Intelligent Data Centres Issue 06 | Page 47

END USER INSIGHT f M ar ke t De ve l opm ent an d Strategy INTERXION GROWS DATA CENTRE OPERATIONS WITH SCALABLE, AGILE DCI NETWORKS Interxion deployed a next- generation DCI solution from Ciena to scale its data centre operations in Marseille, an important hub connecting North Africa, the Middle East, Asia and Europe. W hen Interxion decided to expand its operations in Marseille, real-estate and power constraints led the company to build a second data centre four kilometres from the original site and connect the two facilities with a super-fast Data Centre Interconnect (DCI) network. This allowed Interxion to create a single virtualised data centre campus, giving its clients light-speed access to subsea cables, platforms, connectivity providers and other partners at both sites. Challenge: Interxion wanted to expand its data centre operations in Marseille, but no suitable real estate and power source were available next to its original location Marseille is a hugely important communications centre, connecting North Africa, the Middle East and Asia to www.intelligentdatacentres.com the whole of Europe thanks to terrestrial connections to Frankfurt, London, Amsterdam and Paris (FLAP). With 14 subsea cables landing there, the city has transformed from a transit hub to a lively content hub where cloud and digital media content are created, stored and distributed to 43 countries across EMEA and APAC. In addition, the rapidly growing local market for data centre services presents major revenue opportunities. For these reasons, leading carrier and cloud- neutral data centre operator Interxion made Marseille a strategic focus for its business. Mike Hollands, Interxion’s Director of Market Development and Strategy, said: “We acquired a 6,200 m2 data centre in the centre of Marseille in 2014, which is called MRS1. Issue 06 47