Ones to Watch: Cork Internet eXchange (CIX)

Jerry Sweeney, Managing Director of Cork Internet eXchange (CIX), winner of the The One to Watch Award, is presented with his award by Helen Sleator of KPMG and Sean Byerley of Bank of Ireland at the it@Cork Leaders Awards at the Maryborough House Hotel, 20 October, 2017. (Photo: Diane Cusack)

In our Ones to Watch section, we highlight some of the top movers and shakers in Ireland. This week we feature Cork Internet eXchange (CIX).

What is it?

Cork Internet eXchange (CIX) is a data centre which provides a fully-resilient network that delivers lightning-speed Internet connectivity to more than 100 Cork companies.

CIX Resiliency is achieved across a mesh of five providers. This mesh ensures a safe, secure and uninterrupted service from which customers can scale their operations. Thousands of fibre cables terminate in CIX. These cables facilitate lightning-speed Internet connectivity between North America and Europe. There are further plans for the Irish France Subsea Cable (IFSC) to come into force in 2018, resulting in even greater Internet speeds between North America and Europe.

Who’s behind it?

Jerry Sweeney, Managing Director, and Karen O’Connell, Finance Director, are the company directors. Jitendra Sharma is the Chief Technology Officer. Andreas Stavrianos is the Quality and Information Security Manager.

The company has 19 employees, 17 located in Cork, and two software developers located in Hyderabad in India.

How is it funded?

CIX is privately funded by Jerry Sweeney and his wife Karen O’Connell. It is a family-owned and -run business.

Future plans?

To date, they have increased the data centre size from 1,500 sg.m. to 2,800 sq.m. and are increasing capacity by 500%, from 500kW to 3MW.

There are two dimensions to the growth strategy of CIX:

1. They are launching a managed cloud and security product called CloudCIX Bastion.
2. Out the Geography: they want to grow export sales and have identified India as an initial target market where they already have a sales partner in Hyderabad. They are active in the Ireland India Trade Association and plan to host one of their events in Cork in 2018.

Ultimately, their mission is to help clients build competitive advantage through the implementation of cost-effective, efficient, information technology (IT) systems. Each solution is client specific and depends on the client’s business scale, in-house technical ability and the complexity of the strategy being executed.