The event gathered more than 250 professionals from the ICT, Internet and datacentre sectors, content and media at the Luxembourg Chamber of Commerce.

Frédérique Ulrich, Business Development Manager at LU-CIX, made an introductory welcome statement alluding to the growing concern of the industry for security issues, in view of the exponential increase in threats to the sector.

Thereafter, a classy cast of 7 representatives form the ICT field submitted themselves to the mercy-less speed-pitching exercise: Dirk Aertgeerts (Arbor Networks), Patrice Cheret (Dimension Data), Patrice Duffort (Arista Networks), Vincent Villers and Laurent Probst (PwC), Christophe Bianco (Excellium Services), Jean-David Lehmann-Charley (Compass Eos) and Xavier Buck (MEGA) have shared non-mainstream ideas and concepts throughout a number of domains, illustrating the extent to which the ICT sector in Luxembourg was developing in a fast, yet interrelated manner.

Marco Houwen, President of LU-CIX, browsed the past 5-years history and success story of LU-CIX and pinpointed a set of changes and challenges ahead. “It is undeniable that the presence of an Internet exchange point in Luxembourg has contributed to attract a set of newbies and established actors of the Internet industry to Luxembourg substantially contributing to the country’s economy”, said Houwen. “With now 56 members from the Internet and Datacenter sectors, Lu-CIX can claim to be a legitimate representative of those sectors in the Greater Region and beyond”, Houwen concluded. LU-CIX was honoured to sign the 56th member with MEGA during the event after having greeted Dimension Data shortly before as 55th member and MNKS, a premier provider of legal services as LU-CIX Gold Sponsor.

Claude Demuth, CEO of LU-CIX greeted Xavier Buck and his new partner MEGA,: “Having MEGA on the LU-CIX platform will be a win-win for all : LU-CIX will see traffic peaks from and to Europe increase, while the other members will be able to develop fascinating business opportunities with this large player.”

Simon Mason, Head of Security Solutions EMEA at Verizon lifted the veil on another buzzing topic: security in the Cloud and in the DCs - where it happens and where it does not and how to align it to the needs and constraints of the business. “Subjective impressions of threats and countermeasures taken often clash with the reality: people in the industry tend to overestimate their real level of threat as much as they overestimate their need for protection. The aim of the game will be to align objectivity in the perception and feasibility and business rationale of protection.”

Mr Simon Waller, Head of EMEA Sales at NTT Communications, focussed on NTT’s approach to DDoS attacks. Echoing Simon Mason, Waller outlined that threats where coming from sometimes unexpected geographical origins and were pushed by motivations other than financial gain or espionage.  “We at NTT Communications take a very serious stance towards attempts to attack and corrupt our systems. It is a question of commitment to our customer who legitimately expect us to be at the forefront of their communications security and integrity.”