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Hanover’s Perspective

New Internet Exchange Point Added in Hanover County

A coalition of community partners — SummitIG, Richweb, VA Skywire, Pixel Factory and Bank of Virginia — are launching Virginia’s newest nonprofit Internet exchange point (IX) located at Pixel Factory Data Center in Hanover County.

Establishing the Richmond Virginia Internet Exchange (RVA-IX) represents another key step toward creating a more robust internet for Richmond. It keeps the Richmond area traffic local and improves local internet performance. Universities, corporations, ISP’s are encouraged to connect and exchange traffic. The RVA-IX not only establishes a neutral point of presence for Richmond, but it also acts as an anchor to attract organizations outside of Virginia to establish a presence in Richmond.

Jon Larsen, President of Richweb, said: “RVA-IX is a huge jump for the Internet community in Richmond. The exchange will allow networks to stop sending traffic to Ashburn and back again just to get across town in Richmond. By creating the exchange, we’re keeping local traffic local.”

RVA-IX’s first member is Akamai, a global content provider for NBC, Toyota, FedEx, Apple, every major branch of the U.S. Military, Major League Baseball and Travelocity. Many worldwide enterprises trust Akamai to deliver their Web sites, rich media, software downloads and business applications quickly, safely and reliably. Bringing this content closer to the Richmond market will reduce web page load times and produce higher quality web streams. Approximately 15-30 percent of the world’s Web traffic is delivered over the Akamai platform.

Why does Virginia need more IXs?

An IX or Internet Exchange is a large data switch that allows Internet users in the same area, usually a large city, to connect directly with each other. This allows local network traffic to take shorter, faster paths between member networks. Because Richmond has no other IX, much of the Richmond local Internet traffic flows outside of the area before eventually reaching its destination. Keeping Richmond area traffic local will result in a more robust, economical and better performing local Internet.

Richmond Virginia Internet Exchange

RVA-IX is a member-owned, neutral not-for-profit corporation built to enhance Richmond’s Internet infrastructure. RVA-IX is structured to act as a connection between multiple IP networks. Its members are able to directly connect with one another over an unmetered Ethernet connection to exchange local Internet traffic. The RVA-IX Internet exchange owns and operates the Ethernet switching platform used to interconnect member networks.

Learn more about RVA-IX by attending the Hanover Chamber of Commerce event hosted at the Pixel Factory Data Center on February 19.

The Pixel Factory Data Center is housed in a state-of-the-art 6,000 square foot building near the Hanover Industrial Air Park. Pixel Factory Data Center caters to small and mid-sized businesses.