First Ever LINX Strategy Member Event to be Held in August
We would like to invite members to aLINX Strategy Sessionwhere our community will get an in-depth look at LINX’s future plans, vision, mission, and corporate values. This will be held onMonday 14th August 2023.
To best facilitate this event for all members, we are running them in two sessions. An in-person session at our London Office (We Works, 12 Moorgate, London, EC2R 6DA) and virtually via zoom for our members that cannot make it in-person.
Discover LINX 2023-2025 Strategy: Learn about our ambitious plans and strategies for the next two years. Gain valuable insights into how LINX aims to remain at the forefront of innovation, adapt to evolving markets, and create sustainable growth.
Meet LINX Senior Management and Board Members: Engage in casual Q&A sessions with key decision-makers of LINX, including members of our Senior Management Team and esteemed Board. Take this chance to ask questions, share your thoughts, and gain a deeper understanding of our company’s direction.
Direct Feedback Session: Your opinions matter to us! We value your input and want to hear directly from you. This event provides an excellent platform for LINX to gather feedback and suggestions from our members, helping us to refine our strategies and enhance our services.
Socialise and Network: Connect with LINX staff, fellow members, and industry professionals during the networking session. Share experiences, explore potential collaborations, and strengthen your professional network within the LINX community.
If you would like to be part of either the in-person or online session, please sign up via the LINX Member Portal links below:
If you have any questions regarding the LINX Strategy sessions, please emailmarketing@linx.net
Two New Directors Elected to LINX Board at LINX AGM
The 2023 LINX Annual General Meeting was held at the Manchester Central Convention Complex on Wednesday 17th May 2023. The AGM included the presentation of the 2022 annual report, 2022 accounts and financial results and auditors report. There was also votes on three Ordinary Resolutions plus the 2023 LINX Board election.
The successful candidates standing in 2023 LINX Board election are confirmed as Steve Glendinning (BRSK Limited) and Simon Lockhart (Bogons Ltd).
We would like to welcome Steve and Simon to the Board and look forward to working with them to ensure the future growth of the exchange.
LINX Network News
New LINX Member Portal Self-Service Features Introduced
The LINX Member Portal, and its self-service functionality allows LINX member networks greater control over the provisioning of services on their ports. The on-demand features simplify processes and frees up time for both the member, and LINX teams.
This is the first of two new blogs will go through further example scenarios to highlight more of the self-service features available.
As before, members can use their My Services section to select their individual network services and make specific edits such as changes to bandwidth, MAC address updates including ACL protection, change their VLAN IDs, migrate between ports or move to new ports etc.
The aim of this latest upgrade is to further improve the ease of doing business with LINX, with the benefit of shorter notice and invoice periods for updates on member networks.
LINX among World Leading IXPs to Introduce Cutting-Edge 100G LR-1 Technology
With the increasing demand for higher bandwidth and better performance, IXPs including LINX, DE-CIX, AMS-IX and BCIX, will be introducing a new generation of optical transceivers, the 100G LR-1 (referred to as LR), to their platforms, starting in Frankfurt, London, Amsterdam, and Berlin.
While the existing 100G LR-4 uses four lasers, each carrying a signal of 25 Gbps, the new 100G LR technology uses only a single laser and uses pulse amplitude modulation (PAM4) to transmit data at 100 Gbps. The reduction in transceiver design complexity of the increasingly deployed 100G LR technology will result in power savings as well as better transceiver pricing. These advances not only provide advantages in the short to mid-term, but will also unlock new transceiver form factors that open up the potential for even greater performance and efficiency improvements in the future.
The 100G LR technology is already available with a wide range of compatible routers from all major vendors and is compatible with current fiber technology. In order to satisfy today’s customer demand for 100G LR, DE-CIX, LINX, AMS-IX, and BCIX will provide support in the upcoming months.
The summer months are often a quieter time for industry events in Europe but not so in Africa. There are a number of conferences happening from July through to September starting with Connected Africa in Johannesburg, South Africa (25th July), SAFNOG in Lusaka, Zambia (29th-30th August), and ITW Africa in Nairobi, Kenya (12th-14th September).
In addition, LINX will be at the African Peering and Interconnection Forum (AfPIF) in Accra in Ghana, from the 22nd to the 24th August. Here, LINX will be sponsors and will be making a presentation on LINX Nairobi.
We are also a supporter and co host of the WomenTechConnect initiative which will include a panel discussion on the AfPIF agenda. A separate networking lunch has been been organised to continue these valuable discussions.
LINX member meeting presentations are a valuable source of information for our community. The AGM and Board election was an opportunity for members to have their say and vote on the future direction and strategy of the exchange but the operational updates enables attendees to ask questions with the teams that run the network. Here are just two of the talks from our most recent event in Manchester to give a flavour of the topics covered.
LINX Technology Updates
Major Projects (Richard Petrie)
Maintenances, service issues, and route server developments (Mo Shivji and Anne Bates)
Emergency Crisis Management
This presentation by Dan Smith covers LINX’s resilience review and preparedness programme in response to the global energy crisis.
If you have missed any of LINX’s live events or training sessions we make as many as possible available to watch again so please make sure you subscribe for updates.
Africa Data Centres Announced as Latest Partner for LINX Nairobi
Africa Data Centres, a business of Cassava Technologies group, has been announced as the latest data centre partner to join the new LINX Nairobi network.
The announcement follows news of a strategic partnership last month between the two organisations, to ensure growth and opportunities across new markets in Africa, to enhance connectivity, and bring digital services to citizens.
LINX Nairobi is set to go live in the coming weeks and will be the first interconnected, multi-site Internet Exchange Point in Kenya. With this announcement, customers at the Africa Data Centre’s NBO1 facility in Nairobi will have direct access to the new exchange via a single cross-connect and will also benefit from additional services such as LINX’s around-the-clock, on-call support and portal access.
Access to the LINX Interconnection Hubs – a Key Feature for Data Centres
IP House Data Centre are an independently owned facility located to the East of central London in the data hub that is London Docklands, providing dedicated services including colocation for both small and medium enterprises, through to corporate and multinational clientele.
But how important are the routes to an Internet Exchange Point (IXP) like LINX for the customers they serve there? Find out in our report below.
If you are a LINX member and would be interested being featured in a future edition of the LINX newsletter please email us at newsletter@linx.net.
LINX Public Affairs
As the UK’s largest association of network operators, LINX is uniquely well-placed to help you achieve your policy goals. Drawing upon the collective expertise of our 900+ members, we work to educate, inform and influence politicians and public servants on behalf of ISPs and network operators.
Internet Service Providers operate in a complex and uncertain regulatory environment. New domestic laws, EU directives and international treaties can make or break Internet business models. For your network to thrive, it is not enough to merely adapt to change – you need to be sure that the regulatory environment continues to support Internet innovation.
Our Public Affairs department can provide your business with a number of benefits, including:
Lobbying
Regulatory awareness
Accountability
Partnership
To find out more about the services offered by the Public Affairs team, please visit the LINX website.
LINX continues to maintain strong numbers in what are challenging market conditions. Check out the numbers below to see across its platforms in the UK and internationally.
874 members based in 81 countries
894 member ASNs
45 new applications in 2023 (61 in 2022)
1790 connected member ports
1147 member-facing 10GE ports
449 member-facing 100GE ports
4 member-facing 400GigE ports
Over 7.898Tb/sec of peak traffic
58.16Tb of connected capacity
If you like stats like we do, take a look at the latest numbers on the LINX website.
S4 Ep.02 LINX NoVA Network Refresh and Future Strategy
In episode two of series four of LINXcast, we speak with LINX Chief Technical Officer, Richard Petrie, about the exciting developments at LINX’s US interconnection hub, LINX NoVA. Topics covered included:
