Over The Edge Interconnection must be Democratized with Ivo Ivanov, Chairman and CEO of DE-CIX GmbH
This episode features an interview between Matt Trifiro and Ivo Ivanov, Chairman and CEO of DE-CIX GmbH where he is responsible for the global business activities of the Internet Exchange Operator. Ivo has more than 15 years of experience in the regulatory, legal and commercial Internet environment. Joining the organization in January 2007, in recent years Ivo has been deeply involved in the establishment of DE-CIX sites in North America, Southern Europe, the Middle East, the Indian subcontinent, and Southeast Asia, as well as several consultancy projects in Africa, Asia and Europe. Ranked as one of the top 100 most influential professionals of the Telecom industry, Ivo is regularly invited to share his vision and thought leadership in various industry-leading conferences around the globe.
In this episode, Ivo talks about interconnection, how it differs throughout the world, and the importance of expansion especially in developing countries. He discusses how the edge interconnection platform is a missing piece to help enable many advancements and innovations in everyday life, in areas like automobiles and technology. Ivo also explains what he thinks the technology industry will look like five years down the road.
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Key Quotes:
“Interconnection really needs to get deeper into the edge for one very simple reason, quality security performance in general, or a magic world of latency. Latency is extremely important nowadays. I love to say latency is our new currency.”
“Why democratize? Because we have been doing this business for 27 years now. 24 years of those 27 were entirely wholesale industry focused. Just a couple of years back, we started direct business relationships with enterprises, with car manufacturers, with banks, with retailers, with logistic companies. And, these guys, their business is not telecommunications wholesale. Their business is the business of their industry segment. They just want to use this type of infrastructure for security and performance reasons. But they don't need to be experts in wholesale telecommunication. So, we need to make it as easy as possible for them to enjoy the interconnection services. This is what I call the democratization of infrastructure, that every single type of business on this planet can use.”
“I think in the future we need to develop these further pieces of infrastructure and it's not the DE-CIX platform only. We need to see more edge data centers. We need to see more fiber in the rural areas. Middle and last mile investments are extremely crucial also for the economy of the country and serving the people, disregarding where they live and work with the best possible quality of access to digital services. Because if you look at it from a more altruistic point of view, good access to digital services today also means a good quality of life because with economic growth at the end. I'm 1000% sure about this. Diversification of infrastructure is extremely important also for redundancy, resilience, and security reasons.”
“It will be a world which will use more and more digital services as we can even imagine today, further down the path we're talking about the metaverse. We're talking about an internet of a new generation or digital services of a new generation where people will enjoy different virtualization. eCommerce will change, will become extremely augmented and virtual reality driven. We will see in the business world further progress on processing on different solutions for any type of business that's relying on cloud compute, but also relying on digitalization and digital infrastructure.”
“I see a world full of innovation, I see a world full of digital infrastructure and demand for digital infrastructure. Therefore, I do worry a bit that we will not be fast enough to develop this digital infrastructure as much as we can and everywhere, literally everywhere, around the globe. At least, this is our mandate and we will not stop working hard every day to do this.”
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Show Timestamps:
(02:00) Getting started in tech
(05:52) Understanding internet connection
(12:19) Edge tech in internet connectivity
(16:47) How interconnection is changing
(21:11) Why interconnection must be democratized
(29:37) Advantages of having data centers in metro regions
(35:41) Interconnectivity in auto and tech sectors
(45:14) The importance of quality assurance
(46:38) Predictions for five years in the future
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Sponsor:
Over the Edge is brought to you by Dell Technologies - unlock the potential of your infrastructure with edge solutions. From hardware and software to data and operations, across your entire multi-cloud environment, we’re here to help you simplify your edge so you can generate more value. Learn more by visiting DellTechnologies.com/SimplifyYourEdge for more information or click on the link in the show notes.
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