Named Namex Bari, the new location will be managed directly by Namex and will become available from the start of 2022.
The new IXP will provide a point of interconnection between the Internet Service Providers (ISP) and content providers, improving the resilience and reducing the in the region.
“Like other hubs in different sectors such as ports, stations and airports, Namex Bari will contribute to making Southern Italy, and in particular Apulia and the surrounding regions, richer in opportunities and more easily accessible," said Maurizio Goretti, CEO of Namex.
"In fact, Internet Exchange Points are physical places, hosted inside data centres, where companies providing Internet services gather to exchange their users' traffic and digital services; they are not "simply" Internet traffic hubs and optimization points, each of them is, indeed, an attractor that allows for the development of many different sectors, ranging from industrial to tourism. In a nutshell, Namex Bari will be an infrastructure that will contribute to the growth of the region thanks to its presence. Apulia is a region particularly rich in ISPs among those of Southern Italy and it is not yet optimally covered by the other IXPs present in Italy.”
In addition, Namex Bari will contribute to positioning the region as a hub of subsea cables, such as the ICT roads that connect Bari with other countries in the Mediterranean, the Middle East and Asia. Bari will join the existing Italian IXPs present in Milan, Rome, Turin, Padua and Palermo.
The Bari hub will be managed directly by Namex, a consortium of Internet operators based in Rome, and home to more than 170 companies including the likes of Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Facebook, Netflix, as well as the main national operators and the many other regional ISPs.
“These ICT highways, together with the presence of Namex Bari, can give the city the role of Intercontinental Internet Port," said Renato Brunetti, president of Namex.
"Thanks to the presence in the region of landing stations of international submarine cables, the Namex Bari carrier neutral data centre could be a candidate to host content for users in some countries of the Mediterranean basin and to become a point of interconnection between European and non-European operators."
Additionally, all the operators present in the Namex Bari facility will benefit from the presence of Retelit, owner of the Bari cable landing station for the subsea cable system AAE-1, which connects Asia, Africa and Europe, and host of the Italian terminal of IG-1, the cable connecting Italy and Greece.
The operators that due to have a presence at Namex Bari are, Alida, Altitud, AMT Services, Arpitel, Cliocom, Connectivia, Dodonet, Fastweb, Fiber Telecom, IRIDEOS, IT.Gate, Linkem, Metis, Numeria, Open Fiber, Retelit, TIM, Unidata, WiCity, WINDTRE and WIS Telecom.
“We are pleased with the initiative of Namex to start a new IXP in our city because we believe it will represent a new attractor of development opportunities for the territory. The city of Bari is confirmed as the nerve centre in the field of Information Technology for the South of the country and the Mediterranean area," added Eugenio Di Sciascio, deputy mayor and councillor for technological innovation of the Municipality of Bari.
"The city is already at the junction of several submarine cables that connect Europe to the Middle East, Asia and other Mediterranean countries. The presence of an IXP and a carrier neutral data centre managed by Namex will be determining factors of the strategy that aims to make our city a reference point in the digital innovation."
“The launch of the new Namex hub in Bari is certainly a reason for great enthusiasm for us and the whole Apulia Region," said Alessandro Delli Noci, councilor for innovation of the Apulia Region.
"The presence of this new infrastructure undoubtedly brings the potential to attract in our area all the major players in the digital industry, fundamental to the development of the territory, both for the development of the region and the innovation of our industry.”
