The Carrier Ethernet Exchange Opportunity

With a worldwide Ethernet Exchange opportunity sized at $674 million by 2014, it is no wonder the headlines are buzzing with news of products, technology and services.

The Opportunity
An Ethernet Exchange is an open marketplace solution where multiple providers interconnect Ethernet services. Kirby Russell from Ethernet Academy quotes a Vertical Systems Group research report as saying " geographic coverage is a competitive differentiator, so Ethernet providers are open to more efficient ways to deliver services to sites they can't reach directly.  At this early market stage, Ethernet Exchanges have more Ethernet providers committed to selling than buying services."  This same report lists the market opportunity for Ethernet Exchange services at $674 million.

Ethernet Expo Americas 2010
Many participating companies have made announcements about presenting or exhibiting at the 2010 Ethernet Expo Americas, set for next week (Nov. 2-3) in New York. Even this group talks about cloud computing - AT&T's Joe Weinman's keynote will be on The Network & The Cloud. Equinix, CENX, Level 3, Verizon, XO, and a wide variety of other vendors will also be there.

Equinix Attracts Carrier Ethernet Exchange Customers
Equinix (EQIX) announced Wednesday that it has added 16 new customers to its Equinix Carrier Ethernet Exchange, a global, network-neutral service that improves quality and removes the cost and complexity of facilitating commercial transactions between Layer 2 Ethernet networks. The service has also now been extended to Amsterdam, Frankfurt and Paris. The Equinix Carrier Ethernet Exchange now hosts 39 participants, with the addition of 16 more customers. “In addition to providing the speed, quality and cost advantages of Ethernet-based services, carriers can now offer our 3,700 customers the ability to easily transact business anywhere in the world,” said Jarrett Appleby, chief marketing officer at Equinix. “With the Equinix Carrier Ethernet Exchange and Marketplace, the costly and time-consuming effort of building one-off solutions no longer exists for the Ethernet services industry, which Ovum expects to grow to $40 billion by 2015.”

Telx Turns Up 5 U.S. Exchanges
This week Telx announced the deployment of the Telx Ethernet Exchange service at five U.S. locations: 60 Hudson Street and 111 8th Avenue in New York City, 350 East Cermak Street in Chicago, 56 Marietta Street in Atlanta and 200 Paul Street in San Francisco.  Telx says that it has the largest Ethernet Exchange coverage in the U.S. with these five sites added to the 14 Ethernet Exchange locations offered through the Telx relationship with Neutral Tandem (TNDM). “Our Ethernet Exchange services are located at our most carrier-dense data centers, where Telx fully manages, operates and controls all interconnection and colocation services,” said Brad Hokamp, CMO of Telx. “We give our new and existing customers a great choice of interconnecting with service providers or enterprises via Ethernet virtual connection or physical fiber cross-connects, depending on their requirements. In addition, through our relationship with Neutral Tandem, a company with the same carrier-neutral approach, Telx can offer the broadest reach in the market, so customers are no longer limited to specific geographic regions for reliable Ethernet connectivity.”  Telx will be on an interactive panel on November 3rd at the Ethernet Expo titled "Carrier Ethernet Exchanges - The catalyst for Market Growth."

Neutral Tandem Launches Portal
Neutral Tandem (TNDM) announced Thursday the launch of its new, custom-developed online web portal, a tool designed to streamline and automate business conducted over its Ethernet Exchange in a secure manner.  "Neutral Tandem's online web portal was designed to enhance the overall customer experience and simplify the manner in which customers conduct business over the Exchange," said Surendra Saboo, President and Chief Operating Officer of Neutral Tandem. "The portal serves to empower our Ethernet Exchange customers, allowing them to find Ethernet connectivity solutions for their global off-net needs, place orders, view order status, as well as monitor service levels and trouble tickets on an end-to-end basis."  The Exchange portal will also serve to help drive sales activity for Exchange members by providing their building locations and service capabilities to Service Providers, as well as accept orders for tail circuits on their behalf.

LSI and IP Infusion Deliver Advanced Solution
LSI Corporation (LSI) announced that it has collaborated with IP Infusion to develop an advanced carrier-grade solution for mobile backhaul and carrier Ethernet. The combination of LSI multicore communications processors and the ZebOS Network Platform software from IP Infusion, a leading global provider of networking protocol stacks, provides OEMs with a complete solution that is standards-compliant and pre-tested for interoperability, significantly reducing time to market. "The ZebOS Network Platform is targeted at filling the needs of equipment manufacturers and service providers faced with the challenges of the exploding demand for Internet bandwidth due to the pervasive use of data-demanding, web-enabled smart phones, peer-to-peer communication, IPTV and Web 2.0 applications. The LSI and IP Infusion combination enables those upgrades," said IP Infusion CEO Koichi Narasaki.

Verizon Adds Carrier Ethernet
Verizon Business announced plans to add Global Manged Ethernet to its Managed Services portfolio, enabling multinational organizations to place Verizon Ethernet services in a managed network environment containing just those services, or in a combination with other network services for a complete end-to-end, global managed network solution.  "Together our Private IP and Ethernet services deliver an ideal business communications platform to handle big-bandwidth applications in a similar fashion, no matter where they are located around the world," said Anthony Recine, president of networking and communications solutions for Verizon Business.