Telx is integrating its customer portals, expanding its EtherConnect offer, and enabling interworking between EtherConnect and other services.
The company’s existing portals include the Telx Global Marketplace, through which customers at its locations can connect with others at the sites to develop business partnerships that can enable them to reach new customers and tap into new markets. The marketplace also helps Telx customers identify diverse service providers should they want to increase redundancy.
Telx over the years also has created communities of interest for those in the carrier, cloud, financial and media categories. And Telx provides CBX Online, a tool that customers can use to foster new business relationships, self-provision interconnects in real time, as well as keep track of their on-site inventory, such as cross-connects and the available ports on them.
Les Williams, director of product for interconnection services, tells TMCnet that Telx is now integrating its portals and CBX Online to provide customers with a richer experience. That way, he adds, customers need only use one portal and a single sign-on to manage and provision all their services, interface with existing and potential partners, and otherwise tap into their accounts. Telx, which was in beta mode with the integrated portal when this interview was done in early March, today makes the offering generally available.
As for EtherConnect, Williams says that offer from Telx is now “more creative” in that it’s more than a network-to-network interface. Carriers, he says, can use EtherConnect to connect with businesses, enabling them to aggregate services and create ecosystems. They can use EtherConnect as an extension point of presence.
Cloud providers can use EtherConnect as a means to distribute their applications. The same is true with the financial services industry. So, it’s not just about access, Williams explains, it can become an extranet for a financial services company where their information can be picked up directly from subscribers.
Another enhancement to EtherConnect enables carriers to interwork the service with legacy technology, so the input can be SONET and the output can be Ethernet.
For more on Telx, check out the March INTERNET TELEPHONY cover story on the company.
