Nutrien joins MBIX

MBIX is happy to announce that Nutrien (AS393891) has connected to MBIX. Jacked into the 167 Lombard switch at 1 Gbps, they’re now peering with the route servers on IPv4 and IPv6.

Nutrien is a new type of ISP for MBIX, an enterprise network. MBIX members until now have been ISPs providing connectivity to their customers, or content providers sending their data to end users. Nutrien has also connected recently to YYCIX in Calgary.

MBIX is pleased to see that that large enterprises seeing the benefit of keeping data local by making use of the local IXes in Canada.

MBIX expands to 360 Portage

MBIX is pleased to announce it has expanded to a third peering location at 360 Portage Avenue. This co-location facility is operated by Manitoba Hydro Telecom (MHT), on the 24th floor of the Manitoba Hydro building.

MBIX is now able to connect members at 360 Portage, at 1G or 10G speeds, and we eagerly await the first connection request.

This expansion is the result of months of planning, involving MOUs, fibre splicing and testing, switch and optics purchases, and operational migration of existing members at 294P.  Dark fibre has been donated by LES.NET and MHT to MBIX allowing 40 Gigabit capacity between the three sites, giving MBIX capacity to handle large increases in traffic.

While upgrading to 40G links between sites, we upgraded the equipment at each site as we required QSFP+ ports. MBIX is operating Cisco Nexus switches. The following table describes the new MBIX equipment:

Location Co-location Provider Equipment
167 Lombard GSC Nexus 93180YC-EX
294 Portage LES.NET Nexus 3064-X
360 Portage MHT Nexus 3064-X

This new hardware gives MBIX plenty of capacity for the future, reasonably accommodating a 10-fold increase in traffic.

Canada’s Internet Factbook

The Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA) released Canada’s Internet Factbook today, which includes statistics about Canada’s Internet and Canadians’ online habits, perceptions and experiences. This includes worries around the security of private information, with 81 per cent of Canadians expressing concern about the security of their personal information held by a government department in the event of a cyberattack.

Also included in Canada’s Internet Factbook are statistics around the amount of time Canadians spend online, their online purchasing habits, awareness of cybersecurity threats, social media preferences, experiences with online harassment and accessing online subscription services versus pirated content.

Canada’s Internet Factbook is developed annually, primarily through CIRA research, which was gathered through an online survey conducted in March 2018.

Full Throttle Networks joins MBIX

MBIX is happy to welcome local ISP Full Throttle Networks (AS396316) as its newest member.  Full Throttle is a young ISP providing wireless service in and around the Winnipeg region, and some towns south.

They have connected to our 294 Portage switch at 1 Gbps.  Peering has been set up between the MBIX route servers and Full Throttle, so existing route server members won’t need to do anything to receive Full Throttle routes.

It’s excellent to see another Manitoba ISP keeping its customer data within Manitoba as much as possible, and offering their clients the best performance sending data to other MBIX members.