Paris and Marseille-based digital gateway to MEA France-IX has reaffirmed its support of the launch of CASIX, the first neutral Internet Exchange Point (IXP) in Morocco by Casablanca-based cloud services provider N+ONE Datacentres.

In statement released to the media France-IX said it is providing equipment, ongoing technical assistance and remote support.

According to the statement CASIX is scheduled to open in March 2016 and will provide ISPs and Content Delivery Networks with a neutral location for peering, enabling them to benefit from reduced reliance on international IP transit and associated costs.

N+ONE partnered with France-IX based on the French firm's experience in dealing with the challenges of interconnecting local networks in Africa.

France-IX is providing N+ONE with ongoing technical assistance and remote technical support as well as donating equipment, which has provided over 100 Gbps of total port capacity. The technical infrastructure of the IXP is currently undergoing final testing and is on target to be fully operational for the launch date.

Democratising the Net

N+ONE says it decided to set up CASIX to help the process of democratising the internet in Morocco where, amidst the advent of 4G, more people are using social media and access to the internet is becoming ever more important.

"As the first and largest carrier-neutral datacentre operator in Morocco, we are in a strong position to sponsor the country's first neutral IXP. We will offer free colocation services for the exchange at all our facilities and our ISP, CDN, banking and corporate clients who are early peering members are already benefitting from the ability to exchange locally and are gaining added value from a neutrally managed IXP. Just like any new market, the numbers and benefits will continue to grow," says Réda Ben Talha, Deputy Director Sales & Marketing at N+ONE Datacentre.

"We chose to partner with France-IX as we wanted to tap into a successful IXP community and to benefit from its assistance. France-IX is a young IXP and yet it has managed to build an international community of nearly three hundreds networks, which is impressive. We met its team at several industry events and we naturally went on to discuss how we could work together."

By collaborating with N+ONE Datacenters in the development and launch of CASIX, France-IX envisions the acceleration of local peering in North Africa and the enhancement of interconnections in the Mediterranean region.

Franck Simon, Managing Director at France-IX, confirms: "There is a momentum in the region and our objective is to help keep it going. We will do so by backing N+ONE's initiatives and look forward to building an effective long-term partnership. Five years ago, France-IX went through a similar experience, starting out on its own neutral IXP adventure in Paris and later in Marseille. We had to go through similar challenges of convincing the community to join and we wish N+ONE great success."

CASIX is the second African IXP partnership for France-IX, following Senix in Senegal.