[*] CIRA statement on IXPs

[Bill Reid]

John, I agree that IX's are difficult to start in the existing environment and 
that is one of the reasons why there are so few. On the other hand it is not 
clear to me that a local IX is not beneficial. If an IX existed then it may 
affect how a business gets initially connected but this effect will not be 
apparent for at least 2 or 3 years. Creating a viable IX takes time and of 
course it may not happen. What CIRA has decided to do is kick start an IX so 
that it will become viable and organizations can make a business case to connect.

Predicting the future in this Internet environment is very difficult. We all 
know of a number of technologies that sound great but fizzle out or morph over 
time in unexpected directions. For example VoIP did not develop the way I 
thought when I first got into it.

I find it is interesting that the idea of MBIX started up in the fall and quite 
independently CIRA decided a few months later to push to increase the number of 
IX's in Canada. MBIX has the good fortune to be the first IX that CIRA is 
supporting and they are really committed to making it a success. For example the 
proposed Google and Akamai cache should enable an organization to offset local 
loop costs with lower transit costs.

-- Bill

On 14/09/12 14:09, John Lange wrote:
> I'll resist rehashing all my previous poo-pooing of this idea, but it
> comes down to one simple thing. Money. If there was any business case
> for this, it would have happened already.