Montgomery Starting the State’s First Internet Exchange
Montgomery city, county and Chamber of Commerce leaders, as well as business and military officials have announced that the city will launch the state’s first Internet exchange, which will be one of only four in the Southeast.
This exchange is part of what’s called the Montgomery Cyber Connection, which organizers say will spark economic development, research and other innovation statewide. It represents a partnership between the city, county, state, Maxwell/Gunter Air Force Base and the new Cyber College of the Air Force.
According to the Chamber of commerce, this exchange will connect every person, business and device to the rest of the world at the speed of light.
“We cannot overstate the significance of the Montgomery Cyber Connection to expanding industry in the River Region and putting Montgomery on the map thanks to the foresight and expertise of Dr. Bronner and our military leaders and neighbors at Maxwell Air Force Base,” Montgomery Mayor Todd Strange said, referring to David Bronner of the Retirement Systems of Alabama. “This partnership and initial investments made by the city, the county, the Chamber and several local business leaders are the first steps to unleashing a wave of economic development that may rival Hyundai.”
Driving the Montgomery Cyber Connection is the Montgomery Internet Exchange, located in the Retirement Systems of Alabama’s Dexter Avenue Datacenter. According to the Chamber, the Montgomery Internet Exchange will speed content delivery to those in the River Region and beyond by storing it closer to home, rather than pulling it from exchanges located in other parts of the country. Additionally, the Montgomery Internet Exchange will benefit from a partnership with Akamai Technologies. Akamai, a global leader in content delivery network services, will store servers at the RSA Datacenter. Akamai chose to locate in Montgomery because of the global significance of the new Cyber College at Air University and because of local public and private partnerships in support of the military.
The Montgomery Cyber Connection will link Alabama’s universities in research collaboration, support the new Air University Cyber College mission to strengthen national defense, and stimulate business development and tech startups. According to key partners in the effort, the MGM Cyber Connection can have the economic impact of landing a new Hyundai, which creates more than $4.8 Billion in statewide impact annually.
The Montgomery Cyber Connection was created as a result of partnerships among government, military, business and university leaders. Click here for more information.
