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Press Release -- January 26th, 2021
Source: AMS-IX
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Over 35% growth of internet data volume in 2020 for AMS-IX

Amsterdam, the Netherlands, 26 January 2021 – Internet usage skyrocketed last year due to the measures of governments to contain the pandemic. People all over the world were forced to stay indoors and work from home, which greatly stimulated the use of games, streaming and other Internet services. AMS-IX, one of the largest Internet Exchanges in the world, saw the total internet data volume exchanged in Amsterdam rise to 22,77 Exabyte in 2020, 35% more than the year before.

Every year in January, AMS-IX publishes facts and figures about their exchanges from the year before. This year was particular unique due to the pandemic. In 2020, the spread of the virus spiked two times (the first in March and the second as of halfway October). Both times governments responded with containment and lockdown measures and this was clearly visible on the platform in Amsterdam. During both waves, the traffic on the exchange in Amsterdam increased roughly with 20%. And during both waves we saw record-breaking traffic peaks. In November, AMS-IX reached a peak traffic of over 9 Terabits per second on our peering platform. (9 Tbps corresponds to the simultaneous streaming of 1,800,000 HD (1080p) videos.)

By the end of 2020, AMS-IX had 885+ networks connected at their Amsterdam platform. 21% of these networks come from the Netherlands, 49% from Europe (excl. Netherlands) and 30% from outside Europe. Many of our customers upgraded their port capacity to cope with the sudden increase of internet traffic. The number of active 100GE ports rose to 282, up 9% compared to 2019. The total capacity rose from 34,6 Tbps of port capacity to 42,1 Tbps.

The AMS-IX exchanges in other parts of the world saw a surge in internet traffic as well. AMS-IX currently runs six independent internet exchanges under its own brand (Amsterdam, Chicago, Bay Area, Caribbean, Mumbai and Hong Kong) and one as powered by AMS-IX in Manama. All exchanges saw record-breaking traffic peaks. Particularly in Hong Kong where the peak traffic reached 77,85 Gigabit per second in 2020 (in 2019 this was 53,43 Gbps). In Mumbai, the exchange went up from a peak traffic of 60,77 Gbps in 2019 to 77,72 Gbps in 2020. MN-IX (powered by AMS-IX), which is now operational for 1,5 years noted a traffic peak of over 200 Gbps, effectively becoming the fastest growing internet exchange in the Middle East.

CEO Peter van Burgel comments: “2020 was an unusual year. We saw conditions that matched the end of the 90s, with record-breaking Internet peaks and growth. We are aware of the critical role that our exchanges play in the functioning of the Internet and feel honored that we are able to facilitate all the Internet services that make working from home and communicating with the outside world possible.”

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