Switzerland’s IT Infrastructure
This overview examines who operates Switzerland’s IT infrastructure, from major data centers and network providers to the backbone of its mobile and financial systems.
Introduction
Every message, transaction, and online interaction relies on secure storage and rapid transport of data, whether locally or across borders. This data flows through data centers, high-speed networks, and international exchanges, shaping everything from our internet speed to the privacy of our information.
In Switzerland the market for data transport as well as data storing is dominated by a few key players.
The Evolution of IT Infrastructure in Switzerland
The Early Days: PTT and the Rise of Telecommunications
Switzerland's telecommunications infrastructure originated with the state-owned PTT (Post, Telegraph, and Telephone) in the early 20th century. PTT was responsible for national communication services, providing telephone and telegraph lines across Switzerland. As technology advanced, PTT launched nationwide telephone and eventually ISDN services, connecting nearly every Swiss household by the early 1990s. This included the transition from copper lines to fiber-optic cables, a decision made to future-proof connectivity infrastructure.
In 1998, telecom services were privatized, and Swisscom was established as Switzerland's primary telecommunications provider. This shift was critical as it brought private investment into the sector, accelerating the development of high-speed networks and establishing Swisscom as a major IT infrastructure player with advanced, secure, and widely accessible telecom services.
Formation of SWITCH and Swisscom
In 1987, SWITCH was founded to connect Swiss universities and manage the national .ch domain. SWITCH played a vital role in building Switzerland’s digital backbone, enabling high-speed internet connections for research and education institutions. It was also instrumental in establishing a framework for cybersecurity in Swiss higher education and research. Today, SWITCH remains central to Switzerland’s digital education infrastructure.
Swisscom, born from the privatized segment of PTT, continued to evolve Switzerland’s telecom capabilities, quickly adopting digital networks and expanding its broadband reach. With its robust infrastructure, Swisscom maintains high reliability standards and remains essential for secure, resilient national connectivity. Swisscom’s infrastructure also includes FTTH (Fiber to the Home) and other high-capacity fiber-optic networks that offer ultra-high-speed connectivity, especially for urban and business districts.
Transition to Modern IT Infrastructure
As digital demand grew, Switzerland invested in a high-speed fiber-optic network, primarily based on FTTH, to ensure reliable, secure data transport. This involved extensive collaboration between private telecoms, municipalities, and electricity companies like ewz, which integrated fiber optics into their utility networks, especially in Zurich.
Today, Switzerland’s fiber network is interconnected with neighboring countries, linking major hubs in Zurich, Geneva, and Basel to Europe’s digital highways. These connections are vital for data-intensive businesses in Switzerland that rely on international connectivity for global operations, supporting the country’s digital economy by ensuring low-latency data transmission across Europe.
Key Players in Switzerland’s IT Infrastructure
Specialized Networking Exchanges
Switzerland is home to major internet exchanges, including Swiss-IX and CIXP, which facilitate neutral, high-speed domestic and international data traffic. Swiss-IX is Switzerland’s largest internet exchange, processing over 2 Tbps of data and connecting hundreds of ISPs and data centers. CIXP, hosted in Geneva, connects Switzerland to major European and global internet exchanges. Equinix’s site at Hardbrücke in Zurich also serves as a colocation and exchange hub, connecting Swiss-IX and linking Swiss companies to global networks.
These “neutral” exchanges allow Swiss providers to route traffic independently, reducing costs and improving reliability. Key fiber-optic connections link Switzerland to major European data hubs in Germany, France, and Italy, ensuring seamless data flow. Companies like ewz and Swisscom own many of these international cables, leveraging advanced routing equipment from companies like Cisco, Juniper, and Huawei to manage the high data load.
Network Carriers
Network carriers in Switzerland include ewz (Electricity Works of Zurich), Swisscom, and Sunrise. While Swisscom and Sunrise provide telecom services directly to end-users, ewz specializes in high-performance fiber networks primarily for business and data centers. Over 20 years, ewz has built a redundant fiber infrastructure in Zurich, connecting businesses and data centers within and beyond city limits to hubs in Glattbrugg, Rümlang, and Kloten.
Swisscom and Sunrise deliver broadband to households using a combination of FTTH and DOCSIS-based fiber-coaxial networks. Swisscom uses hardware primarily from Nokia and Huawei, including OLTs (Optical Line Terminals) for FTTH, and CMTS (Cable Modem Termination System) from Cisco for DOCSIS, providing broadband services over fiber or coaxial cables to homes and businesses. This allows Swisscom and Sunrise to offer scalable and high-speed connections for both personal and business use.
Swisscom
In Switzerland, Swisscom offers products and services from its core business under the main the main Swisscom brand. In addition, Swisscom sells products and services services under the secondary brand Wingo as well as third-party brands such as Coop Mobile and M-Budget Mobile. Other brands such as Cablex and Localsearch are in Swisscom's portfolio and characterise the company's other business areas. Outside Switzerland, Swisscom is primarily present in Italy through the Fastweb brand.
Sunrise
Sunrise is after Swisscom the second major Swiss telecommunications provider since they merged with with UPC Switzerland back in 2020, a cable network operator and subsidiary of Liberty Global, creating a unified company under the Sunrise brand. UPC Cablecom mainly used the TV-cable connector (DOCSIS) to connect homes to the internet, which gave them the advantage of being able to offer faster speeds to homes, which did not have fiber connections yet.
Mobile Infrastructure
Swisscom, Sunrise, and Salt are the primary mobile network operators in Switzerland, with Swisscom and Sunrise owning their own extensive 5G networks. Salt rents access to Swisscom’s network in some regions, enabling broad coverage without building a full network infrastructure. Swisscom and Sunrise use hardware from Ericsson and Huawei for their 5G deployments, including base stations and antennas that support high-speed mobile connectivity across urban and rural areas.
Mobile infrastructure relies on fiber backhaul to connect cellular towers to core networks, allowing Swisscom and Sunrise to ensure low-latency 5G connectivity for consumers and businesses. This infrastructure underpins Switzerland’s push toward IoT and edge computing.
Major Datacenters
Switzerland has over 154,000 square meters of data center space, making it one of Europe’s most data-dense countries, after the Netherlands. This capacity is driven by political stability, strong privacy laws, and low natural disaster risk. Switzerland’s data centers range from facilities for colocation, where companies rent space to host their own servers, to fully managed data hosting and cloud services.
- Equinix Hardbrücke: A key colocation facility sharing the building with Swiss-IX, Equinix Hardbrücke enables high-speed connections between local and global networks, being very attractive for services that require extremely low latency.
- Interxion Glattbrugg: This growing data center offers colocation and secure data storage, expanding to meet the demand from finance and healthcare industries.
- Green: Green’s data center hosts multiple big services like Google Cloud, allowing Swiss businesses to access global cloud services with local data residency.
- Vantage: Supporting Amazon Web Services (AWS) in Switzerland, Vantage’s facilities meet the high-security standards required for cloud providers, with advanced data protection and monitoring systems.
These data centers are equipped with redundant power, cooling, and security systems, ensuring 99.99% uptime. Switzerland’s high-speed fiber network interconnects them with the global web, supporting data-hungry industries like finance, healthcare, and international business.
Financial Infrastructure
Switzerland’s financial infrastructure relies heavily on secure IT networks. SIX (Swiss Infrastructure and Exchange) operates the Swiss stock exchange, runs the Swiss Interbank Clearing (SIC) system for real-time payments, and manages ATMs and card transactions across the country. Hardware from companies like NCR powers ATM networks, while servers from IBM and Oracle manage large-scale financial transactions.
SWIFT, the global network for international bank transfers has one of its three datacenters in Switzerland. The other two are in the USA and Netherlands. The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) in Basel, known as the central bank of central banks, is also based in Switzerland, reinforcing the country’s crucial role in providing global financial infrastructure.
Switzerland’s Position as a Digital Hub
Switzerland’s central European location, robust infrastructure, and data privacy laws have made it an ideal digital hub. Zurich, specifically, ranks highly as a data center hotspot, hosting major banks, insurers, and healthcare providers that require local data storage and rapid access to services. Investments from companies like Interxion and ewz ensure Switzerland’s infrastructure remains resilient, with redundant fiber and high data density, connecting Swiss businesses to the global economy.