Hurricane Electric has announced the completion of the latest step in the expansion of its global Internet backbone with the launch of a new Point of Presence (PoP) at The Retirement Systems of Alabama Dexter Avenue Data Center (RSA Dexter Avenue Data Center). Located at 445 Dexter Avenue, Montgomery, AL, this is Hurricane Electric’s first PoP in the state.

With combined federal, state, and local government agencies comprising one quarter of Montgomery’s workforce, the city, and surrounding regions have experienced steadily increasing demand for faster Internet connectivity and additional capacity. Among the top five industries in the state, Alabama’s Information Technology sector employs more than 15,000 and generates over $1 billion in annual revenue. 

To help meet this demand, the RSA Dexter Avenue Data Center opened in 2012 and provides tenants with redundant infrastructure, 24/7 support staff, and is SOC 2 Type 2 certified, meaning that it has been audited by a third party and has been found to have policies in place to protect the highly sensitive data of its tenants.  Additionally, the 44,000 square foot facility is equipped to handle the demands of mission critical operations with 2N capacity UPS systems and automatic transfer switchgear with ten second failover to generator backups in the event of a loss of power. 

The RSA Dexter Avenue Data Center also houses the state’s first Internet exchange, MGMix. Made possible by a collaboration between Montgomery County, The City of Montgomery, research universities, Maxwell Gunter Air Force Base, and the new Cyber College of the Air Force, MGMix is just the fourth IX in the Southeast.

With the launch of Hurricane Electric’s latest PoP, commercial entities, government agencies and educational institutions in the greater Montgomery area will be able to choose from additional connectivity options and tap into Hurricane Electric’s rich global network. Additionally, the new PoP will enable those same organizations to improve fault tolerance, load balancing and congestion management in its IP connectivity services, which includes transit of next-generation IPv6 traffic.

Tenants at the RSA Dexter Avenue Data Center now have the ability to exchange IP traffic with Hurricane Electric’s vast global network. Hurricane Electric has over 17,000 BGP sessions with over 6,000 different networks via more than 155 major exchange points and thousands of customer and private peering ports. The new Montgomery PoP will also provide access to the company’s extensive IPv4 and IPv6 network through 100GE (100 Gigabit Ethernet), 10GE (10 Gigabit Ethernet) and GigE (1 Gigabit Ethernet) ports and as a result, both new and existing customers will be able to experience increased throughput, reduced latency and improved reliability. 

“Hurricane Electric is delighted to extend its global network to help support the many businesses and government organizations that make up Montgomery’s economy,” said Mike Leber, President, Hurricane Electric. “As Alabama steadily cultivates a growing IT industry, we’ve seen a strong rise in demand for affordable high-speed Internet transit in the state. Hurricane Electric looks forward to providing the IP services that this sector needs to compete in both the domestic and international marketplaces.”