Digitalisation mandatory, more important than politics, says DE-CIX CEO  

The CEO of DE-CIX, the world’s leading Internet exchange operator, said on Wednesday that digitalisation is unavoidable “and mandatory,” adding that the company wants to move forward with satellite interconnection to increase connectivity.

Digitisation is “very important, indeed mandatory, for success at all levels,” said Ivo Ivanov at a meeting with journalists in Lisbon, noting that there are conflicts in the world, tariffs, taxes, but “there is no fight” on this issue.

“There is no fight on this issue because it is critical and fundamental for all different types of companies and national interests,” he continued.

“I believe that digitisation is above politics,” he said, arguing that it is important, particularly in Europe, to recognise digital sovereignty.

The location of data and its independence from other regions are “crucial”, not only from the point of view of latency but also of security, sovereignty, people’s rights, data protection, and human rights.

DE-CIX is preparing for its most ambitious configuration: Space-IX (www.space-ix.net).

The manager said he had already spoken to Starlink: “My vision is to put the Internet Exchange (…) in space very soon. Probably not next year, but within the next five years.”

In the year the company celebrates its 30th anniversary, the CEO adds that “peering, direct network interconnection via an IX [Internet Exchange], will be key to creating an infrastructure that is ready” for artificial intelligence and all future use cases.

According to Ivo Ivanov, space can act as a computing centre: AI models can be trained in orbit with ample solar energy for power and cooling. He said that LEO satellite constellations are expanding rapidly, building infrastructure similar to terrestrial networks.

He also defended the need for low latency, with a balanced ecosystem between AI models, connected devices (IoT, Edge) and transmission technologies (fibre optics, 5G/6G, LEO satellites) because interconnection is the basis “for success”.

In the inference phase, AI applications involve multiple agents from different suppliers (learning, movement and perception agents in humanoid robots). He said these agents must work together in real time, just as clouds and networks interconnect in IX.

Ivo Ivanov also mentioned Portugal’s position as an emerging market, as new hyperscalers establish a presence in the region, with DE-CIX contributing as an accelerator.

He pointed out that Portugal’s proximity to submarine cable landing points and data centres is a major advantage: 16 cables are currently in operation, and four new ones will be installed in 2025 and 2026.

According to him, the number of submarine cables arriving in Portugal will increase, solidifying its position as a vital international connectivity hub on the road to the digital future, making the country the gateway to Europe, Africa, and the Americas.

The Portuguese Data Centre Association, of which DE-CIX is a member, forecasts more than 12 billion in investments in the data centre industry in Portugal over the next five years.

DE-CIX ended the year with over 4,000 networks connected worldwide, up 10% on 2023, and 170 terabits of connected customer capacity (up 20%).

Present in 60 markets on five continents and with the announcement of its entry into Brazil, DE-CIX celebrated five years in Portugal in 2024, with peak traffic increasing by 14% and the Internet Exchange accounting for 62 connected networks.

The company strengthened its presence by expanding DE-CIX Lisbon to the Sines Data Centre, Europe’s largest data centre campus, reinforcing its ability to provide high-performance interconnection solutions in the region.

The next edition of Atlantic Convergence will take place between 28 and 30 October in Lisbon.