Founding members: Google, QTS, Telxius, Hilton, Cigna, Bank of America, Freddie Mac,
Telia Carrier, Ciena, Blade Group, CenturyLink, InterGlobix
ASHBURN, VA (June 24, 2019) – Responding to increasing global demand for high performance, low risk connectivity and the need for more Internet geographic diversity for interconnection requirements, the Internet Ecosystem Innovation Committee (IEIC) today announced its formation and founding members of the independent committee.
The IEIC’s mission is to partner with communities globally to create new Internet nexus points through partnership with local municipalities, academia and businesses. Proper functioning and proliferation of the global Internet as a central part of everyday life, economic development and business success requires a cross functional group of business leaders to drive initiatives and assist with strategic planning. The Internet requires networks to exchange traffic (peering points) and the reliance on only a few global peering locations creates risk and limits opportunity for more communities to participate in the Internet’s growth and economic potential.
Since the advent of the Internet, these peering points have largely been concentrated in a relatively small number of buildings where networks are concentrated. The challenge is that, as new applications are developed and the demand for bandwidth continues to grow unabated, this concentration of Internet traffic exchange points may turn from an easy way to peer to a growing risk based on a lack of diversity. Secure and resilient network design does not include creating points of potential mass failure, but rather relies on diversity and redundancy such that any single failure cannot adversely affect the Internet or the businesses relying on it.
IEIC founding members include:
- Vint Cerf – Chief Internet Evangelist Google, Honorary Chairman IEIC
- QTS – Clint Heiden, Chief Revenue Officer
- Telia Carrier – Staffan Gojeryd, Chief Executive Officer
- Telxius – Rafael Arranz, Chief Operating Officer
- Hilton – Michael Leidinger, Chief Technology Officer
- Cigna – Mark Boxer, Global Chief Information Officer
- Blade Group – Asher Kagan, Chief Executive Officer
- Ciena – Steve Alexander, Chief Technology Officer
- Freddie Mac – Frank Nazzaro, Chief Information Officer and CTO
- Bank of America – Howard Boville, Chief Technology Officer
- QTS – Jon Greaves, Chief Technology Officer
- CenturyLink – Andrew Dugan, Chief Technology Officer
- InterGlobix – Vinay Nagpal, President, IEIC Secretary & Independent Facilitator
The IEIC will work to provide insight and guidance for municipalities that wish to more actively participate in the growth of the Internet globally and the subsequent economic opportunities available. The IEIC has a global focus and is not based on a single geographic region.
“We believe that while the Internet performs well today we must look forward to a future in which it plays an even more critical role,” said Vint Cerf, Chief Internet Evangelist, Google, and Honorary Chairman of IEIC. “Many new applications and technical advances will only increase our need for reliability and capacity. We believe the remedy is to increase network capacity and to add more peering points. Local communities will benefit through job creation, attraction of new businesses, increased engineering and construction projects and the attraction of students to regional Universities.”
The IEIC is not tied to a single region, rather, the group will look to enable its charter in multiple locales globally. In each community the IEIC will assist in incubating local chapters to sustain initiatives long-term with a member of the core IEIC acting as sponsor to assist the local chapter with support resources and expertise.
The IEIC will also form a sub-committee of local Economic Development Heads and Government officials to help guide them towards evolving their community to one that can better attract technology, grow their economy and create a stronger workforce. Similar to what was experienced in the early transformation of Ashburn, Va. and more recently in Hillsboro, Ore. and Marseilles, France., the sub-committee will identify regions that are prepared to take on this task such as Henrico County (Richmond, VA) and St. Louis, MO., that are currently working towards re-inventing their regions to support the growth of technology and associated economic opportunity.
Media Contact:
Carter B. Cromley
(703) 861-7245