Switch And Data Announces Opening Of Its Newest PAIXSM Internet Exchange In Toronto To Satisfy Growing Internet Peering Demand In This Key Canadian Market

Switch and Data (NASDAQ: SDXC), a leading provider of network-neutral data center and Internet exchange services, today announced the launch of its newest PAIX ^SM Internet exchange in its 151 Front St. site in Toronto, Canada to meet growing Internet peering needs in the Canadian market. Switch and Data operates PAIX Internet exchanges in six major IP hub markets in the U.S. and launched this new Internet exchange in response to customer requests for a scalable IP peering solution for the Canadian market. Companies including Internap, Internet Light and Power, nLayer, and SoftCom, Inc. have already joined PAIX Toronto and Switch and Data has received interest from others including some of the world’s leading Internet brands.

Internet peering is the interconnection of different Internet networks onto a common platform to exchange their customers' IP traffic directly, instead of paying a third party network to route the traffic. The ATLAS Internet Observatory 2009 Annual Report published by Arbor Networks reported that Internet traffic has been consolidating and 150 origin networks now contribute about 50% of all Internet traffic. These larger networks are increasingly exchanging traffic directly between each other and peering between leading networks is displacing traditional Internet transit as the preferred way to route traffic on the Internet. Peering offers a number of advantages over transit which include:

• Reducing cost by removing traffic from paid Internet transit agreements
• Increasing redundancy by passing traffic across multiple network connections
• Reducing latency by controlling routing and passing traffic over a direct point of exchange
• Improving performance by bypassing potential traffic bottlenecks

At the same time as traffic flow is shifting toward public and private peering, as explained in the ATLAS report, companies are scaling their operations to keep pace with the continued rapid growth of IP traffic volume. Cisco Systems predicts IP traffic in North America will almost triple over the next three years from 5,300 petabytes (PB) per month in 2010 to 13,400 PB/month in 2013. This growth is fueled by the rapid adoption of bandwidth intensive applications including Internet video, gaming, file sharing, software as a service business applications, and mobile data and Internet.