The Open-IX Association is creating and upholding precisely constructed standards for data centers and Internet Exchange Providers (IXPs). A 501(c)(6) non-profit, Open-IX was formed by a coalition of volunteers including major network operators, content creators, and even consumers, all with a mission to develop, implement, and certify technical operating standards in order to enhance internet connectivity, resilience and security.
The organization’s efforts were endorsed by their recent American National Standards Institute (ANSI) accreditation, which enabled Open-IX to join the ranks of the nearly 250 ANSI-Accredited Standards Developers to date. ANSI oversees the creation and use of thousands of voluntary census standards across the globe that pertain to everything from products and services to processes and personnel.
ANSI is continually assessing the competence and proficiency of organizations like Open-IX, and not all earn accreditation. The Chairman of Open-IX, Eli D. Scher, noted that Open-IX’s ANSI accreditation is the first step in getting the organization’s standards recognized in the official register for American National Standards, allowing them to enhance their guidelines while providing further value and insights to their constituencies.
So, why the focus on IXPs and data centers in particular? With the massive scale of the global Internet, these points of exchange, and the data centers that house them, become critical meeting points for members and network companies. These IXP volumes range from hundreds of megabits per second to terabits per second of exchanged traffic, and their ultimate goal is to ensure a seamless connection for the information to move through.
IXPs also keep internet costs down for end users by decreasing the internet service providers’ costs. So, keeping efficient and stable IXPs not only benefits the networks that use them for information transfer, it also benefits the consumer.
To learn more about Open-IX, visit http://open-ix.org/.
