Lamda Hellix Data Centers, the Athens-based leading neutral data center operator in South-East Europe (SEE), and DE-CIX, the world’s leading Internet Exchange operator, are announcing today a strategic partnership, establishing SEECIX (South-East Europe Cloud & Interconnection Exchange) powered by DE-CIX. SEECIX will be ready for service in summer 2020 within Lamda Hellix’s neutral world-class data center campus in Athens. The new interconnection hub will serve the South-East European/Balkan region in extension to other DE-CIX metro markets in Lisbon, Madrid, Marseille, Palermo, and Istanbul, acting as a further new gateway between South-East Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. In addition, SEECIX will be connected with the world’s largest neutral interconnection ecosystem of DE-CIX, offering access to many hundreds of different networks. At SEECIX, further peering, private interconnection, and cloud exchange services will also be available, with access to top public clouds including Microsoft Azure, AWS, Google Cloud, IBM Bluemix.

The new interconnection hub will be operated by DE-CIX on behalf of Lamda Hellix as part of the DE-CIX Apollon-as-a-Service (AaaS) program. The DE-CIX AaaS program includes a set of services such as installation, maintenance, provisioning, marketing, and sales support, designed for data center operators or other third parties to create their own Internet Exchange and interconnection platform fully operated by DE-CIX. One example of the DE-CIX AaaS is the success story behind the UAE-IX powered by DE-CIX in Dubai. The SEECIX partnership presents the first opportunity for DE-CIX to deliver the technical set-up needed for an Internet Exchange as a fully pre-configured and standardized “DE-CIX in a box” solution – easy to plug and play.

Apostolos Kakkos, Chairman & CEO of Lamda Hellix, commented: “Strategically located in Europe and on the crossroads of the Balkans, Africa, and the Middle East, Athens is quickly becoming a major hub for logistics, natural resources, travel, and communications. It is not by accident that Athens International Airport won first place at the Routes Europe 2019, while Athens’ port at Piraeus became the largest port in the Mediterranean and the fourth largest in Europe during 2019. Over the past 17 years, we have established Lamda Hellix as the largest neutral world-class data center provider in SEE. With our latest strategic partnership with global leader DE-CIX, we aim to extend our leadership, strengthen the country’s critical digital infrastructure, and establish Greece as a digital hub by improving latency to/from South-East Europe, providing access to the whole world with just one connection to our growing digital ecosystem.”

Ivo Ivanov, CEO of DE-CIX International, says, “We are proud to bring the world’s leading neutral interconnection ecosystem to the strategically important region of South-East Europe, the Balkans, and especially to Greece with our partner Lamda Hellix Data Centers. With a single access at SEECIX, customers will be able to enjoy a comprehensive set of interconnection services. This includes peering locally with other Greek networks, OTTs, cloud providers, and enterprises, or remotely with DE-CIX Frankfurt, the world’s leading IX by peak traffic, and other DE-CIX locations in due course, as well as gaining access to more than 50+ cloud service providers present at the DE-CIX Cloud Exchange. DE-CIX has a proven record of accomplishment in successfully creating interconnection hubs worldwide in regions where customers are in need of easy-to-access interconnection services. We are certain SEECIX will have a tremendous impact and meet huge success in the South East of Europe and beyond.”