Richmond Gets an IX of its Own

One of the more interesting developments of the past few years has been the proliferation and growth of independent internet exchange points around the country. This month another such location is being born in Richmond, Virginia, not too far south from the huge data center mecca of northern Virginia.

The Richmond Virginia Internet Exchange, or RVA-IX, will be formally launched on February 19. It’s a nonprofit effort, with SummitIG, Richweb, VA SkyWire, Bank of Virginia, and Pixel Factory as the community protagonists.   The equipment itself will be located in Pixel Factory’s data center The first outside member of the IX though is a big name: Akamai, which of course has never met an opportunity to bypass infrastructure it hasn’t liked.

It’s not The fact that Richmond networks feel the need for their own IX with Ashburn so close hilights yet again the growing influence of the network’s edge. It’s not that the existing key intersections of the internet are moving or losing influence, it’s that there’s a whole new layer of important nodes taking shape between places like Ashburn and the consumer.

Virginia itself has been quite a hotbed for infrastructure projects over the past few years, beyond the usual Ashburn expansions of course.  SummitIG, Lumos, and MBC have been building new intercity, metro, and rural fiber around the state, LINX brought European-style peering to northern Virginia just over a year ago, and new entrants like EvoSwitch and CyrusOne have been moving in as well.

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Categories: Datacenter · Internet Traffic