Equinix and Southern Cross Cables are collaborating to provide a key US-based interconnectivity access point for the Southern Cross NEXT (SX NEXT) submarine cable system.
SX NEXT will leverage Equinix’s next-generation cable landing station (CLS) architecture, enabling rapid provisioning and cost savings for the cable network provider.
With 99 percent of intercontinental telecommunications traffic transmitted via submarine fibre optic cables, the partners are committed to maintaining low-carbon footprints of subsea cables by designing for sustainability and embracing shared metrics, as recommended by Sustainability Subsea Networks.
The SX NEXT cable offers the lowest latency path from Australia and New Zealand to Los Angeles in the US, connecting into Equinix’s LA4 Los Angeles International Business Exchange (IBX) data centre. It enhances network performance across industries in the region and boosts the aggregate capacity of Southern Cross’ existing Trans-Pacific ecosystem by about 500 percent.
Southern Cross also utilises Platform Equinix to provide critical on-ramps to the Southern Cross network ecosystem at SY1 and SY5 Sydney data centres, as well as SV1and SV8 in Silicon Valley, and LA1 in Los Angeles.
With the release of 400GbE (Layer 1 and 2) capability on the Southern Cross network earlier this year, customers can now take advantage of the lowest latency, secure 400G data centre inter-connections between key Equinix facilities in Sydney, Australia and the US West Coast.
The need for additional capacity between Australia and the US is driven by increased demand for cloud services, content and digital media, and e-commerce capabilities, a sign of the growing maturity of the Australian digital economy.
Content providers are the primary trans-Pacific bandwidth consumers, accounting for almost 78 percent of bandwidth in 2022. Their increasing demand only began in 2015. Prior to that, internet backbone providers held the largest share of the market. Since then, the demand gap between the two has continued to widen as content providers have maintained their rapid growth over the years.
“Equinix’s deep industry knowledge and robust digital ecosystems — where businesses come together to exchange data, unlock collaboration opportunities, and form new markets — enables us to provide innovative technology and network solutions to minimise latency and improve performance for our customers. Trans-Pacific subsea connectivity will continue to be a key enabler in the region for many years to come, and we’re excited about this next phase of interconnection through our work with Equinix,” said Craige Sloots, Director of Marketing & Strategy at Southern Cross
“By supplementing existing trans-Pacific routes, the Southern Cross NEXT cable provides seamless and accelerated interconnection across Platform Equinix, with an opportunity to help boost the digital economy in those regions,” said Jim Poole, Vice President of Business Development at Equinix.
Photo: Guillaume Meurice
Entelechy Asia 