Enabling, booking, scaling, and monitoring services online: For Internet Exchange operators, automation is a crucial part of the business model. How interconnection services can be intelligently administered. And how important initiatives such as IX-API are for the autonomous traffic and data flows of tomorrow – a contribution on standards, open source and cross-competitive collaboration.
More agility to make smarter decisions – according to market researchers at IDC, 80% of CIOs worldwide plan to embrace automation for their businesses by 2028. What this means in practice is demonstrated by corporate leaders from Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Whether through robotic process automation, intelligent process automation, or machine learning, those who intelligently support recurring and repetitive tasks primarily want to increase efficiency (60%) and reduce costs (56%). Users measure success in key business figures such as return on investment (55%), profitability (54%), and revenue growth (47%), according to the 360 IT managers surveyed by IDG Research on behalf of companies and trade media in 2024. Avoiding errors, reducing risks, and relieving employees of manual routines – for DE-CIX as an operator of Internet Exchanges (IX), automation is also part of the business model. Enabling, booking, scaling, and monitoring services online – as a network-as-a-service provider. The advanced cloudification of the server world shows the direction in which the interconnection industry is moving.
Self-service interconnection: Customers provision services independently
Routing connections between clouds and data centers in a software-defined way and connecting networks remotely via peering services – DE-CIX is strategically automating core processes around its highly in-demand products and making them administrable for customers through a self-service portal: Clients manage their services and order new ones with pre-configured settings which they can use immediately. If services cannot be provisioned automatically, companies can initiate a request online, which is then processed manually by DE-CIX employees. Additionally, all IX functions can be monitored via a dashboard.
Self-service interconnection is becoming increasingly important. Solutions offered by providers to intelligently support business processes must also integrate seamlessly into the users' IT landscape. This is a crucial factor for companies when selecting a service provider, highlighting the importance of standards, open source, and cross-industry initiatives.
IX-API: Sharing development costs and securing market access
Take IX-API as an example: Together with other IX operators like AMS-IX and LINX, DE-CIX has developed and is constantly refining a standardized application programming interface (API) to automate the provisioning of services. The initiative is now in its fourth year and focuses on standards and open software architectures. The cooperatively and consensually realized API is used by the participating providers in their self-service solutions. Customers who align their IT with this industry interface are not limited to one IX provider, but can work with multiple providers. This is an advantage from which IXs also benefit by sharing expertise, knowledge, and costs, while securing broader market access in return.
Just this past February, DE-CIX developed a proprietary addition for software-defined cloud routing, which has been integrated into the core specification of the IX-API. This step underscores the collaborative spirit of the initiative. Instead of cultivating individual interests and closed software, open systems and architectures offer opportunities for everyone who contributes, engages, and participates. In this way, IX-API fosters a diverse and growing ecosystem that includes not only existing members but also new participants: JP-NAP and France-IX are interested in contributing to the further development of the standard.
Physics sets limits to automation: Patch robots relieve work
Whether you're an IX operator or a customer, not everything companies want to automate can actually be automated in the end. For example, in some places, APIs are missing to establish cross-connects as direct connections between different network operators or clouds. Elsewhere, the physics of the situation sets limits: Hardware and cables remain necessary to connect to interconnection platforms in the first place. But mechanical systems like patch robots can take some of the work off people's hands. On customer request, these analog helpers provide physical cable connections around the clock in three data centers in Frankfurt (Main).
Looking to the future, one thing is certain: Companies will need increasingly specialized interconnection services deployed at an ever-faster pace. As users seek to connect more frequently and specifically with clouds, suppliers, and business partners, the demands on providers increase – both in terms of highly automatable and software-defined IX solutions. This goal can only be achieved if the entire supply chain can be operated smartly, not just with a view to individual carriers agreeing on an API, but across the entire last mile, spanning different data centers and providers. How this can succeed is demonstrated by Tellus: The project, led by DE-CIX, is developing open software to virtualize network functions. Tellus covers the entire interconnection supply chain, integrating different providers, clouds, and services. With such integration, functions and services can be administratively automated across platforms – a core criterion for realizing smart cities, autonomous traffic flows, and a collaborative data economy.
The future of automation: No life without API
Without end-to-end process automation, there can be no digital transformation – this is the clear message from the joint IDG study. More than 79% of respondents attach "very high" or "high" importance to the topic. Therefore, life without APIs seems unimaginable for more and more companies. IDC predicts how monetarily important the topic will be worldwide. By the end of next year, the Global 2000, which IDC counts as the 2000 largest and most influential companies in the world, will allocate over 40% of core IT spending on hardware for artificial intelligence and automation initiatives.
