Zaragoza, the Government of Aragon and ESpanix have signed a general action protocol for the implementation of an Internet Exchange Point (IXP) in the new Aragonese Technology District Alierta (DAT_Alierta), in Zaragoza.
Aragon is consolidating itself as a strategic territory in digital connectivity thanks to its position on the backbone fiber optic network that connects from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean, Lisbon, Madrid, Barcelona, and southern France, with competitive latencies of 7-9 milliseconds to the main economic centers. At a time of unprecedented investments in hyperscale data centers, the arrival of ESpanix—the main IXP in Spain, with more than 190 clients, over 2 Tb/s switched and total capacity of 240 Tb/s—will maximize these deployments by bringing content, clouds, and peering closer to the Aragonese territory.
ESpanix currently has a presence in six strategic points in Madrid and Barcelona and wants to add another point in DAT_Alierta, establishing a direct exchange node in Zaragoza. This creates a low-latency ring Madrid–Zaragoza–Barcelona, integrates the international trunks that land in Barcelona, Bilbao, Lisbon/Madrid, and Valencia, and positions Zaragoza as a key hub in southern Europe.
Among the main benefits are:
- Significant reduction in latency for local traffic (up to an order of magnitude in regional content).
- Cost savings in transit for operators and companies (≥20% in similar markets).
- Greater resilience and digital sovereignty, maintaining critical traffic in the face of external incidents.
- Attraction of CDNs, cloud providers, AI projects, edge computing, and high-value sectors such as cybersecurity, telemedicine, video games, or defense.
Pedro Sainz, CEO of ESpanix, has stated: “With the implementation of the ESpanix node in Zaragoza, we consolidate a high-capacity and low-latency interconnection ring in the heart of Spain, strengthening the resilience of national and international telecommunications and attracting new global traffic to Aragon and the rest of the Iberian Peninsula. The goal is to strengthen the competitiveness of local companies and improve the digital experience of Aragonese citizens, ensuring faster, safer, and more economical connections in a growing technological ecosystem.”
The presence of ESpanix in Aragon will facilitate the direct interconnection of the new hyperscale campuses with local companies, optimize peering costs, and accelerate the arrival of advanced cloud and AI services to the region.