PAIX.net and eXchange Colocation team up on peering

eXchange Colocation and Metromedia Fiber Network [MFN] subsidiary PAIX.net are teaming up in a strategic alliance to provide peering, interconnection and co-location services to their collective customers in eXchange’s 420,000-square-foot facility in San Francisco.

Customers in the eXchange site will be able to directly connect a PAIX.net provided ISO Layer 2 switch fabric that spans most of the San Francisco Bay area, connecting participants at bandwidths up to 1 Gbps.

The agreement works for both parties. PAIX.net gets to expand its peering fabric to a major site in San Francisco and eXchange Colocation customers gain access to PAIX’s packet-based switching.

Timothy Guarnieri, PAIX’s vice president and general manager emphasized that neither company will compete for the same customers, although there might be some overlap. PAIX.net, he said, works with customers who need a “small footprint” for location, but are more interested in interconnection services. eXchange is in the co-location business, with predominantly large users.

“Peering is what I want,” Guarnieri said, speaking after a press conference at ISPCon in Las Vegas this week.

eXchange’s San Francisco co-location facility that is about 80% filled already, said Michael Chapman, eXchange’s marketing director.

The new agreement, he said, is “the first venture in extending peering into the [San Francisco] metro” area.