The company migrated more than 450 customers during live operation from its Level 3 data centre, Frankfurt 7, to the new Frankfurt 12 location.
“This move bore a resemblance to open-heart surgery, as we had to migrate customers during live operations,” said DE-CIX’s CEO, Harald Summa.
Frankfurt 12, on the Kleyerstrasse campus, is run by Equinix and Itenos, said DE-CIX, and it is the world’s largest internet exchange. The new data centre needed 15km of fibre.
“We achieved this without encountering the slightest problem,” said Summa. “We are the first internet exchange worldwide to use a so-called patch robot, which is pre-programmed to independently migrate customers’ connections.”
The robot, nicknamed Patchy McPatchbot, connected customers via an optical distribution frame, used instead of a standard rack and patch panel. This “substantially increases the efficiency of customer relocation”, said DE-CIX. “This means that a port can now be deployed or upgraded within a few minutes, without the need for the physical intervention of a technician.”
Summa said: “With this relocation and the latest technology, we are priming ourselves for further growth at DE-CIX in Frankfurt. Last year, our customers’ data capacity in Frankfurt increased by more than 20% compared to 2016. We expect a further massive increase over the next five to ten years and are optimally set up for it.”
