News & Events

Microsoft edge node now available in Equinix’s IL2 Istanbul data center

ISTANBUL, Turkey — February 03, 2021 — Equinix, Inc. (Nasdaq: EQIX), the world’s digital infrastructure company, today announced a new Microsoft edge node, now available in Equinix’s International Business Exchange™ (IBX®) in Istanbul, IL2 in collaboration with Türk Telekom’s subsidiary TTI. This new deployment means Equinix customers in Turkey can access Microsoft Azure via the Microsoft global network and through Azure ExpressRoute remotely, via Equinix Fabric™. This allows customers in Turkey to accelerate their digital transformation through access to the full range of Azure Services including Hybrid + Multicloud, AI + Machine Learning, IoT and Windows Virtual Desktop.

Remote access to Azure via Equinix Fabric—an on-demand platform that enables Equinix customers to discover and dynamically connect to any other customer via Equinix’s global platform—helps digital leaders to transform their business as they connect to everything and everyone necessary to their company’s success. Utilizing the resulting predictable, flexible, and reliable network performance, enterprises can build comprehensive hybrid multicloud strategies to support today’s digital demand.

The new availability was established in collaboration with Turk Telekom International (TTI), which provided its connectivity and internet services to ensure the successful deployment of the Microsoft edge node at IL2. The partnership between Equinix, Microsoft and TTI, enables the provision of quality connectivity across diverse routes, to leading internet service providers.

Highlights / Key Facts

• Equinix customers across the world can also now remotely access Azure Regions via Azure ExpressRoute and Equinix Fabric through an easy-to-use portal and a single connection to the Equinix platform. These connections bypass the public Internet and offer reliable, faster connections to Microsoft Azure, helping customers to scale their networks to accommodate today’s escalating remote workforce demands and prepare for tomorrow’s business requirements.
• Secure connectivity to strategic cloud service providers, like Microsoft, is essential as digital transformation fuels higher demand for localized digital services at the edge. According to the Global Interconnection Index (GXI) Volume 4 a market study by Equinix, interconnection—the direct and private exchange of data between businesses—is enabling enterprises to gain a competitive advantage by integrating a wide variety of service providers, including networks, at the digital edge. This private connectivity is expected to increase by 5 times between 2019 and 2023 in the EMEA region.
• Equinix has been a Microsoft Gold Cloud Platform provider since June 2017. The designation recognizes the company’s ongoing commitment to helping enterprise customers worldwide achieve seamless, on-demand access to Azure and Microsoft Office 365. Equinix hosts 30 public Microsoft Azure ExpressRoute nodes globally, with dedicated experts advising customers across the Middle East including Turkey, U.S., Canada, Latin America, South America, UK, Europe, and Asia-Pacific.
• Turk Telekom International is an official business partner of Equinix as an authorized reseller of Equinix products and services. Supporting the leading internet service providers in the region, as-well-as operators and enterprise customers, TTI provides essential connectivity infrastructure for businesses to succeed in the digital economy by deploying its robust network capabilities through the coordinated efforts of its international teams. TTI is providing Microsoft with point-to-point telecommunication paths on three diverse routes between IL2 and Europe. Furthermore, TTI’s resilient IP/MPLS network now enables businesses and Microsoft Edge to come closer to exchange information and services at IL2.

Quotes

• Levent Özbilgin, Managing Director, Turkey, Microsoft: 
  “We are pleased to expand our relationship with Equinix, this time in Turkey with the provision of remote access to Microsoft Azure via Equinix Fabric. Equinix’s interconnection and data center platform will enable our customers in Turkey to build extensible hybrid cloud architectures, addressing today’s accelerated digital requirements, and emerging stronger in the months to come.”
• Şükrü Kutlu, Chief Executive Officer, Turkey, Turk Telekom International Group:
  “To meet the increasing demands of the global business environment, we continually expand our product and service portfolio for our enterprise customers. We enable our enterprise customers to build flexible, reliable, and cost-efficient hybrid cloud architectures for improved business performance. We are excited to be the telco partner of Equinix and Microsoft in this project”
• Aslıhan Güreşcier, Managing Director, Turkey, Equinix: 
  “We are delighted to partner with Microsoft for the deployment of a new Microsoft edge node in our IL2 data center in Istanbul. The deployment will allow our customers to harness the unique capabilities of hybrid cloud, providing them with a more flexible, reliable and predictable network performance.”

Additional Resources

• Digital Demand Forecasted to Drive 45% Growth in Interconnection [blog]
• Equinix 2019-20 Global Tech Trends Survey [report]
• Learn more about Equinix Fabric™ [website]
• Learn more about Microsoft Azure at Equinix [website]
• Global Interconnection Index (GXI) Volume 4 [report]
• Multicloud and Edge Top IT Leaders’ Priority Lists [press release]

Türkçe için lütfen buraya tıklayınız.

TTI CEO Mr. Şükrü Kutlu conducted a Q&A with Capacity Magazine on TTI’s efforts to turn Istanbul into a data hub.

How does TTI differ from its competitors in the market??
Its unique geographical positioning at the crossroads of Europe, the Middle East, and Asia data traffic is one of TTI’s main advantages in the market. TTI reinforces this critical advantage with its state-of-the-art network.
TTI has a terrestrial fiber optic network of approximately 45 thousand km and 114 PoPs across 22 countries. It has access to two submarine cable systems. TTI is a full member of the SEA-ME-WE-5 submarine fiber optic cable consortium connecting Europe to Asia, whereas it owns a private submarine fiber, the MedTurk, that connects Turkey, Middle East, and Europe.
Part of TTI’s vision is to continue expanding its infrastructure and provide alternative, high quality, high capacity and low-cost routes to its customers. As a result of this vision and despite all the challenges presented by the global pandemic, TTI successfully completed two major investment projects in 2020.
One of these major investment projects is the TTI New Backbone, connecting Sofia, Budapest, and Vienna through two different protected routes in Europe with endpoints in Edirne and
Frankfurt, each with a fiber network of over 3,000 km. The new backbone is fully operational as of end of 2020 and provides high speed and quality service to our customers at more affordable prices.
The second project is the integration of KAFOS subsea cable to TTI network. KAFOS is a subsea telecommunications cable system that spans through the Black Sea connecting Romania, Bulgaria, and Turkey reaching 504 km in length. The cable system is fully operational as of January 2021 and allows TTI to provide up to 8 Tbit/s capacity between Istanbul and Bucharest. KAFOS subsea cable will have a significant role in providing seamless connectivity between Turkey and Europe.
TTI will continue to expand and update its network in the future as its network in addition to its unique geographical positioning is what makes TTI stand out among its competitors.

How do you see the future of connectivity business? Is TTI equipped to face the future?
Internet ecosystem has undergone a tremendous change with the entrance of content providers as key players. This new challenge forces TTI to go beyond the core business of international capacity transport and add value to its infrastructure with new services that can meet the needs of the current Internet landscape.
TTI’s versatile IP product portfolio is designed to this end. TTI offers IP products to international service and content providers, to enable them to reach Istanbul using TTI’s infrastructure and to host their servers in TTI’s Istanbul Data Center. Alternatively, customers and content providers can take over these IP services in major European Internet Exchange Points (IXP) and datacenters or in datacenters in Turkey, as close as possible to the desired IP eyeballs. TTI provides access to Türk Telekom’s extensive IP network to fulfill coverage needs of content providers, which accounts for more than 66% of the Internet market in the country.
Major global cloud and content providers have already commenced operations in Istanbul via TTI’s IP products and robust network capabilities such as 4 diverse fiber routes from Western Europe into the main datacenters in Istanbul.
TTI extended its IP product portfolio to various border crossings of Turkey, by providing IP Transit services on the same quality level as Türk Telekom’s national network. Finally, TTI’s partnerships with DE-CIX and Equinix allow it to provide dedicated private connections to cloud providers.
To sum up, TTI will pursue its main vision of providing international capacity and will strive to expand its infrastructure to serve as a bridge carrying international traffic between the East and the West and bringing content closer to users. In addition, we will seek to find new ways and services to add value on our infrastructure as similar to the achievements of IP, IP transit and cloud services. I believe this is how we make TTI a company equipped to face the future and turn Istanbul into a data hub.

Further reading:

https://edition.pagesuite.com/html5/reader/production/default.aspx?pnum=24&edid=c57b5cbe-0bcc-403e-b9ed-7579e0556da5&isshared=true

The Data Sales East, Data Sales West, Voice and Roaming, Pricing and Service Procurement, and Market and Commercial Development Directors will be reporting to the Chief Commercial Officer, Ömer Demir.

Ömer Demir attended Washington State University and University of Texas in Arlington. He attained Bachelors of Science degrees in Mechanical Engineering, Physics and Business Development.

After graduating, Ömer Demir started his professional career at Texas Instruments as Quality Assurance Engineer in the Dallas, TX central reliability lab, later joıned Avmat as the Purchasing and Contracts Manager in the Miami office. In 2012, he continued his career as the Sales and Marketing Director for the Middle East, CIS countries and Africa at Aereos HQ in Texas. Prior to joining TTI, Ömer Demir worked as the Sales and Business Development Director at MTU Maintenance GmbH between 2018-2021.

HKT (SEHK:6823) – Hong Kong, March 4, 2020 – Türk Telekom International (TTI), the international arm of Türk Telekom Group handling all international data, wholesale voice and roaming business functions, and PCCW Global, the international operating division of HKT, Hong Kong’s premier telecommunications service provider, have signed a long-term master service agreement for TTI to provision Software-Defined Wide Area Network (SD-WAN) services in collaboration with PCCW Global for their enterprise customers, reducing unnecessary traffic over MPLS networks and enabling the secure, efficient use of online cloud services while providing more capacity for mission-critical applications.

Traditionally, an enterprise would connect its regional offices over an MPLS network infrastructure, bypassing the public Internet and only providing online applications from a centralized and typically company-managed server. However, the growth and demand for innovative online cloud services from a range of international service providers requires more advanced, flexible and intelligent networking options provided by SD-WAN services.

Under the collaboration, the SD-WAN service will leverage broadband Internet connectivity, dual-edge devices, distributed gateways and multiple connectivity options. An end-to-end management portal will provide complete control with zero-touch provisioning, safe in the confidence that mission-critical applications will be equipped with the security and bandwidth that is required.

By providing SD-WAN services to its enterprise customers, TTI continues to expand its product lines, taking advantage of the diversification trend and growing the company’s service portfolio to provide a unique, market-leading service which is continually being optimized for performance, while leveraging cost-effective broadband connectivity over both the Internet and 4G LTE.

Mr. Sameh Sobhy, Vice President, Middle East, Turkey & Africa, PCCW Global, says: “This collaboration will allow TTI to extend the reach and deployment of its services on a worldwide basis by making use of PCCW Global’s SD-WAN capabilities, while at the same time, PCCW Global can now extend the reach of its service portfolios to a greater geographic area across Turkey, Eastern and Central Europe where TTI has presence.

Mr. Sükrü Kutlu, Group CEO of Türk Telekom International, said, “In our complex business environment, Türk Telekom International continually assesses the compatibility of its strategy for each product and service, so by adding the SD-WAN service in collaboration with PCCW Global to TTI’s current product range, enterprise customers will experience cost effective, secure, policy-driven transport and improved performance.”

 

About PCCW Global

PCCW Global is the international operating division of HKT, Hong Kong’s premier telecommunications service provider, which is majority-owned by PCCW Limited. Covering more than 3,000 cities and 160 countries, the PCCW Global network supports a portfolio of integrated global communications services including connectivity, applications, and tailored solutions facilitated by its on-demand digital software defined interconnection system.

PCCW Global is headquartered in Hong Kong, and maintains regional centers in Belgium, China, France, Greece, Japan, Korea, Singapore, South Africa, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom and the United States of America. To learn more about PCCW Global, please visit www.pccwglobal.com.

  

About HKT

HKT (SEHK: 6823) is Hong Kong’s premier telecommunications service provider and leading operator in fixed-line, broadband and mobile communication services. It meets the needs of the Hong Kong public and local and international businesses with a wide range of services including local telephony, local data and broadband, international telecommunications, mobile, enterprise solutions, and other telecommunications businesses such as customer premises equipment sales, outsourcing, consulting, and contact centers.

HKT offers a unique quadruple-play experience in Hong Kong delivering media content on its fixed-line, broadband Internet access and mobile platforms jointly with its parent company, PCCW Limited.

HKT also provides a range of innovative and smart living services beyond connectivity to make the daily lives of customers smarter, whether they are at home, in the workplace, or on the go. Consumers and merchants alike may also enjoy HKT’s financial-related services such as mobile payment, smart mobile point-of-sale solutions, and insurance.

For enterprises, HKT delivers end-to-end integrated solutions employing emerging technologies such as cloud computing, Internet of Things (IoT) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) to accelerate their digital transformation, contributing to Hong Kong’s development into a smart city.

The Club is HKT’s loyalty program and one of the largest of its kind in Hong Kong, not only offering a variety of privileges and benefits to enrich the lifestyle of members, but also increasingly amalgamating merchants and becoming an integral part of a new digital ecosystem connecting consumers and merchants.

For more information, please visit www.hkt.com.

 

About Türk Telekom International

Türk Telekom International is 100% owned by Türk Telekom and acts as its international business unit handling all international data and wholesale voice business functions through its subsidiaries in 17 countries.  Türk Telekom International provides single account management and unified network operations over the entire Türk Telekom International network which includes a wide range of countries in Central and Eastern Europe, Turkey, Middle East and the Caucasus, covering a full range of Internet/data services, infrastructure and wholesale voice services to incumbents, alternative carriers, mobile operators, cable TV companies, Internet service providers and corporate customers. Türk Telekom International offers premium quality telecommunication solutions in the form of: guaranteed SLA-s, local experts, dedicated staff, centralized end-to-end network management, trustworthy and reliable attitude, delivering on commitments, on-time delivery, tailor-made, scalable and cost-effective technical solutions and a proven management team with a full-service portfolio. Covering over 45,000 km of fiber optic network and more than 250 interconnections worldwide TTI is one of the most important players for the global telecommunications industry.

 

About Türk Telekom Group

Türk Telekom, with 179 years of history, is the first integrated telecommunications operator in Turkey. In 2015, Türk Telekomünikasyon A.Ş. adopted a “customer-oriented” and integrated structure in order to respond to the rapidly changing communication and technology needs of customers in the most powerful and accurate way, while maintaining the legal entities of TT Mobil İletişim Hizmetleri A.Ş. and TTNET A.Ş. intact and adhering to the rules and regulations to which they are subject. Having a wide service network and product range in the fields of individual and corporate services, Türk Telekom unified its mobile, internet, phone and TV products and services under the single “Türk Telekom” brand as of January 2016. “Turkey’s Multiplay Provider” Türk Telekom has 14.6 million fixed access lines, 11.4 million broadband, 3.5 million TV and 22.9 million mobile subscribers as of December 31, 2019. Türk Telekom Group Companies provide services in all 81 cities of Turkey with 32,180 employees with the vision of introducing new technologies to Turkey and accelerating Turkey’s transformation into an information society. Türk Telekomünikasyon A.Ş., providing PSTN and wholesale broadband services, directly owns 100% of mobile operator TT Mobil İletişim Hizmetleri A.Ş., retail internet services, IPTV, satellite TV, Web TV, Mobile TV, Smart TV services provider TTNET A.Ş., convergence technologies company Argela Yazılım ve Bilişim Teknolojileri A.Ş., IT solution provider Innova Bilişim Çözümleri A.Ş., online education software company Sebit Eğitim ve Bilgi Teknolojileri A.Ş., call center company AssisTT Rehberlik ve Müşteri Hizmetleri A.Ş., project development and corporate venture capital company TT Ventures Proje Geliştirme A.Ş, Electric Supply and Sales Company TTES Elektrik Tedarik Satış A.Ş., wholesale data and capacity service provider Türk Telekom International, provider of combined facilities support activities TT Destek Hizmetleri A.Ş. and indirectly owns 100% of subsidiaries of Türk Telekom International, TV Broadcasting and VOD services provider Net Ekran Companies, telecommunications devices sales company TT Satış ve Dağıtım Hizmetleri A.Ş and payment services company TT Ödeme ve Elektronik Para Hizmetleri A.Ş. and counselling services company 11818 Rehberlik ve Müşteri Hizmetleri A.Ş.

For more information, please visit: www.turktelekomint.com

 

For more information, please contact:

Ivan Ho PCCW Group Tel: +852 2883 8747 Email: ivan.wy.ho@pccw.com

Hande Bayrak CEO Office Coordinator Türk Telekom International Tel: +90 216 514 1915 Email: Hande.Bayrak@turktelekomint.com

 

Türk Telekom International (TTI) won the Best Wholesale Sales Team Award in London, on 30th October 2019.
This is in recognition of Türk Telekom International being a major player with a commitment to excellence and an innovator and a market leader in its region. Türk Telekom International earned this award by receiving a huge number of third-party endorsements receiving international recognition for its company’s customer service, quality of service and reliability.

“We are very proud of our wholesale sales team’s remarkable achievement and will continue to exceed our customers’ and shareholders’ expectation by introducing innovative telecommunication solutions, providing superior customer service, further increase our brand awareness and enlarge our footprint in the region” – stated Sükrü Kutlu, CEO of Türk Telekom International.
“Despite a number of company changes, this diverse sales team has continued to be an efficient and productive one, sealing the most profitable contract in the company’s history in 2019” – commented the Capacity Media Editor-in-Chief and head judge for the GCAs Jason McGee-Abe.
The award event took place in London, bringing together over 420 members of the wider wholesale community, celebrating the industry’s biggest achievements over the last 12 months. Hosted by Capacity Media CEO Rosalind Irving and Capacity Media Editor-in-Chief and head judge for the GCAs Jason McGee-Abe, at the indigo at The O2, the black-tie gala dinner was truly a night of celebration and distinction.

Over the past 15 years, the Global Carrier Awards has become the biggest and most prestigious awards event in the wholesale telecoms calendar.

Türk Telekom International triumphed by collecting this major award at this respected and esteemed event.

 

Sükrü Kutlu, CEO Türk Telekom International

 

TTI team being present at the Capacity Europe Event 2019