Johannesburg skyline at night (image: South African Tourism)

Hetzner’s data centre in Midrand, north of Johannesburg, is the site for an extension of the Johannesburg Internet Exchange (Jinx), exchange operator INX-ZA said on Monday.

It’s the first time that Jinx has been expanded beyond its Rosebank facility, which was established 20 years ago. Jinx, which began as a project of the Internet Service Providers’ Association, is Africa’s oldest exchange point for Internet traffic.

The expansion of Jinx follows an agreement between INX-ZA and Hetzner, which operates a vendor-neutral and fully redundant data centre in Samrand, a suburb located about midway between Johannesburg and Pretoria.

The move creates a multisite facility for Jinx and follows last month’s launch of the Durban Internet Exchange multisite.

INX-ZA said Hetzner’s data centre is located close to major fibre routes and other telecommunications infrastructure. This is important as it allows for “effortless interconnects, lower latency and better performance when connecting to the Internet exchange point”.

Internet exchange points allow Internet service providers to interconnect their networks so that domestic users benefit from faster connections and more efficient access to online services. Network operators benefit from lower costs, resulting in more affordable bandwidth, which is crucial for the development of the Internet in South Africa.

Cape Town not left out

Internet exchanges in South Africa have historically been limited to a single location requiring network operators using the exchange to invest in infrastructure connecting to that location, INX-ZA said.

The extension of Jinx makes it easy for Internet companies that already have infrastructure at the existing Jinx location to connect seamlessly to networks at the new locations, it added.

“Peers at the new site will have the same peering experience and will be able to be directly linked to all existing and future Jinx peers, with no additional complexity.”