The announcement was made at Capacity Middle East with the official signing attended by Ivo Ivanov, CEO of DE-CIX and Ahmed Al-Sheikh, CEO of Iraq-IXP (both pictured).
The new project will create a strong and healthy local interconnection and a “connectivity ecosystem” according to Ivanov with technical implementation planned for later this year.
Ivanov adds that the key driver of this partnership is digitalisation, and this requires adequate infrastructure.
“In a country with a population of 40 million where almost 34 million are already internet users, this is a mandatory piece of infrastructure,” he adds.
“There is a huge appetite for digital services at the best performance possible and we want to deliver this with localisation of content and cloud applications."
The announcement marks the third major development this week from DE-CIX as the company announced it would open a new internet exchange in Leipzig, while it also revealed DE-CIX Phoenix, its fifth North America market is now live.
Iraq is the third-largest country in the Middle East with internet penetration standing at around 75% and Ivanov went on to stress the importance of Iraq to DE-CIX.
He described it as a unique, “almost untapped” market because of its geographic position and said the partnership will bridge a gap in the market, finally delivering the infrastructure that “people and businesses in the country deserve”.
Ivanov adds that he believes this partnership could be the foundation that leads hyperscalers, carriers and other regional and international players to explore opportunities in the country.
Al-Sheikh says the goal for Iraq-IXP is to localise the internet traffic inside Iraq and this partnership will go some way toward bringing the highest quality internet service, lowest latency and best experience for users inside Iraq and in neighbouring countries.
The goal of the company, he adds, is to be a global hub to the region with the support of DE-CIX.
