For Windows Server shops, Microsoft 365 tenants and Azure-heavy enterprises in Türkiye, the useful question is what this changes in practice. The answer is more modest than the headline suggests, but it is not trivial.
What was announced
- The status change: PremierDC is now a DE-CIX Enabled Site. DE-CIX's Istanbul page already lists Premier DC among its enabled sites.
- GlobePEER: DE-CIX's peering service, which lets networks exchange traffic directly.
- DirectCLOUD: a private Layer 2 path to a cloud provider. DE-CIX's documentation describes it as a dedicated connection rather than a trip over the public internet.
- Clouds named: AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud and Alibaba Cloud.
Pricing, a launch date beyond the report's own date, reserved capacity and customer case studies are not in the available material.
Why Azure users should care
DE-CIX says it offers private connectivity to Azure from its major locations. Azure ExpressRoute lets you connect your existing network infrastructure to the Microsoft cloud without crossing the public internet. DE-CIX also says that ExpressRoute normally needs physical connectivity in a designated colocation facility, which most enterprises lack. Connectivity providers such as DE-CIX can extend ExpressRoute to additional facilities.
DE-CIX's Azure page describes two routes. If you are colocated in a data centre where DE-CIX has a premium enabled site, you buy access to DE-CIX and then use DirectCLOUD to connect to Microsoft. The other route is through DE-CIX certified partners. DE-CIX's Istanbul page lists Premier DC among both its enabled and premium enabled sites. The Telecompaper excerpt does not say which tier applies to this announcement, so confirm that with PremierDC.
ExpressRoute versus Azure Peering Service
This distinction is easy to get wrong. DE-CIX's own FAQ draws it this way:
- ExpressRoute is a dedicated, private connection, while Azure Peering Service is an optimised "public" connection type.
- Private IaaS connections to virtual networks belong on ExpressRoute. SaaS and PaaS applications such as Microsoft 365, Dynamics or Azure DevOps are better suited to Azure Peering Service.
- DE-CIX says Peering Service adds no extra costs on the Microsoft side, whereas ExpressRoute does.
DE-CIX's Istanbul page lists Azure Peering Service as a separate offering. The announcement names Azure as a DirectCLOUD destination, so it should not be read as confirming Peering Service for PremierDC customers.
What the numbers do and don't mean
DE-CIX's Istanbul page cites the following figures:
- close to 70 connected networks;
- more than 550 Gbit/s of peak traffic;
- access to 50+ cloud providers.
These describe the whole Istanbul exchange. They are not PremierDC customer figures or a capacity guarantee.
PremierDC's own network-services page lists 1, 10, 40 and 100 Gbps port options. It says PremierDC manages IP traffic and BGP/4 for its Cloud Connect service. That is provider marketing, and it does not confirm that every port size applies to this new arrangement.
Practical checklist before you order
- Ask which Azure regions and ExpressRoute peering locations are reachable from Istanbul, and whether this is a PremierDC or DE-CIX provisioning path.
- Confirm redundancy options. DE-CIX has added Azure ExpressRoute Metro dual-site support, but its September 2026 announcement lists New York, Frankfurt, Madrid, Amsterdam and Singapore, and does not list Istanbul.
- Establish who bills the Microsoft-side ExpressRoute circuit and gateway, and who bills DE-CIX and PremierDC.
- Decide which workloads need private IaaS paths and which, like Microsoft 365, are better served by Peering Service or ordinary internet routing.
- Check SLAs. Claims of lower latency, cost or higher security depend on your design, routes and contracts, and the announcement does not prove them for any workload.
Analysis
Interconnection news is usually about plumbing, but plumbing decides whether hybrid Windows Server, Active Directory and Azure workloads behave well. For a Türkiye-based organisation that hosts in PremierDC, a single DE-CIX access point could reduce the need to negotiate separate carrier circuits for each cloud. That is plausible, but it is a reasonable inference from the DE-CIX model and not a measured result. Also keep in mind that most of the available detail comes from DE-CIX and PremierDC, both of which sell these services.
Bottom line: the news is an expanded connectivity option for PremierDC's Istanbul customers, including private routes to Azure. Treat it as a reason to ask your provider detailed questions, not as proof of better performance.
Correction (October 21, 2026): an earlier version of this article said DE-CIX's Azure ExpressRoute Metro announcement listed Frankfurt, Amsterdam and New York, with Madrid to follow. DE-CIX's September 2026 announcement actually lists New York, Frankfurt, Madrid, Amsterdam and Singapore as live locations, and does not list Istanbul.