Packet Gets Edgy With Vapor IO, Plans 15 Edge Sites in 2019

Bare metal cloud startup Packet, in partnership with Vapor IO, said two new edge sites in Chicago are now live. The Chicago sites, along with a site separately deployed in Massachusetts, are the first of 15 locations the company will launch this year. It��s part of Packet’s plan to deploy edge locations at the base of cell towers, in commercial buildings, in malls — essentially everywhere. “This is the digitization of real estate,” said Packet CEO Zachary Smith in an interview at MWC Barcelona. “Technology is going to get infused in all aspects of real estate, whether a tower or a mall or an office.” The Chicago sites are also the first two Kinetic Edge Alliance (KEA) locations. Vapor IO, in partnership with 11 other hardware, software, networking, and integration company partners launched the KEA earlier this month. The new group plans to bring edge computing to 30 metro markets in the U.S., and go live in six of these markets this year. It builds on Vapor IO’s Kinetic Edge architecture, which uses software-defined interconnection and high-speed networking to combine multiple micro-data centers into a single, virtual facility.