There is some big news for the autonomous vehicle and manufacturing sectors in Detroit this week. Packet, a bare metal cloud provider, is bringing its Edge Cloud platform and the Sprint Curiosity™ IoT platform to the EdgeConneX edge data center in Detroit, Michigan. Thanks to this partnership, the two companies are bringing the first bare metal cloud platform and first IoT-based, wireless connectivity platform into the Detroit market.
For its part, EdgeConneX is really playing the pivotal role in bringing Packet’s move to fruition. By providing access to high quality “in region” connectivity within its data center, enterprises will be able to use Packet’s Edge Cloud as well as Sprint’s Curiosity™ IoT product and IoT ecosystem for applications requiring low-latency compute at the edge.
Key comments
“Curiosity™ IoT puts intelligence at the edge of the network by combining Curiosity™ Core, the first dedicated, distributed and virtualized IoT network — a network built for software — with Curiosity™ OS, an integrated IoT operating system. We are proud to be working with Packet and EdgeConneX to expand the Curiosity™ Core to Detroit, providing capabilities for network edge computing in the backyard of a city that is pushing boundaries in various industries. We look forward to the innovation that developers and companies will drive by utilizing our network built for software.” – Ivo Rook, Senior Vice President of IoT & Product Development for Sprint.
“EdgeConneX is an ideal partner to help Packet bring the benefits of edge computing to Detroit, as well dozens of key markets globally. What makes this deployment special is that we’re able to activate three key elements at once: bare metal cloud, rich local connectivity, and end-to-end wireless IoT services. It’s like an edge computing triple play!” – Zachary Smith, Packet’s co-founder and CEO.
“Our research reveals that edge execution venues are rapidly growing in popularity for IoT workloads driven by security, cost, performance, or data sovereignty considerations. When we compare the results from our Voice of the Enterprise: IOT surveys in 2017 vs. 2019, the number of respondents processing IoT data on nearby IT equipment has jumped from 22% to 39%, nearly doubling. This increasing demand can be met readily by new ‘edge innovators’ like Sprint, Packet, and EdgeConneX.” – Brian Partridge, research vice president, 451 Research.
“Given the rapid surge in the volume, velocity and variety of data, we will witness rapid growth of infrastructure being built at the Edge. Packet’s deployment in Detroit is emblematic of the future demands at the Edge where emerging applications and workloads like IoT or Autonomous Vehicles are highly latency sensitive and require very proximate compute resources. We are honored to be selected by Packet to help support its customers’ local requirements in Detroit and other Edge markets across our global data center platform.” – Phillip Marangella, Chief Marketing Officer at EdgeConneX.
Benefits to the Auto Industry
Detroit’s automotive and manufacturing industries are working on bringing the next generation of IoT devices and autonomous vehicles to the region and beyond. The use and development of latency sensitive applications requires a high degree of automation, hyper local compute infrastructure and low latency connectivity. As a result, such companies are driving the need for hyperconnected, intelligent edge deployments that can eliminate the network traffic bottlenecks generated by attempting to connect to legacy, core data centers miles away from endpoints.
Through this partnership, Packet and EdgeConneX are taking the first steps in reshaping the networks serving Detroit’s mature, competitive manufacturing industries. The two companies have plans to replicate this deployment in other locations around the world.
For more information on EdgeConneX, visit edgeconnex.com. To learn more about Packet, visit www.packet.com.
