INTELLIGENT BRANDS // Cabling
Equinix serves as gateway for Southern Cross NEXT subsea cable system
SX NEXT cable offers lowest latency US link for Australia and New Zealand .
Equinix has announced an expanded relationship with Southern Cross Cables Limited ( Southern Cross ) to provide a key US-based interconnectivity access point for the Southern Cross NEXT ( SX NEXT ) submarine cable system .
SX NEXT will leverage Equinix ’ s nextgeneration cable landing station ( CLS ) architecture , enabling rapid provisioning and cost savings .
The SX NEXT cable offers the lowest latency path from Australia and New Zealand to Los Angeles – connecting into Equinix ’ s LA4 Los Angeles International Business Exchange ( IBX ) data center .
SX NEXT is pitched as enhancing network performance across industries in the region and boosting the aggregate capacity of Southern Cross ’ existing Trans-Pacific ecosystem by approximately 500 %. digital media and e-commerce capabilities – a sign of the growing maturity of the Australian digital economy .
Trans-Pacific demand has grown at a compound annual growth rate ( CAGR ) of 41 % over the past five years – significantly more than the 26 % CAGR of Internet backbone providers .
In 2021 , the Australian Government announced the investment of an additional A $ 1.2 billion to grow Australia ’ s digital economy by 2030 – including infrastructure , skills , cybersecurity , regulations and digital trade .
Craige Sloots , Director , Marketing and Strategy , Southern Cross , said : “ Trans- Pacific subsea connectivity will continue to be a key enabler in the region for many years to come and we ’ re excited about this next phase of interconnection through our work with Equinix .”
Jim Poole , Vice President , Business Development , Equinix said : “ By supplementing existing trans-Pacific routes , the Southern Cross NEXT cable provides seamless and accelerated interconnection across Platform Equinix , with an opportunity to help boost the digital economy in those regions .”
Tim Stronge , VP of Research , TeleGeography , said : “ Bandwidth demand continues to rise at a rapid pace on the Trans-Pacific route . As technology advances and new players enter the field , the trans- Pacific subsea cable landscape continues to evolve , promising even greater connectivity and opportunities for innovation .” p
Southern Cross also utilizes Platform Equinix to provide critical on-ramps to the Southern Cross network ecosystem at SY1 and SY5 Sydney data centers , as well as SV1and SV8 in Silicon Valley and LA1 in Los Angeles .
With the release of 400GbE ( Layer 1 and 2 ) capability on the Southern Cross network earlier this year , customers can now take advantage of the lowest latency , secure 400G data center inter-connections between key Equinix facilities in Sydney , Australia and the US West Coast .
The need for additional capacity between Australia and the US is Driven by increased demand for cloud services , content and
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