Equinix, Inc., the leading provider of network-neutral data centers and Internet exchange services, today announced that it will host two new events i...

Equinix, Inc., the leading provider of network-neutral data centers and Internet exchange services, today announced that it will host two new events in the company's ongoing Gigabit Peering Forum series, featuring networking experts from Juniper Networks, Electronic Arts and Sony Online.

The forums, to be held in Tokyo, Japan on March 10, 2004, and in San Jose, California on March 16, 2004, come after Equinix has hosted seven other successful Gigabit Peering Forums that have drawn hundreds of participants from the world's leading network service providers and content companies.

The San Jose and Tokyo forums are part of an ongoing series developed by Equinix that features educational sessions from experts on technical best practices as well as in-depth presentations focused on network and content peering methodologies and strategies. The events also include programs to assist Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and large content players in establishing peering relationships. More than 100 networking professionals from leading enterprise and content companies are expected to attend each of the Gigabit Peering Forums, which have been hosted by Equinix in the San Jose, Dallas, Chicago, Los Angeles, Washington D.C., and Sydney areas and have become the definitive peering events in the industry.

Featured Equinix customer presentations at the San Jose forum include: Pradeep Sindhu, CTO of Juniper Networks, presenting on future trends of network service providers; Ruben Cortez, chief network architect for Electronic Arts, presenting on peering architectures and technical considerations from EA's network perspective, and; Adam Joffe, VP of operations for Sony Online, presenting on peering architectures and technical considerations from Sony's network perspective. The event will also feature a debate on "Multilateral Peering Consortia vs. The Status Quo," with Paul Vixie, co-founder of PAIX (Palo Alto Internet Exchange) and Jay Adelson, founder and CTO of Equinix. The debate will offer a look at differing visions for the future of peering as an integral networking strategy.

The Tokyo forum will include presentations from Brokaw Price, global peering coordinator of Yahoo!, discussing content peering strategies and content peering arrangements between the U.S. and Asia Pacific, and Stuart Deane of AT&T global IP engineering, presenting on peering policies in Asia Pacific from the perspective of one of the largest international networks in the world.

In addition, Bill Norton, a recognized peering authority and chief technical liaison for Equinix, will present his latest paper in Equinix's peering white paper series at both forums, "The Asia Pacific Peering Ecosystem." The research is a continuation of the "Evolution of the U.S. Peering Ecosystem" white paper, but focuses on the challenges of extending a network and peering in the Asia Pacific region. The presentation will identify unique aspects of the Asia Pacific peering environment, and will provide insight into the motivations to extend network infrastructure into Asia. Most importantly, it will share the lessons learned by peering coordinators as they decide where and with whom to peer in Asia. Bill Norton is a frequent speaker at leading global technical forums including the North American Network Operators Group (NANOG), the Asia Pacific Regional Internet Conference on Operational Technologies (APRICOT), Réseaux IP Européens (RIPE) and ISPCON/Service Networks.

Peering is a fundamental element of the Internet's infrastructure that improves the performance of the Internet for all users by enabling data to pass from one network to another without intermediary networks or bottlenecks. Increasingly, as pressure builds to lower costs while improving network performance, peering has become an essential element of most network strategies. The Japan forum will take place at the Akasaka Prince Hotel in Tokyo beginning at 1:30 p.m. on Wednesday, March 10, 2004. The Northern California forum will take place at the Hyatt Sainte Claire hotel in San Jose beginning at 9:00 a.m. on Tuesday, March 16, 2004. In addition, four white papers authored by Bill Norton of Equinix entitled "Do A-based Internet Exchange Points Make Sense Anymore," "Interconnection Strategies for ISPs," "Internet Service Providers and Peering," and "A Business Case for Peering" are available at http://www.equinix.com/resources/whitepapers/


About Equinix
Equinix is the leading global provider of network-neutral data centers and Internet exchange services for enterprises, content companies, systems integrators and network services providers. Through the company's 14 Internet Business Exchange (IBX) centers in five countries, customers can directly interconnect with every major global network and ISP for their critical peering, transit and traffic exchange requirements. These interconnection points facilitate the highest performance and growth of the Internet by serving as neutral and open marketplaces for Internet infrastructure services, allowing customers to expand their businesses while reducing costs.

For more information on Equinix, please visit www.equinix.com