Hurricane Electric is expanding its IPv4 and IPv6 backbone deep into the Middle East and Africa with the buildout of three new points of presence.

In the Persian Gulf, HE will be adding a presence in Equinix, Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.  And on the African continent they will be moving into both the Djibouti Data Center and the East Africa Data Centre in Nairobi, Kenya.  In each of those markets they will also be hooking up to an IX:  UAE-IX in Dubai, Djibouti IX, and the Kenya Internet Exchange.  When connected up with the existing presence in Johannesburg down in South Africa, the two new African PoPs complete a ring around the continent for HE as well.

Hurricane Electric has been busy adding new PoPs in markets around the world for some years now, but their interest in this region is relatively new.  It seems like logical next steps could be to add a presence in Mumbai  to complete the basics along the path to Singapore, and perhaps one in the growing Sicilian hub in the Mediterranean.

HE has somehow managed to stay out of the M&A fray over the last decade, making the case for steady organic expansion at the IP layer worldwide.  CEO Mike Leber sat down with us here for a fascinating and candid interview a while back.