AUSTIN -- Vapor IO, creators of the Kinetic Edge™ platform and the leading provider of edge colocation, edge interconnection and edge networking services, today announced the Kinetic Edge Exchange (KEX), the world’s first software-defined system for interconnection in edge locations. The KEX allows network operators, application developers, content providers and other Kinetic Edge users to cross-connect in edge meet-me rooms, making it easy and cost-effective to peer and exchange data in close proximity to the last mile wireless and wireline networks. Vapor IO’s KEX will first be deployed in Chicago and Atlanta with Digital Realty, a leading global provider of data center, colocation and interconnection solutions.

"The Internet requires a new way to interconnect networks at the edge because edge applications demand an order-of-magnitude reduction in latency over the status quo," said Cole Crawford, Founder and CEO of Vapor IO. "The Kinetic Edge Exchange delivers this capability on demand. Until today, automated software defined interconnection was not available at the edge, making it difficult or impossible for enterprises to deploy edge applications at scale. The Kinetic Edge Exchange offers a neutral host platform for exchanging data at the edge, making it possible to speed up internet traffic, reduce backhaul congestion and deliver low-latency services in a 5G world."

The Third Act of the Internet

The Kinetic Edge and the KEX are the centerpieces of the internet’s third act. Originally, the internet was built as a global "network of networks". This was the first act, and during the 2000s this model gave way to the increasing regionalization of the internet through CDNs and localized infrastructure. Today, that second act is concluding and the third act is emerging as the need for low latency, reduced backhaul network loading and overall higher performance requirements are driving a new, highly local tier of internet infrastructure enabled by edge data centers at the very edge of the last mile network.

An example application which benefits from the KEX is autonomous drones used for public safety. Autonomous drones need very low-latency connectivity back to an array of cloud services, all of which can be present at the Kinetic Edge. These drones can also generate large volumes of traffic, such as 4K streaming video. With the KEX, the exchange services needed to support these emerging use cases occur at the edge of the last mile network, all at a fraction of the latency and backhaul cost of traditional, non-edge based approaches to traffic exchange.

Core-to-Edge with Digital Realty

Digital Realty and Vapor IO have formed an alliance to deploy Vapor IO’s Kinetic Edge Exchange in Digital Realty’s centers of data exchange campuses. These campuses are an ideal meeting place to extend connections to the edge, making possible new distributed workflows spanning from core to edge to scale digital business.

This unified solution implements the Kinetic Edge SDN fabric to connect and coordinate traffic exchange between the Digital Realty campus and Vapor IO’s Kinetic Edge deployments. As a result, endpoint workloads computed at the Kinetic Edge are passed to the Digital Realty Campus to connect to upstream workflow processing, data analysis and retention.

"Vapor IO’s Kinetic Edge Exchange complements our global data center platform, allowing our customers to extend their centers of data to the edge," said Digital Realty CTO Chris Sharp. "By enabling the end points where data is created to fully participate in distributed workflows, Vapor IO and Digital Realty unlock new possibilities for enterprises, service providers and hyper-scale customers to deliver edge services and scale digital businesses globally."

How the KEX Works

Moving data on the internet requires many networks to cross-connect and exchange traffic. Traffic exchanges are where networks come together and trade data, often through a business relationship called "peering." By making it easy to exchange data, application developers, content providers and network operators can optimize routes and deliver better, more predictable user experiences.

Tenants of Vapor IO’s Kinetic Edge colocation platform can interconnect with one another using virtual and physical Meet-Me Room (MMR) capabilities provided by the Kinetic Edge Exchange. The Kinetic Edge Fabric that underlies the KEX provides a software-defined network that makes it easy for Vapor IO partners and customers to establish peering or other traffic exchange relationships with each other. All of the virtual cross connects can be controlled via software, which allows users to rapidly adapt to changing business requirements using automation.

Vapor IO