Leading Internet Exchange Points and IX-API development team, AMS-IX, DE-CIX and LINX, have added some new key features, most notably, statistics, to their IX-API standard, giving users of the software even more added value.
The new statistics feature gives users of the API insight on the amount of traffic that is exchanged via their connection. Moreover, the API access to statistics information, enables customers to include it in their own management dashboards. On top, the statistics feature gives customers insights in the performance and efficiency of their connection, which in turn helps with capacity planning and routing design.
Ruben van den Brink, CTO of AMS-IX says; “Observability is important, because succesful operation of any network requires insight in its performance metrics. Getting information about your IXP connection through an API may contribute e.g to automated decision making.”
Next to statistics, the IX-API team is also working on the interoperability of the software. Earlier this year, the open source project Peering Manager, added support for version 2 of the IX-API , allowing users to be able to check their IX resources in real-time.
Also, in the arena of Infrastructure as Code, the IX-API is getting traction: a so-called “provider” is being implemented for Terraform, the top-dog of the open source IaC tools. With it, Terraform users will be able to create declaratively resources at their IXPs in the same way they create any other cloud resources, without having even to learn IX-API specifics.
Marcos Sanz Grossón, Head of Global Software at DE-CIX adds: “We are excited about any customer being able to take advantage of reading statistics and telemetry data live from their IXP. And these features of the API, which start with version 2.4, are an add-on that do not require them to implement the rest of the API.”
To stimulate wider adoption of the API by other Internet Exchange Points (IXPs), the IX-API team also made the deployment of the API even easier. Discovery mechanisms allow implementers to build parts of the standard that are relevant to their business and announce them, without having to build every single end-point.
Richard Petrie, CTO of LINX concludes; “This release marks a very significant stage in the evolution of the IX-API. With statistics we expect many more customer to start to adopt the standard API and with the modular implementation structure it will provide a quicker and simpler route to adoption for the wider IX community.”
All three exchanges will start implementing these new features in the IX-API in Q1 2023.
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