Global Cloud Xchange, the Bermudian-based submarine cable network owner/operator, has expanded its partnership with digital infrastructure company Equinix.

GCX said the deal provides its customers with enhanced route diversity and availability of its products and services in the Middle East region.

With this announcement, GCX said, it enhances access to its Middle East network through a new “point of presence” in the Equinix data centre in Muscat, Oman.

The company said global demand for submarine network bandwidth and services continues to grow, especially in growing markets in the Middle East and Asia among others.

GCX owns and operates one of the world’s largest privately owned submarine networks and supports increasing needs for global connectivity.

“We are pleased to announce our new point of presence in the Middle East, at the Muscat Data Center,” says Carl Grivner, CEO of GCX.

“We have developed a unique capability to plan and deliver integrated, or mixed-asset, configurations that make sophisticated network and capacity planning in the Middle East easy, cost-effective, secure and reliable for our customers.”

GCX said Equinix’s international business exchange data centre in Muscat is strategically located in the heart of the digital ecosystem connecting Asia, Africa and Europe.

This data centre creates a regional interconnection hub with ultra-low latencies between global business markets.

The data centre is the first in Oman, and is a world-class, carrier-neutral hub where carriers, content providers and cloud providers co-locate their critical IT infrastructure, the company said.

"Equinix is committed to providing our partners and customers with the ability to rapidly scale their infrastructure, reach and connectivity,” said Kamel al-Tawil, managing director, Middle East and North Africa, of Equinix.

“The Muscat MC1 IBX leverages Oman as a global communications hub for GCX customers with connectivity to more than 120 cities with redundant routes connecting Asia, Middle East, Europe and North America.”

GCX said it maintains a team of seasoned experts in the region to help customers to plan and deploy value-based strategies through both on-network and hybrid solutions.

Bringing together expert capacity planning, and route diversity through the Falcon system, this expanded presence in Oman in the Middle East brings new opportunities in content delivery, gaming, cloud services and enterprise transformation in the region, the company said.