Special edition: DE-CIX CEO talks AI, internet infrastructure, and innovation from Wichita

On this special edition of Connected Nation, we head to Wichita, Kansas for a first-of-its-kind event – an AI Interconnection Summit.

We begin our coverage with Ivo Ivanov - the CEO of DE-CIX - one of the world’s biggest names when it comes to internet infrastructure.  

Find out why he felt it was critical to travel to America’s heartland for the summit, what his company is doing there in the long term, and why what’s happening there will ultimately impact us all. 

Recommended links:
AI Interconnection Summit website

DE-CIX website

Ivo Ivanov's Linkedin profile 

Transcript

Copy Transcript Copied

Jessica Denson, Host (00:02):

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.

(00:16):

On this special edition of Connected Nation, we head to Wichita, Kansas for a first of its kind event, an AI interconnection Summit.

(00:25):

We begin our coverage with Ivo Ivanov, the CEO of DE-CIX, one of the world's biggest names when it comes to internet infrastructure. Find out why he felt it was critical to travel to America's heartland for the summit. What is company is doing there in the long term and why? What's happening there will ultimately impact us all? I'm Jessica Denson, and this is Connected Nation.

(00:49):

We are at the AI Interconnection Summit, and I am sitting with Ivo Ivanov, who is with DE-CIX. He leads DE-CIX globally, and really, he is the nicest man because I messed up his slides during his presentation and he has been nothing but kind to me. Thank you, Ivo, and welcome to the podcast. Ah,

Ivo Ivanov, CEO, DE-CIX  (01:07):

Thanks for having me here. Uh, uh, Jessica and, uh, I'm, I'm extremely excited. Um, it's my first, um, visit to Wichita Uhhuh, and, uh, what an amazing start. My first visit I experienced literally today at the, uh, AI Interconnection Summit introducing, uh, the IXP in Widge with the IX platform inside.

(01:32):

Uh, it's extremely inspiring to see how many different organizations including, uh, uh, connected Nation, including, uh, the partnership with Hunter Newby including the great hospitality and partnership with the WICHITA State University, and many, many others are already like us, are already engaged and involved in a very partnership focused model, building this exciting new ecosystem here.

Jessica Denson, Host (02:02):

It's exciting. It really is. So let's, let's, let's go back just a little bit. Talk about what DE-CIX does and what DE-CIX is doing within this framework.

Ivo Ivanov, CEO, DE-CIX  (02:14):

Cix operates, um, so-called internet exchanges or interconnection, uh, fabrics. Mm-hmm < >. We do, um, operate, um, these, uh, fabrics on 60 markets on five continents, literally around the globe. Mm-hmm

Jessica Denson, Host (02:25):

< >.

Ivo Ivanov, CEO, DE-CIX  (02:26):

Um, in the us. Um, we do operate today in year 11. The company in general has been established even 30 years back in time in 1995 in Frankfurt.

Jessica Denson, Host (02:38):

Mm-hmm < >.

Ivo Ivanov, CEO, DE-CIX  (02:38):

So what an internet exchange does, um, can be answered to using a great analogy to an airport, airport operator. Mm-hmm < >. And, um, as an airport operator takes care of, uh, secure landing can take, uh, off of many different airlines on their aircraft, allowing them to exchange in and secure way passengers and luggage and goods.

Jessica Denson, Host (03:02):

Mm-hmm < >.

Ivo Ivanov, CEO, DE-CIX  (03:03):

So we do for the internet, just replace the, um, airlines with network operators, network service, or providers of any kind you can imagine cloud service providers, OTT content guys, content delivery networks, and, and, and, and, and all the different types you can imagine. Um, then you see, we take care of interconnecting those networks together, allowing them instead of passengers and luggage to exchange tons of data. The benefit is more important, not just they do exchange. Why they, they do it on the internet exchange because it's extremely efficient, is one too many. They can, uh, scale, they can aggregate. Um, the, the interconnection is extremely secure because the interconnect happens directly from the one network to the other, or from one to thousands of others, and is extremely cost effective and efficient because we reduce complexity. Mm-hmm < >. Last but not least, this is the fastest way possible to exchange traffic between two networks, reducing the so-called latency. Latency stays for the speed of, of traffic transmission. Um, and the lower the latency, the better the user experience for private and business users. Mm-hmm

Jessica Denson, Host (04:23):

< >. And you have, you have really led the placement of about 50 of these around the world. Right. Um, what have you seen happen in a place that ends up with the internet exchange point? Does industry flourish? Does the economy, uh, what are some, what are some things that you see happen when one of these go up?

Ivo Ivanov, CEO, DE-CIX  (04:42):

Oh, absolutely. Um, this is, uh, kind of a, um, an approach that creates so-called IP gravity. . The exchange is, um, not the largest element of an ecosystem, but is a catalyst. Mm-hmm < >. It's a, it's a, it's an incubator for this IP gravity. Of course, we need data center investments data center to happen. We need a lot of fiber in the ground or different transmission technologies, um, different, uh, um, other stakeholders completing the value chain. But the exchange itself is the magnet that creates this IP gravity, and it's a kind of a chicken and, and, and egg uhhuh. If you don't have it, uh, you will not, uh, um, um, attract more to come and more to come. Mm-hmm < >. And this is exactly what, uh, even in my business lifetime happened, I have seen so many markets where Dick is entered literally starting at zero, and now we do have healthy and very, very, um, uh, powerful ecosystems creating a lot of economic growth. I can give you the example of Dubai

1 (05:43):

Uhhuh < >,

Ivo Ivanov, CEO, DE-CIX  (05:43):

Um, our first international, um, um, ecosystem and, and, uh, platform. We opened 2012 first outside of Germany, uh, in 20, back in time in 20 20 12. And, uh, uh, 2022, we celebrated 10 years anniversary and did a study comparing KPI on numbers, uh, KPIs on numbers from 2012. And in the same KPI categories, we from 2022. Mm-hmm < >. Uh, I'll share with you three results so we everybody can understand, um, what are is the benefit of, um, a build of an healthy ecosystem. In 2012, when we started, Dubai was literally a desert. Yeah. Dubai still, still has a desert, but it was a telecommunications desert. Mm-hmm < >. No carrier, neutral data center, non exchange, just, uh, incumbent service providers. What changed over the years is in 2012, um, 90% of the so-called prefixes, that means internet content that users in the region, um, approached, uh, to be, uh, to get access to 90% of this content was placed outside of the region. So they received the content out of Singapore, received the content out of Europe. Mm-hmm < >. Nowadays, 10 to 10, 12 years later, 90% of this content is now in the region. This is amazing.

Jessica Denson, Host (07:12):

When you say that, I'm kind of struck with the idea that the way I envision Dubai, I've not been there. I've been to Doha, that's as close as I've gotten, but Dubai is a very innovative, uh, city that is really seen as having these really complex, um, way of being landscape was built out of the desert, of course. And then to have that, and then to think about that kind of internet exchange point landing in Wichita, Kansas just kind of opens up the whole world, doesn't it?

Ivo Ivanov, CEO, DE-CIX  (07:40):

<laugh>? Oh, no, abs. Absolutely. Just, uh, to give you two more examples from the Dubai study, and then I'll come to

1 (07:45):

Wichita. Yeah, yeah.

Ivo Ivanov, CEO, DE-CIX  (07:46):

Yeah. The result of this 90% localization of content was that, um, the performance on the internet dramatically improved, just to use the words of latency again. Mm-hmm < >. Uh, in, back in 2012, the latency to top 20 content was more than 200 milliseconds. Jessica. Today there is not a good application on the internet that will function with 200 milliseconds. Now we have three milliseconds only, which results into dramatic increase of performance and, uh, improvement of internet, um, experience. And also the, the, the pricing for digital services when down this makes the, the, um, increases the affordability of digital services and make businesses and users, uh, uh, happy and of course motivates them to use more now to Wichita and wi, um, um, has a not exactly the same situation as Dubai had. Mm-hmm < >. 2012, but a similar one. There is not a data center and carrier neutral.

(08:44):

The, um, um, uh, Kenya Data center neutral, um, um, um, data center available. Uh, there is no exchange. So what we want to achieve here is to create a strong and healthy local ecosystem, localizing as much as possible, introducing also new services like ai, IX, ai, IX, uh, for multi AI as a service routing that will allow any type of business located in Widge, uh, to use, uh, um, AI inference and the best performance possible with the highest level of security. We also introduced last week, uh, another service related to AI training. We call it GPU as a service communities. So we can use the Nokia ultra ethernet technology to bring different GPU setups from different data centers into one virtual environment organization, an enterprise, a public administration, et cetera, can use depending on their needs for training. So there will not be a direct need for a giant, um, compute data center anymore. If this one is not available today. With this service, we are able to aggregate more different, uh, GPU setups from different data centers into one agile and scalable community.

Jessica Denson, Host (10:07):

Yeah, I saw the news about that last, last week. Yeah. That was super exciting. Um, it's the 30th year for DCX. So are, are you, are you intentionally rolling this out into the 30th year to kind of celebrate, or are there new innovations that we can look at through the, through this year as you move forward?

Ivo Ivanov, CEO, DE-CIX  (10:23):

I think this is, this is one of our strongest, um, um, um, uh, achievements for this year. Mm-hmm < >. The ai IX, uh, um, um, we celebrate, uh, uh, a lot of traffic growth around the world. Yeah. Just literally last week, the platform in Dubai, back to this one, <laugh>, um, reached the, the, the, the, the traffic level of modern than one terabyte live traffic exchange, which is, uh, uh, absolutely spectacular for this region. Mm-hmm < >. Given all the restrictions and challenges still and, um, shows that the health ecosystem, uh, creates growth, creates growth by all means, and having growth is, is, uh, uh, absolutely, um, mandatory for, uh, further economic growth for, for growth, uh, for businesses and, uh, um, uh, this place. Also, the need for this type of ecosystems, because we all know from our private lives

1 (11:16):

Mm-hmm

Ivo Ivanov, CEO, DE-CIX  (11:16):

< >. Our, um, um, the usage of, of, uh, high bandwidth services of, of, uh, uh, traffic heavy services increases, uh, monthly

Jessica Denson, Host (11:25):

Mm-hmm < >. Um, I am struck by the fact that we have so many people here from so many different industries, and you've, you obviously have worked in a global setting. Do you find that you have to have these kind of partnerships no matter where you go? Is that important when we do stuff like this?

Ivo Ivanov, CEO, DE-CIX  (11:43):

Absolutely. Partnerships nowadays are essential. The time of incumbency, uh, uh, is over.

1 (11:48):

Mm-hmm < >.

Ivo Ivanov, CEO, DE-CIX  (11:49):

Uh, we strongly believe in collaboration in, in partnering with different stakeholders. As I mentioned here, there is a innovative, uh, visionary university, the Wichita State University. There is a great, uh, like this great initiative for, um, um, the entire country created, uh, by connected nation. Um, the, the visionary, uh, knowhow of Hunter Newbie behind this as well. And so many other partners as we had today in J Room partners engaged in GPU as a service, uh, uh, offerings, engaged in platform for GPU as a service engaged in, in, in manhole building. This is the layer zero uhhuh infrastructure needed, engaged in the data center build, and putting all these different pieces of a puzzle together. We'll see a great picture after. Uh, and this is the solution for the future. We need the distribution of this type of digital infrastructure markets like wi, they're great with, uh, in terms of, uh, presence of, uh, um, very big organizations, companies from the, the airspace, business companies, from from finance, from healthcare, et cetera. But if they don't have this digital infrastructure in place, they have to receive services from other markets. This creates, uh, uh, higher latency. Um, the level of performance is not that good. It's also about the data sovereignty and security. We believe this is a solution for the country. It has to be done. Literally. We need to have this type of infrastructure in every single city in the country creating digital America that cannot be served from the east and west coast only.

Jessica Denson, Host (13:27):

Right. Uh, that, that latency that you're talking about, that lag time is because, partly because for Wichita, they'd have to go to Denver or another big city to get their internet, what they, what what Brent called the tromboning effect. So I, I always, I vote, I should have probably warned you before we started this interview, but I always ask, uh, my guests a little bit about themselves. So tell me what brought you to D Cs? What, what were you doing before that?

Ivo Ivanov, CEO, DE-CIX  (13:53):

I, um, uh, I have, uh, um, a law degree mm-hmm < >. I started my career as an attorney, uh, focused on, uh, corporate, uh, and then specifically telecom and mania law and a client, um, um, that is actually the, the, the owner of, uh, DCI. Mm-hmm < >. The Echo Association at that point of time, it's still the 100% owners and non-for-profit, uh, one of the largest, um, um, uh, um, internet industry associations on the globe. Um, invited me to, uh, take the role position of a general corporate council, Uhhuh < >. Then I moved to Dick E for a very interesting reason. Dick e had the strategy to, um, expand from out of Frankfurt, where Dick started 1995, um, into Eastern Europe, and, uh, inviting a lot of networks from, uh, entire eastern Europe to interconnect with networks from the western hemisphere in Frankfurt, <laugh>. And, uh, my, my, my origin is actually from Bulgaria, from Sophia, so I speak, uh, a couple of Eastern European languages.

(14:58):

This was the, the, yeah, Mexican, just four Yeah. In German. And they guys from, from the business, um, development department invited me as being the corporate council just to join them on a couple of business reps, <laugh> to Eastern Eastern Europe. And I felt in love with internet then having so exciting discussions with different, uh, data center operators, uh, internet service providers, curious. I, I started learning so much about this exciting world of internet infrastructure and applications. Mm-hmm < >. So I moved from the role of general corporate council into the role of management, uh, developing the entire international strategy of DX and developing this, um, 60 different, uh, markets on five continents, uh, has been a race over the past, uh, 17 years. Actually.

Jessica Denson, Host (15:43):

It's a lot of success.

Ivo Ivanov, CEO, DE-CIX  (15:45):

Thank you so much. We are very proud of. But what we are proud more is everywhere we have landed, we help to create healthy ecosystems. This is our approach for which it as well. And what is the result at the end? It results into creating the foundation for economic growth and for better digital services to everyone, literally to all of the users. And today, um, our lives depend on digital services. Mm-hmm < >. Or another way around those who do not have good access to digital services are disadvantaged. Yeah. We are talking about a better quality of life if there is a proper access to digital services. So this is what I'm really proud of, helping to eliminate the digital divide and improving the level of quality of life of people.

Jessica Denson, Host (16:38):

I was talking to a friend of mine the other day, and you just reminded me of this, about the idea that companies can leave a lasting legacy or what you do with your life can leave a lasting legacy. And that is definitely an example of that. Do you feel that?

Ivo Ivanov, CEO, DE-CIX  (16:52):

Absolutely.

Jessica Denson, Host (16:53):

Yeah.

Ivo Ivanov, CEO, DE-CIX  (16:53):

Yes. Yeah. Absolutely.

Jessica Denson, Host (16:54):

So what do you hope for the next five, 10 years?

Ivo Ivanov, CEO, DE-CIX  (16:58):

Oh, don't ask me about 10 years <laugh>. That's so hard to predict. Uh, but I'll tell you what a, a dream I have, uh, and, uh, I hope I'll be able to, um, um, to bring this dream into reality. I wanna create the first, uh, internet exchange in space.

Jessica Denson, Host (17:15):

Oh, how

Ivo Ivanov, CEO, DE-CIX  (17:15):

Cool. The called out space, uh, x dick Space ix. Uh, we have a great landing page on this under dig.

Jessica Denson, Host (17:22):

Oh, you already have the landing page.

Ivo Ivanov, CEO, DE-CIX  (17:24):

Yes, yes. Uh, the landing page name is, uh, space dash ix net. Uh, so, um, um, uh, we, there we describe what should be our role and, but literally we wanna operate, uh, um, um, internet exchange platform or that will interconnect different layer satellite and networks in the low earth orbit in space, helping them to reduce the latency down to earth.

Jessica Denson, Host (17:53):

That is actually pretty genius. 'cause you hear so much about Leo right now. Yeah. Thinking ahead, <laugh>,

Ivo Ivanov, CEO, DE-CIX  (18:00):

They are already three, uh, Leon Networks, uh, up in space. Uhhuh, of course, the most advanced now as of today's starlink. Uh, we have the Project Kypa from AWS Amazon

1 (18:11):

Uhhuh,

Ivo Ivanov, CEO, DE-CIX  (18:11):

And there is Rivera European Asian investment as well and more to come. So having those carriers already, or network operators, we'll see also content cash services and other content services appearing in space because this is the goal of those operators to reduce the latency down to Earth, down where the users are. Mm-hmm < >. And a lot of, uh, people started using CLA internet access services because they live in regions where they do not have, uh, either they do not have any terrestrial connection or that terrestrial location, uh, connection is not good enough.

Jessica Denson, Host (18:45):

So I won't keep you forever. I'll just ask you one more, two more questions. And one of 'em I have is do you have a, um, cul a culture in your company where it allows for these visionary kind of ideas or these out of the box kind of ideas like that you're talking about?

Ivo Ivanov, CEO, DE-CIX  (19:00):

Uh, uh, this, this has been, has been our DNA and culture forever. Uh, uh, we, uh, we always try to predict market, um, trends, um, to be ahead of this, to serve demand. Uh, we are not a data center operator. We are not a carrier. We are truly focused on, on interconnection platform operations, on the, on internet exchange operations only. And this is our mandate to, uh, enable the different stakeholders, partners, um, um, to, um, improve the quality of their services to their clients. And this is the actual business value. So it's not about running the infrastructure only it's to solve business problems. It's to improve the quality they wanna deliver to their clients, to their organizations.

Jessica Denson, Host (19:48):

I'll include a link to D C's website in the description of this podcast as well as your LinkedIn. Um, what, what is the one thing you took you're taking away with you today after this summit that's really gonna stick with you, besides me messing up

Ivo Ivanov, CEO, DE-CIX  (20:01):

Your socks? <laugh>, I, I'm taking away First partnership is, is Key Uhhuh. And, uh, second, uh, um, we need to, um, distribute this type of infrastructure across the entire country. As I said, creating the true digital America, eliminating the digital divide. And, uh, I be, I, I'm pretty sure and strongly believe in, uh, in a couple of years from now, we will be able to say, look in how many other markets like this, we landed, but Wichita was the first.

Jessica Denson, Host (20:30):

Yeah. It's gonna be exciting. Yes. Ivo Ivanov with DE-CIX. I really appreciate your time.

Ivo Ivanov, CEO, DE-CIX  (20:36):

You're very welcome. Thanks for having me.

Jessica Denson, Host (20:39):

I'll continue our special coverage of the AI Interconnection Summit this week when we talk with the woman mini credited with green lining, the first ever internet exchange point in Kansas. Until then, I'm Jessica Denson. If you like our show and wanna know more about us, head to connect nation.org and look for the latest episodes on all major podcast platforms.