Mix arrives in Thessaloniki: the Italian interconnection hub lands in the Balkans

Another step. This time across the border. Milan Internet Exchange – the beating heart of Italian interconnection, headquartered in Milan and with traffic exceeding 3 Tbps – places a new flag on the European digital map. Destination: Thessaloniki, Greece. Objective: Balkan Gate, Lancom's Tier III data center, a strategic connectivity hub between Central Europe, the Balkans, Turkey and the Middle East.

With the official activation of MIX Salonicco, announced on June 17, Italy's Internet exchange projects itself outside its borders for the first time, heading towards Eastern Europe. The new hub joins the IXP edges already operating in Palermo, Bologna, Rome and Caserta. Everything revolves around the Milanese hub of Caldera Park, where data of over 3 Terabits per second flows every day. An infrastructure that is becoming increasingly European, in a context in which digital sovereignty and network resilience are no longer just words from policy papers, but industrial requirements.

Founded in 2000 in the shadow of the Duomo, MIX is today a pillar of Internet traffic in Italy: 420 connected networks, proprietary data centers, ISO 27001 and OIX-1 certifications, and a precise vision – performance, neutrality, security. With Thessaloniki, the made in Milan model expands, and it does so with a partner that knows the terrain well: Lancom, one of the main Greek players in cloud and infrastructure services, with three active data centers between Thessaloniki and Athens (and a fourth coming soon in Crete).

"The collaboration with Lancom - explains Alessandro Talotta, executive president of MIX - allows us to bring our services close to a strategic area. The objective is clear: an open, neutral, high-performance interconnection, even beyond Italy".

The landing point is Balkan Gate, Lancom's high-tech outpost in northern Greece. Carrier-neutral, certified Tier III, it already hosts PoPs of international players and is positioned as a key node between East and West. Not surprisingly, George Nolis, founder and CEO of Lancom, does not mince words: "This partnership is not just an expansion. It is a catalyst for the digital transformation of the region."