Three-year old startup StackPath founded by Lance Crosby (who sold his previous business, SoftLayer, to IBM in 2013 for $2bn) provides "edge computing infrastructure as a service" - or what he describes as a "secure platform at the edge".
StackPath started its initial play by acquiring rack space in 45 locations (colocation data centers) and is now advancing into cell towers as its founder pivots the company towards 5G. It fills out its real estate with space-efficient custom hardware (packing in as much compute, network, memory and storage as feasible to stick within 10kW per rack). Rack switches are made by the company itself, combining "merchant silicon" (i.e. off the shelf components) with StackPath's network operating system. Arista 7500 series switches are used in some cases, manufactured by Santa-Clara based Arista Networks, led by President and CEO Jayshree Ullal.
Clubbing together with technology experts such as Vapor IO (who combine cell tower and data center technology), Edge Micro (co-founded by Mike Hagan, who previously launched Schneider Electric's colocation and cloud division) and BitBox (owned by Compass Datacenters), Crosby is looking at the next phase of expansion. MEC, or mobile edge computing, is a term which has been used to describe this nascent sub-sector of the TMT world.
StackPath emerged from stealth in 2016 and has made six acquisitions since then, adding Web Application Firewall (WAF), DDoS mitigation and VPN - in other words, software components that can plug into its integrated hardware-software edge platform.
A corporate VPN that is fast, secure and sensitive to the needs of mobile workers is envisioned as a potential use case (allowing workers to connect to the servers at the base of the nearest cell tower).
A corporate VPN that is fast, secure and sensitive to the needs of mobile workers is envisioned as a potential use case (allowing workers to connect to the servers at the base of the nearest cell tower).
Another target application is software or data distribution as part of a CDN (content delivery network) - a company can send a software patch in one location and have it delivered via StackPath infrastructure efficiently and securely in each target location. Media, gaming and security are also industries where StackPath is aiming to build client base.
Lance is looking to to accomplish all this at low cost to the customer. For example, 50 VMs could potentially cost $2,500.
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