Low latency is the new currency and DE-CIX wants to make sure rural America is rich with it

On this episode of Connected Nation, we talk one-on-one with the Chairman & CEO of the DE-CIX group - the world’s leading operator of Internet Exchanges. 

Learn how DE-CIX navigates operations across multiple continents, find out what “interconnection ecosystems” are and why they’re important, and explore the new partnership that’s focused on connecting rural communities across the US. 

Related links:
DE-CIX - https://www.de-cix.net/

Newby Ventures - https://www.newby-ventures.com/

About Connected Nations IXPs - https://connectednation.org/ixp/
Global Interconnection Academy - find details here 

Transcript

Jessica Denson, Host (00:07):

This is Connected Nation, an award-winning podcast focused on all things broadband from closing the digital divide to improving your internet speeds. We talk technology topics that impact all of us, our families, and our neighborhoods. On today's podcast, we talk with the c e o and chairman of the D E-C I X group, also known as "dee kicks". You likely haven't heard of the company, but it's actually the world's leading operator of internet exchanges serving Europe, north America, Asia, and Africa.

(00:37):

 We'll learn how "dee-kicks" (DE-CIX) navigates operations across multiple continents. Ask what the organization calls interconnection ecosystems. That's in quotes. We'll ask what they are and why they're important, and discuss a new partnership that's focused on connecting smaller and hard to reach communities across the us.

(00:56):

I'm Jessica Denson, and this is Connected Nation.

(01:01):

I'm Jessica Denson, and today my guest is Ivo Ivanov, the c e o and Chairman of the D E C I X group, what they call “dee kicks”, the world's leader in premium interconnection platforms and services. Welcome, Ivo.

Ivo Ivanov, CEO & Chairman, DE-CIX Group (01:17):

Thank you. And thank you for having me in your lovely podcast. I'm really curious about the chat we'll have today and very enthusiastic of the topic. Of course. As this is my passion, the passion of dx. It's about connectivity and internet services.

Jessica Denson, Host (01:38):

I'm excited just to give our audience an idea of where you're at. You're located currently in, in Germany, correct? I'm in Louisville, Kentucky. So one of the great things about the internet is that we’re able to connect like this. It's about 9:00 AM, my time. What time is it there?

Ivo Ivanov, CEO & Chairman, DE-CIX Group (01:54):

Hi, it's three 10 pm today I'm in our Cologne office, which is about 180 kilometers west, west, north, northwest, <laugh>, sorry northwest from Frankfurt. And unfortunately, this week the summer is not back in the city. We have a kind of a cold and, and very rainy day, so you might hear a bit of, of rain voice from outside. So, these are the drops of rain and nothing else. <Laugh>.

Jessica Denson, Host (02:32):

Yeah, it's a little rainy here too. So, we're, we're in the same boat. I'm very excited to talk to you today about what “DEE KICKS” does and the partnership that's happening with Newbie Ventures and Connect Nation. But I always like to set the stage a little bit, so to speak, for our audience. So, let's talk about what got you to this point and, and share some of your background with our audience. Let, let's go way back. You work, you've worked around the world, but where did you share a little bit about your life growing up and who you are as Ivo

Ivo Ivanov, CEO & Chairman, DE-CIX Group (03:05):

<Laugh>? Oh, that's a very comprehensive question. Not easy to answer in a couple of sentences, but let me give you yeah, let us, give us a try. I, I, I have been I was born in, in Bulgaria. And this is where I spent the first 20 years of, of my life. I, I did my first phase of education in, in completed this in, in in SoFi in Bulgaria, at the University for Law Studies. But before starting university I even started working early during my high school. And the work was related to media. And media became one of the key elements of my education later. So, what was this media work? I became a moderator and producer for a popular Weekend radio show.

(04:14):

 I moderated every weekend Saturday primetime. This was in the years of 1991 to 1995. Primetime was at that point of time, four o'clock in the afternoon and it was a teenager show, very light, very easy to digest and dry. We prepared default for a nice weekend Saturday night. I said maybe it was very important to me, or became very important and exciting to me. And I, I choose to also put this topic as a focus on my at least educational phase of life studying law where I selected media and telecommunications later on as the focus in my law studies, the law studies, they began in in SoFi, Bulgaria. But I, after one year, I decided to move to Germany to bond to the University of Bond.

(05:17):

And in bond, I completed my law studies. And then after a couple of years practicing as a, as an attorney I met one lovely day Harold Zuma from the Echo Association, which is one of the largest, largest internet industry associations and the shareholder of “dee kicks”. So this is how everything started. I was convinced and started working first for the Eco Association, and then, then after, for decades almost 15 years back, first as a general corporate counsel. And then over the years I, I became more and more focused on management. I felt in love with the internet, with this fantastic industry behind, behind the internet the people who do power and power and empower the internet every single second. Data centers, carriers, ISPs, and of course, the entire internet exchange landscape.

(06:27):

Jessica, you'll not believe it properly, but until today, I have visited 192 different data centers across the globe on all these four continents we're operational on. So from an attorney to even one who is very knowledgeable about data centers and routers and switches, and all these great boxes performing the internet routing, and here with the internet connectivity. Today I was not focused on <laugh> completing my law studies and starting my career only, but also creating my family. So as of today, I'm a happy father of, of two great kids, two and a half, four and a half. They keep me also very busy, but excited. <Laugh>,

Jessica Denson, Host (07:20):

I'm just sure they do. I love that you actually summarized your life in about I don't know, four and a half minutes. Pretty good. <Laugh>, I no need to rush. I, I am going to pick some of this apart just a little bit before we move on. First off, like you mentioned that you were with the radio show from 91 to 95, and that's where some of your love of media started. Was it a a music show or was it a talk show? What kind of what kind of show was that?

Ivo Ivanov, CEO & Chairman, DE-CIX Group (07:47):

It was a mix of everything. Great music stays first, right? Uhhuh, it comes to Uhhuh. If the music is bad, nobody listens, right? <Laugh> it was a great selection of music, of course easy to digest, radio, radio games. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative> live chats with either people from the community or just interesting people to talk to. Entertainers people with interesting topics to tell about and say something. But in general, it was about music. It was about good feel weakened. Mm-Hmm.

Jessica Denson, Host (08:23):

<Affirmative>, do you, do you feel like you, I just tell me if I'm making too much of a leap here, but you know, you now you talk about visiting 102 of the data centers, or 192 rather, of the, the data centers. Do you, and feeling that caring about the people who make these data centers and things, how they work. Do you think your feeling of community, community with media began back then and just continued to grow throughout your career?

Ivo Ivanov, CEO & Chairman, DE-CIX Group (08:49):

You know, it, it's somehow somehow it's, it's closely related even especially today. Yeah, as we all can imagine, the entire media landscape, entertainment, live broadcast of great shows gaming, of course online gaming different type of virtual services, the entire cloud connectivity landscape. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative> now performing even ai, everything sits in a data center today, right? Uhhuh <affirmative>. And this is somehow how media, even your podcast will be published over, over, and enjoyed over infrastructure, closely related to data centers, but also to internet exchange platforms like the dicking ones. So media, entertainment they became so important for the entire digital infrastructure industry.

Jessica Denson, Host (09:44):

So you really live in the world. And what I mean by that is, you know some people, they, they live in their state or their country, and that that's where they live, and that's the end of it. And that they love their community, and that's a fine, but you really are a world, world citizen. You speak four languages, German, English, Russian, and Bulgarian. Did I get 'em all right, <laugh>? Yes. Yeah.

Ivo Ivanov, CEO & Chairman, DE-CIX Group (10:07):

Yes,

Jessica Denson, Host (10:07):

That's correct. And you've been all over the world with this project with d Cix. Why is that important to you? Why? It seems like it's, it's part of your makeup. Am I wrong?

Ivo Ivanov, CEO & Chairman, DE-CIX Group (10:20):

It, it's, it's rightly said. First, it's important because digital infrastructure, internet exchange platforms they need to be distributed across the globes, and you cannot do it in a, in a, in a, in a, a really highly performable way, and well adjusted to the different markets if you're not aware of those markets. So, traveling a lot, establishing trustful relationships with different business partners, with data center partners, with the, the local carrier I s P, internet service provider community in general, are extremely important. You cannot build the ecosystem as we call it, without this regional and, and the knowledge of the region, the knowledge of the regional industry landscape, and the people who do perform it.

Jessica Denson, Host (11:15):

Yeah. I'm gonna brag on you for a moment because I, I think we're getting to the point here that I want people to understand your voice in the telecom industry is pretty important. RA you're ranked as one of the top 100 most influential profe influential professionals of the telecom industry, three years in a row. That's capacity magazine's Power 100 listing, that's 20 21, 20 22, 20 23. Pretty important time in our history with the pandemic for you to have a voice and to move things forward in this. Why do you think that is first off, I would say your personality's a big part of it because you, you are very, I mean, it's very easy to talk to you, but beyond that what is your vision that people are really responding to, do you think?

Ivo Ivanov, CEO & Chairman, DE-CIX Group (12:04):

Oh, first of all, thanks for the compliments and, and, and I'm, I'm really honored to to have been awarded with this yeah, with this status I must say especially the pandemic was very challenging for all of us. The same time in, in, it opened our eyes and exhilarated a lot justified that our without digital infrastructure, our private and business lives today in, in, in the 21st century they, they cannot they cannot be managed in the way we all expect without digitalization, digital transformation, digital services. Families would have been extremely disconnected. Businesses would have failed to grow. And, and, and it would have been a disaster. Can you even imagine we would have had this pandemic 20 years back where the development of digital services has not been by far in the status we have today.

(13:15):

And this is something I try to bring to a broader audience explaining how important digital infrastructure is not in hubs like Miami, New York or Dallas or LA or San Francisco or, or Frankfurt or Tokyo, but also in, in, in, in rural areas, in areas where people leave. But they, they also need to be served by excellent digital services in emerging countries, et cetera. Explained why the localization of digital infrastructure to be able to serve all these great services. We, we, we love today to chat, to play games, to enjoy entertainment and, and, and enjoy education e-health services grow our businesses and almost endless list, list of advantages why the localization of digital infrastructure is so important for, and the answer just is for one very simple reason.

(14:22):

This is the reason of physics. As you might know the, the speed of internet is also closely related to the speed of light. So internet traffic is measured by milliseconds, and a lot of applications today, we all love to use. They are extremely low latency sensitive. That means that a great team session a highlight life TV broadcasting like, like a broadcasting of a Super Bowl or another sports event or entertainment in general, or online gaming in real time communities, they require latencies of less than 15 milliseconds. And this is also extremely important for business applications served by cloud, cloud connectivity, like virtual desktops. And if, if we go down that path, like to use cases like realtime robotics management in the different factories around the globe of, of globally operating companies or connected car and autonomous driving we are talking about latency lower than, than even five milliseconds or lower than three milliseconds.

(15:40):

What, what, what this does mean, it means does digital infrastructure needs to be in the range, localized in the range of, of 150, 200, 300 kilometers where, of where the users are. And therefore this was one of the, I would say, the most popular phrases during this time. I, I, I love to repeat today as well. Latency became our new currency. Latency is the new currency. Mm-Hmm. this is extremely important to understand because if you understand, this will understand why investments from stakeholders like data center operators, but also the support of, of authorities to localize infrastructure all literally everywhere are so important for our prosperity in the future.

Jessica Denson, Host (16:34):

Yeah. Well, well put I, I was kind of applauding behind the scenes, just allowing you to go because that was well done. It's so important, and you're right, latency I think as the new currency is a fantastic way to put it, because to be behind in so many ways is not just whether you have access, but whether you have access to high speed internet and are able to handle the modern modern services that we can get with that. Now let's shift now just a little bit and talk specifically about what D C I X does. D E C I X is also how I say it, <laugh>. Yeah. what, explain what the organization does and maybe break down one, an internet exchanges for our audience.

Ivo Ivanov, CEO & Chairman, DE-CIX Group (17:24):

Alright, that's a good

Jessica Denson, Host (17:26):

Question. Thank you. You can get a little technical. It's alright, you go for it. <Laugh>. 

Ivo Ivanov, CEO & Chairman, DE-CIX Group (17:30):

Of course as we all might know the internet consists of, in general two types of networks. One type we call outbound networks, and the other type are the inbound networks. Examples for outbound networks are all the networks who wanna deliver who produce content, right? Can be video, can be gaming, can be, can be chat GT free, et cetera, right? Driven content, everything related to content, which needs the users to arrive to the users and reach out to the users. And this is the job of the second type of networks, the inbound networks. Those are the networks who deliver internet services, access services to our homes, to our offices everywhere, right? So those networks, obviously, they need to connect somehow. Otherwise if you click on the remote in your living room and wanna watch an Amazon Prime or a Netflix video, just to give to independent examples, <laugh> then the, the request must of course reach out to Netflix or Amazon servers.

(18:53):

 And first the request will travel over your cable provider, the company who provides the internet connectivity into your home. So the your internet access provided at home needs to be di connected to Amazon, or metrics in my example. And the best option to connect is the direct one. And this is what we perform on our platforms. We allow the direct interconnect of thousands of networks. You can imagine who is who. The internet is directly connected on almost 52 different DX platforms across the globe. In connecting together three more than 3,200 networks, this makes Dix the largest interconnection ecosystem, which is data center neutral and carrier neutral in the world. The advantages are many, too many on one platform in a very aggregated, highly efficient, secure, and highly performable way because of the direct interconnection.

(20:09):

Jessica, the best way to explain it differently is to use the analogy of an airport. What an airport operator does for the airlines is to help them to use the infrastructure of the airport to land and take off a very, in a very secure way, exchanging passengers and luggage and goods, right? If you now replace airlines with network operators, and instead of passengers and luggage, they exchange tons of data then you can understand that the role of DX around the globe is to run these internet airports. We run actually a well-managed and very secure and highly scalable platforms, allowing thousands of networks to interconnect on those platforms. Exchanging tons of data, tons of data as we run in Frankfurt, for instance, one of the largest platforms on the planet with more almost 15 terabyte per second live traffic exchange, which is huge.

Jessica Denson, Host (21:21):

Yeah, that's huge. That's probably one of the best ways I've heard it described. I, I, several people in my company even have explained it to me, but the airport analogy is a fantastic one, 'cause I could really visualize that. So let's get to one of the reasons that I was introduced to you, which was that “dee kicks” is going to be working with Connect Nation and Newbie Ventures to bring your skills and what your company does here to the US or expand it in the US rather. Talk a little bit about that partnership and what attracted you to the idea.

Ivo Ivanov, CEO & Chairman, DE-CIX Group (21:59):

In both organizations, we have great partners, great personalities with a lot of knowledge from our industry behind newbie Ventures, we have hunter and Newbie a, a, a great industry stakeholder. A friend of mine, I been knowing each other now for more than I believe more than 12, 13 years. And they know how to create ecosystems focused on the data center industry. So the, the focus there is creating healthy ecosystems based on the foundation of open, neutral data centers built in a way that everybody can join the data center and can enjoy a nice ecosystem environment, connected nation. And this, and this is, therefore that's a great match to what we have in focus. We run the platforms providing the interconnection, ecosystem services, creating the ecosystem, and we need homes.

(23:05):

And our homes for our platforms are the data centers. So it's a perfect win-win, a great match. And the connected nation is, is a great organization. They have an excellent knowledge not only about the educational sector, which historically has been their focus, but through this also a great knowledge about connectivity, the connectivity landscape in the United States. At the same time about the challenges there, that there are a lot of areas across the United States with very, very bad performance on internet connectivity. They know well, where of these areas? And last but not least, they have a great network of organizations, of stakeholders, of, of people who wanna collaborate together, work together to, to enable the build for the infrastructure in those rural areas. And now you see these three elements data center build experience the connectivity landscape and the stakeholder ecosystem.

(24:16):

Plus our interconnection services focus as dx create a kind of a triangle of partnership which will be very, very successful for all these ruler areas. As, as you might know we plan to to, to build internet exchanges to modern 125 target communities located in 43 states across the, the United States. And this is a very ambitious project. At the same time, a project which is badly needed for the prosperity, the digital prosperity of the people in this great country,

Jessica Denson, Host (24:59):

Country. Yeah, I would agree with you. I've, I just, as I was telling you before we started, I had just come back from Texas, and there's a lot of rural areas there that are lacking access. And I talked one-on-one with people who are struggling, who are left out. So such an important project. It's really to connect un what we call unserved and underserved communities across the US and at Connected Nation, we talk a lot about partnerships. And the important of partnerships is, is do you see that also as critical for truly closing the digital divide, not just in the US but around the world?

Ivo Ivanov, CEO & Chairman, DE-CIX Group (25:34):

Oh, absolutely not. Hundred, not 500, 1000%, 1000000%. And I, not only you, you hear probably that I'm a great believer of this, but I also can prove it. And I'll give you an example from another region, the region of the Middle East, and now let's fly to Dubai. 10 years back in time, Dix started the operations of the so-called U A E I X, United Arab Emirates Internet Exchange in Dubai. It was in October 22, last 2012, sorry, October, 2012. Last year we celebrated 10 years of operations, and I asked my team to create a a study analysis of what was at the beginning there if it comes to digital infrastructure, internet performance experience for the users in general just organic in business or private users, and what do we have on the same criteria 10 years later?

(26:41):

And they produced a great study, including a lot of different neutral sources. And the, the results are smashing the results. Tell us how important it's to build these ecosystems everywhere. And literally in 2012, we started in the desert, desert desert, the latency, the la literally in the desert, right? <Laugh>, yeah. But also applications desert. The latency to top 20 content was more than 2200 milliseconds, 200 with this latency today no application would be able to, to to be searched. The pricing per internet, the so-called internet upstream and downstream, so was the so-called IP transit. Internet connectivity was around 70 to 80, just in perspective to the level in the us we're talking about cents, right? Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>. And last, but not the least only 3% of the global content or global internet prefixes, if we can call them like that, or we call them like that from the industry.

(27:53):

Were local. The rest was was around the globe. So, so the people in this region, they consumed internet services actually designed for the region and dedicated to them outta New York, Frankfurt, or Singapore, but not outta the, the region where they're living in, and they're working at now 10 years later. It's a vibrant ecosystem. We have more than 100 networks connected to our platform there with smashing results for the internet experience, not in Dubai, not in the u a e, but also in the entire region. Us every single operator, which is important in this region, has a presence on the platform. So the results are from the 200 milliseconds in 2022, we have three milliseconds vacancy to the top 20 content only three milliseconds. That means great performance. 90% of the prefixes are already local, which results in the great availability. And last, but not at least, the pricing for internet connectivity dropped down from 70 to $80 in October, 2012 to less than $1 in 2022 is this is about affordability, affordability of digital services.

(29:16):

So key elements, build local ecosystem, create this great experience on the internet, increase the attractiveness of services, create great level of affordability for M one. This will result in growing dramatically the economic impact in a very positive way. Now we have Dubai as one of the established telecommunication hubs on the world map with all the positive results. Now, I'm not saying Texas is desert, like the Dubai one but there are a lot of, a lot of rural areas across the United States. You can literally call them telecommunication deserts today, because the services are either not available in the quality we deserve in year 2023, and the ahead of us. But they're also extremely expensive educational institutions millions of people probably are not able to get the, the right service, either because the service is not available, or the service is very expensive and not affordable. We wanna change both

Jessica Denson, Host (30:25):

That. I think that's fantastic. You're touching on that. It's not just one point, it's not just access. There's more to that. And also, one, one thing I don't want to, I don't wanna gloss over the, the carrier neutral piece you were talking about that all the, that local carriers are what's, I guess what I'm trying to say is what is the importance of being neutral in that sense?

Ivo Ivanov, CEO & Chairman, DE-CIX Group (30:48):

This is one of the key elements of a healthy ecosystem. If you, if you remember correctly at the beginning, I mentioned that we we are proud of d i to to have built as of today, the, the world's largest data center and carrier neutral ecosystem in the world. With those 3,200 plus networks interconnected, this is extremely important for two main reasons. Neutrality means open access to everyone disregarding of the type of network they are able to access the platform means also the date. This is the carrier neutrality, that the platform is not dominated by one carrier and other competitors can be afraid that the owner can, let's say create different policy for competitors so they will be disadvantaged. This is the one importance of the Kenya neutrality, the data center neutrality of our of our ecosystem results in, in, in, in a huge, huge distribution of the platform in a lot of different data centers.

(32:02):

Just to give you an example from New York, we are present in 20 plus data centers across the entire metro of New York, covering New Jersey, Manhattan, even Long Island. Why this is good, because disregarding where a network is present in, in which data center they all can enjoy one integrated platform worldwide. We are present in, in, in more than 1000 different data centers directly or indirectly. And this shows you that Dix is, is accessible in so many facilities and can attract thousands of participants on the platform because of this neutrality. If we talk about the, the DA data center, which are can neutral, which is the background of the current, the, the partnership we're talking about, because the data centers newbie Ventures wants to build together with Connected Nation will be carrying neutral. And this is extremely important. That means that all the different type of networks are invited to access the data center to establish a point of presence there without restrictions based on their business model. This is essential for vibrant and colorful ecosystem.

Jessica Denson, Host (33:19):

Yeah, very. It's a very, very exciting time. And you, you explained it wonderfully. I, I wanna touch on one thing. I I won't keep you all day, even though I, I really enjoyed talking to you. Just so I just have a few more questions, but one is you helped establish the D CS U P F Global Interconnection Academy in Barcelona. We talk a lot about the need for more training for more people in this industry, especially with the huge demand that's happening now with billions of dollars across the US coming outta the government and going to states and just the great need that people have for this technology. Talk a little bit about what the Academy does and why you work to help establish that.

Ivo Ivanov, CEO & Chairman, DE-CIX Group (34:06):

The Academy is, is one of the projects on my, my list of favorites. Of course. It's a very also personal excitement and, and energy involved here. And I truly believe that creating options and, and, and different programs for the talents of tomorrow is essential for our industry. To prepare the next generation of entrepreneurs, of engineers, of people who do understand connectivity and interconnection is extremely essential. And the goal behind this is to do it in a very neutral, we spoke about neutrality, very open-minded way. We initiated the skeleton of this interconnection International academy, a global academy with the U P F University of Barcelona, just using the experience of an academic institution, highly reputated, to help us to create different modules which can can be can be completed by the different participants.

(35:16):

 And if they successfully complete a module they'll receive a blockchain based certificate. The target group is actually everyone who wants to get educated on interconnection people from the data center industry students young or old professionals working for different, disregarding their business model. They need to get educated on interconnection because it's about digital transformation. It's about the future of how a bank and how to manufacturer a retailer will manage their process. So actually, the, the target group is a very broad one. And the goal is after a participant, a student has collected a, a, a, a number, a valid number of certificates based on different modules. Then this participant will be able to apply for a so-called Interconnection expert certificate. The goal is to enable professionals around the globe to get this certificate and prove their skills in, in, in job interviews, in applying for the next step in their career.

(36:30):

But of course, to become more knowledgeable and well-trained on state of art interconnection solutions, the academy will arrive everywhere over time. Now, the first modules are alive, so everybody is modern, invited to visit interconnection academy.net and start participating and completing the first models. They're free of charge. We have invited a lot of partners, friends from all over the globe, from different industry to contribute into new content create together with us new models. And you'll see just one month year from now, there will be a, a lot of content, a lot of training courses and classes. And I'm really looking forward to be able to help thousands, hundreds of thousands professionals around the globe to understand better and use better interconnection.

Jessica Denson, Host (37:31):

I'll include a, a link to the academy and the description of this podcast for our audience. Thank

Ivo Ivanov, CEO & Chairman, DE-CIX Group (37:36):

You. But

Jessica Denson, Host (37:36):

Also, I do wanna mention, you said you had a two and a half and a four and a half year old. I think it's very fascinating in the technology world, especially that there may, that these jobs that you're we're training for now may not exist, or they may, and by the time your children are old enough to start into the job market, and they, there, there's probably gonna be technology, jobs that we can't even imagine that are gonna be around then, don't you think?

Ivo Ivanov, CEO & Chairman, DE-CIX Group (38:02):

Absolutely. they're already people who believe that without understanding code, you'll not be able to get a job in 20 years.

Jessica Denson, Host (38:10):

Yeah. So very important academy, and that's why, really why I wanted to mention it. Okay, so I promised I wouldn't keep you forever. So just two more questions. One where do you see not just your partnership with Connected Nation Newbie Ventures, but globally, where do you see “dee kicks” work going? What would you like to see come of it over the next five years? 10 years, and, and

Ivo Ivanov, CEO & Chairman, DE-CIX Group (38:36):

I wanna see us being well integrated all over the planet, creating this open ecosystems not owned by US only, but also inviting different stakeholders from the industry, like our data center partners, like other internet exchanges, to become part of one globally integrated interconnection universe interconnection Federation of services. For what? For what is this important, what reason? Because we will need great internet digital services everywhere for the needs of ai, for the needs of the immersive internet, for the needs of the next generations for the needs of e-health education, performing a job, growing a business, and serving people's life in a better way.

Jessica Denson, Host (39:35):

Well put, well put. And for the next frontier d iix and interconnect interconnection technology in general, is there something that you see that you could predict, perhaps Ivo or that you know, that the, the average person doesn't know that you see is coming? You know, we talk about ai, we talk about these immersive worlds, the metaverse and those types of things, but what do you see on the horizon?

Ivo Ivanov, CEO & Chairman, DE-CIX Group (40:03):

Yeah, I do see on the horizon a fully integrated digital processes in, in all or all organizations around the globe. They, we will not have a business without a, a digital link in its profile. Some of them will totally rely, or the majority on, on digital services. I do see a, a huge potential behind the ai, and we're just at the beginning. If we can imagine what I predict is AI will, will, will help to, to create a higher efficiency in a lot of different areas of our life and industry. I'm not afraid of the topic which is discussed, that AI will, will, will kind of lead to result where people will lose their jobs, that there will be different opportunities arising on this for better jobs. I, I truly believe in this.

(41:06):

 And I truly believe in, in virtualization and digitalization of, of a process of not based on AI only, but also the immersive internet. And immersive internet means nothing else than digitalizing our real time life. Might sound scary, but it's not because you can you, you are always free to use your offline of life as you wish, right, <laugh>. But if you need a remote healthcare assistance, if you need even a remote surgery by an expert, or you wanna be trained by a famous tennis star, this will become available. This will be possible. You can get a a remote piano class by, by, by by, by, by a really great artist who is not in your hometown and thousands of miles away. All this will be possible.

(42:04):

It's to a huge potential ahead of us. And just our, my internet infrastructure perspective on all this, just all I have mentioned today, with all these exciting options for the future, this undreamed of options for applications and services will not be possible without delivering the digital infrastructure literally everywhere. And if we all agree, Jessica, that this is a requirement for our lives today, we also need to acknowledge that there are millions pe millions of people on the planet who do not enjoy this today, and they are simply disadvantaged. Therefore, I believe that the projects we're talking about today with venture newbie ventures and connected nations for the us, but also our contribution as Dix and as community of infrastructure worldwide to deploy this type of infrastructure everywhere. These, these efforts are simply related to make these disadvantages disappear, that people everywhere around the globe will be able to get affordable and high quality access to digital services for better life.

Jessica Denson, Host (43:25):

Well, I think that's well said, and that's the best place for us to leave it today. Ivo, I've really enjoyed talking to you. I appreciate you joining me, and I, I, I wish you a great day today.

Ivo Ivanov, CEO & Chairman, DE-CIX Group (43:38):

Thank you so much. I really enjoyed the lovely chat and wish you, your podcast, and I wish our great project, a fantastic success.

Jessica Denson, Host (43:50):

Here, here again, I've been talking with Ivo Ivanov, the c e o and Chairman of the “dee kicks”, our D E C I X group. I've included a link to the company's website in the description of this podcast. I'm Jessica Denson. Thanks for listening to Connected Nation. If you like our show and wanna know more about us, head to connected nation.org or look for the latest episodes on iTunes, iHeartRadio, Google Podcast, Pandora, or Spotify.