Digital Realty customers at more than 20 of its sites across the U.S. are now able to access interconnect services from DE-CIX.

In an expansion of an existing partnership between the pair, some 22 facilities spanning cities including Chicago, Dallas, New York, and Phoenix will be able to access peering and private interconnection services.

The collaboration covers all of the colo giant’s data centers within each U.S. metro market, doubling its joint footprint in the U.S. and expanding the global footprint by 25%.

Digital Realty already allows customers across 16 metros in 11 countries access to DE-CIX services in Europe, Asia, and the wider Americas. Beyond geographic expansion, the latest partnership aims to help infra customers better manage their connectivity costs through improved resiliency, while also adding more choice in how they can connect.

“Connectivity is what makes distributed infrastructure work. By expanding our collaboration with DE-CIX across Chicago, Dallas, New York, and Phoenix, customers at every Digital Realty data center in those metros can reach the DE-CIX ecosystem through Metro Connect – with the flexibility, choice, and neutrality they expect from our platform,” Chris Sharp, Digital Realty’s CTO, said.

DE-CIX’s partnership with the colo giant comes amid a wider global expansion for the internet exchange operator as it vies to expand the reach of its services. Just last month, it partnered with Microsoft Azure to extend private connectivity across cities in North America, Europe, and Asia, adding to its existing on-ramps to Azure.

Among its wider efforts, DE-CIX upgraded its New York metro platform, expanded its reach in the Nordics with a new site in Stockholm, alongside developments in Brazil and Bulgaria, respectively.

Commenting on its latest partnership, DE-CIX CEO Ivo Ivanov said: “In the age of AI inference and cloud-based business models, digital infrastructure is becoming increasingly distributed, making simple and reliable connectivity between data centers, networks, clouds, and applications more important than ever.

“Through the expansion of our decades-long and valued collaboration with Digital Realty, the DE-CIX ecosystem is now within easy reach for customers at dozens of facilities across the most important markets in North America. Customers gain more choice over where they deploy their infrastructure and a straightforward way to access the interconnection services they need.”