wales.”
NGD, newly acquired by Vantage Data Centers, is home to UK enterprise, global cloud providers, global integrators and Fortune 500 companies.
NGD’s out of town location is Europe’s largest data centre facility, offering vast amounts of space and totally renewable power.
The facility supports the colocation and cloud hosting requirements of organisations of all sizes including the provision of bespoke data halls for larger customers.
In addition to full representation from the leading UK carriers, thousands of individual fibres including dark fibres are installed through multiple entry points into an expanding array of meet-me rooms.
