Peering has come a long way since the formation of what was arguably the first settlement-free exchange of internet traffic, the Commercial Internet eXchange in Reston, Virginia, in 1991. Today there are over 600 IXs around the globe helping to peer thousands of IP networks. The internet and the technology that underpins it is a very different landscape in 2022 than it was in 1991.

At first, the benefits of public cloud adoption are clearly recognisable: newfound agility through an all-you-can-eat and on demand buffet of services, platforms, and infrastructure. But without appropriate monitoring, guardrails and process changes, this can change fast. While the perception is that cloud offers unlimited scalability and lower costs by only charging for the resources you use, the truth is that customers pay for the resources they order, whether they use them or not.

It seems like every conversation is about inflation lately. Everything is getting more expensive and the news cycle suggests there is little chance of that abating. Inflation and supply chain challenges are having a knock on effect in terms of cloud adoption and network usage. We’ve already seen some of the big providers increase their prices - so what’s to be done? Can technology also offer solutions for stemming the rise of IT costs?

The internet is a network of networks, and how and where those networks interconnect determines the efficacy of the service. How networks exchange traffic on the internet varies. Broadly speaking there are three different approaches: A direct connection via a transit provider, a private interconnection between two networks, or peering at an internet exchange (IX) point - a co-location hub that enables members of the IX to interconnect.