Amsterdam, August 11, 2023 – Internet exchange AMS-IX announces today that it has replaced all of its switches at Equinix AM5, one of its data center locations in Amsterdam. Thanks to the upgrades, the platform at AM5 has more port capacity and power consumption at that location has decreased by no less than 85%.
Since last year, AMS-IX has been using Juniper as its new switch supplier and AMS-IX is taking steps to gradually replace all of the platform’s switches with newer models. Equinix’s AM5 data center is the first of the Internet Exchange’s 16 sites to have upgraded equipment. Nikhef/ DRT AMS9, Global Switch and the DRT data tower are planned later this year.
The data center location at Equinix has more port capacity after the migration, supports the 100G LR-1 standard and now also has 400G ports. In addition to capacity benefits, the location’s power consumption has also been significantly reduced. Total customer switch power at Equinix AM5 was reduced from 52.8KWatts to 8.2Kwatts, a decrease of 85%.
“It is always difficult to determine in advance what kind of energy reduction you can achieve through the introduction of new technology, but this result exceeded expectations,” says Ruben van den Brink, CTO of AMS-IX. “We want to give sustainability a more prominent place in the choices we make. The industry mainly looks at what something can do, costs and whether it is safe. Sustainability must also be taken into account when considering the growth of the digital sector.”
The old MLX switches that were replaced at Equinix AM5 have functioned for about twelve years. It is expected that the new Juniper switches will last a similar period.
AMS-IX also wants to equip all its locations with measuring equipment so that it is clear how much power each location consumes. Equinix AM5 is the first location where this has been done.