Quad-node architecture across New York and New Jersey, expanded metro access, and 400GE readiness strengthen resilience in the nation’s most demanding interconnection market
New York, USA, 5 May 2026. DE-CIX, the world’s leading Internet Exchange (IX) operator, has completed a major upgrade to its New York metro platform, reinforcing its position as the largest Internet Exchange in the New York metro area and northeast region. The youngest IX in North America’s top 5, DE-CIX New York has also recently edged its way over the line to become the third largest on the continent. Now supporting over 260 connected networks, the IX is around 30% larger by connected networks than the next largest IX in the region, following more than a decade of continuous presence and development in the market.
Rather than focusing on dealing with short-term growth spikes, recent investments have centered on strengthening resilience and long-term value for customers operating in one of the most mature and competitive interconnection environments in North America. As traffic patterns evolve and AI workloads demand more distributed infrastructure, DE-CIX has upgraded its New York metro to a quad-node network architecture, with two core nodes in New York (NY) and two in New Jersey (NJ). The design delivers higher redundancy, greater resilience, and enables true A/B connectivity strategies across the Hudson River.
Strengthening Resilience
The upgraded architecture reflects the growing importance of New Jersey as a natural extension of the New York metro’s digital infrastructure. By operating 2-node cores on each side of the Hudson, DE-CIX enables customers to build geographically separated yet tightly integrated interconnection strategies. This supports enterprises, carriers, cloud providers, and AI-driven platforms seeking greater operational control, improved business continuity, and infrastructure diversity.
When DE-CIX first entered the New York market more than a decade ago, a total of only 20 data center facilities were being served by IXs across the entire metro. DE-CIX’s data center and carrier neutrality and ambition to serve the market has resulted in a doubling of the number of facilities integrated into the city’s interconnection fabric, offering more opportunities to connect. This includes DE-CIX’s extended coverage into Long Island, Brooklyn, and now six locations in New Jersey, reinforcing the metro as a truly bi-state interconnection ecosystem rather than a single-city hub.
DE-CIX’s global interconnection ecosystem also enables direct remote peering via GlobePEER, connecting New York participants seamlessly to Frankfurt and other international markets, further strengthening New York’s role within a globally interconnected ecosystem.
Meeting Rising Demand for 400 GE and AI Workloads
As traffic shifts toward higher-capacity services, DE-CIX New York has upgraded its platform to support growing demand for 400 Gigabit Ethernet (400 GE) ports. The rise of GPU-intensive and AI-driven workloads, alongside content distribution and large-scale cloud connectivity, is accelerating the need for higher throughput and lower latency interconnection.
As part of the modernization program, DE-CIX has also implemented ROADM-based (Reconfigurable Optical Add-Drop Multiplexer) smart switching technology within the metro network. This enables network paths to be adjusted via software, allowing traffic to be added, dropped, or redirected remotely without requiring physical intervention. The result is faster provisioning, improved operational agility, and enhanced resilience in a region that cannot afford downtime.
Long-Term Investment in a Critical Interconnection Hub
New York remains one of the most demanding interconnection markets globally, serving as a gateway for financial services, media, cloud, and emerging AI ecosystems. DE-CIX’s investments throughout 2025 reflect a deliberate focus on ensuring the platform remains resilient, scalable, and aligned with how customers are building modern infrastructure.
“The New York metro is a market where customers expect infrastructure that simply works, no matter what’s happening around it,” said Ed d’Agostino, Vice President at DE-CIX North America. “Our upgrades are about building and reinforcing that reliability at scale. With our 4-node architecture spanning New York and New Jersey, and readiness for higher-capacity services, we’re building for how networks are actually evolving – more distributed, more performance-driven, and with greater degrees of visibility and control than ever before.”
Beyond infrastructure investment, DE-CIX continues to support the local interconnection ecosystem, including sponsorship and leadership of the rebooted “NYog” community, bringing together regional network operators to exchange knowledge and collaborate on the future of connectivity in the area. DE-CIX has also worked closely with the research and education community, including NJEdge, OCEAN, NYSERNet, Connecticut Education Networks, Rutgers University, Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), Williams College, and the University of Vermont, helping institutions better understand and adopt peering models that strengthen performance and cost efficiency. DE-CIX is also co-founder of the Global Interconnection Academy, which partners with a range of other digital infrastructure educational initiatives including Nomad Futurist and the Global Cyber Alliance.
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About DE-CIX North America
DE-CIX North America Inc., pronounced DEE-KICKS [dˈi:-kˈɪks], which began operations in 2014, is a wholly owned subsidiary of DE-CIX International AG, the international arm of DE-CIX, the world’s leading Internet Exchange operator. DE-CIX provides network and data center neutral peering and other interconnection services in North America. The DE-CIX Internet Exchanges in Chicago, Dallas, Houston, New York, Phoenix, and Richmond, the dedicated Cloud Exchange in Seattle, and the distributed IX DE-CIX Mexico form the largest neutral interconnection ecosystem in North America. DE-CIX’s IXs are distributed across major carrier hotels and data centers throughout each metro region it serves. DE-CIX operates more access points than any other Internet Exchange operator in North America.
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