DE-CIX is one of the world’s largest Internet exchange points located in Frankfurt am Main. Direct Connect to DE-CIX enables commercial companies and manufacturing enterprises to exclude intermediaries from traffic exchange, reduce delays and maximize the technical capabilities of their online products and services.
A direct connection to the exchange point allows you to create a high-speed channel that is isolated from the Internet and completely protected from DDoS attacks. By connecting to DE-CIX, each company can integrate its infrastructure into the largest commercial networks and cloud resources, such as Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure Cloud and Google Cloud Platform.
If you want to learn how to organize a well-protected high-speed connection to the world’s largest cloud services or use peering services in Germany, book a free online consultation with an expert on our portal.
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What is the Internet exchange point?
To understand all the benefits that a business can get from Direct Connect to DE-CIX, let’s recap how the Internet works.
When a user makes a request, his personal computer or mobile device contacts the Internet service provider’s server, and it redirects the request to the server, which must process the data and return the requested information to the user. The problem is that the Internet provider does not always have a direct connection to the requested server. In this case, in order to get to the address, the signal must pass through several intermediate points, which are commonly called the Internet exchange points.
An exchange point is the infrastructure that provides connectivity to each of the ISPs and service providers connected to it in a particular corner of the world. In most cases, the exchange of traffic is settlement-free, meaning that ISPs and service providers pay only for the connection itself, but do not pay each other. Such data exchange is called peering. The Internet exchange points are located all over the world and are connected to each other in a network called the Internet.
DE-CIX infrastructure and capabilities
DE-CIX (Deutscher Commercial Internet Exchange) is a leader in terms of traffic volume. Its peak load level typically exceeds 10 terabits per second, which is the highest in the world.
More than 900 ISPs and service providers, as well as more than 50 cloud service providers, are directly connected to DE-CIX. Direct connection to the exchange point in Frankfurt allows you to get an optimized connection to the largest cloud services in the world, such as:
- Amazon Web Services – one of the largest and most popular public cloud infrastructures in the world, providing hosting services for applications and services.
- Microsoft Azure Cloud – a cloud based on a high-performance infrastructure ideal for computing, storage, application hosting and services. In particular, it allows you to get a direct connection to Microsoft 365.
- Google Cloud Platform – a set of cloud services for high-performance computing, machine learning, data storage and analysis. Google Cloud Platform runs on the same infrastructure as other popular Google products: YouTube, Google Search, Google Maps and others.
- IBM Cloud – cloud environment with the option to rent a virtual machine or a dedicated virtual server.
- Oracle Cloud – cloud with support for VMware, Oracle Database and other Oracle products. The Oracle Cloud virtual environment can be used for data storage, for access to platforms and software, for hosting applications and services.
Benefits of Direct Connect to DE-CIX
One physical connection is enough to connect to all DE-CIX networks and cloud services at once. It can be organized by service companies in Frankfurt am Main and those cities where exchange points are managed by DE-CIX. Direct Connect provides several important benefits at once:
- Exclusion of intermediaries from traffic exchange and optimized connection with minimal delays.
- Channel isolated from the Internet and maximum DDoS protection.
- Connection with a channel width of up to 10 Gb.
- Ideal conditions for the organization of geo-distributed infrastructure.
- Extensive scalability by combining infrastructure with high-performance cloud services.
- Direct access to all popular products and services of the world’s leading service providers and software developers.
Who will benefit from the “Direct Connect to the DE-CIX cloud” service
Direct Connect to an Internet exchange point will be beneficial to any company that exchanges large volumes of traffic. A wide channel with a minimum number of transitions makes it possible to use the maximum exchange rate.
A wide variety of production and commercial structures use Direct Connect to DE-CIX to their advantage:
- Public and government organizations
- Companies from financial, technical and banking sectors
- Research institutes and universities
- E-commerce companies
- Commercial structures operating in the gambling and mass entertainment market
Besides large and medium-sized businesses, relatively small content providers, telecommunications companies, online service operators, and software developers are using the services of Direct Connect to DE-CIX as well.
How to connect to DE-CIX
The easiest way to use the direct connection service is for companies that are geographically located near one of the Internet exchange points managed by DE-CIX. It can be Frankfurt am Main or any other of the 59 cities in the world where a direct connection is possible.
The connection can be provided by data centers or hosting providers both in Germany and in other countries. If it is not possible to find an intermediary easily, you can create an official request on the official DE-CIX website, and the company will provide the service via one of its partners.
At the same time, there is a simpler and more economical way. For example, hosting service providers in Frankfurt am Main often provide Direct Connect to DE-CIX as a free option to their other services. Paying for hosting, data storage, backup services or hardware rental, you can also use Direct Connect to the world’s largest Internet exchange point.
If you want to use the Direct Connect service to DE-CIX, but do not know how to do it quickly and at minimal cost, sign up for an online consultation with a specialist from our information portal.
Article author Olga Boujanova cloud technology expert 
and a business development consultant
