Jacques Greyling Joins Vapor IO as Chief Operating Officer
Former Rackspace SVP joins Vapor IO executive team, bringing expertise in global operations, customer satisfaction and mission-critical results
AUSTIN, Texas–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Vapor IO, creators of the Kinetic Edge and the leading provider of tower-connected edge colocation services, today announced the appointment of Jacques Greyling to its executive team as Chief Operating Officer. In his role, Greyling will be responsible for further operationalizing the business and driving company growth, as interest for the company’s Kinetic Edge platform hits new highs. Vapor IO intends to rapidly expand its Kinetic Edge into over 100 markets and Greyling’s focus will be delivering exceptional customer service as part of every deployment; a customer-first philosophy is thoughtfully integrated into the company’s hardware, software and delivery platforms.
“Jacques ability to methodically grow and scale a team, ecosystem and business makes him the ideal addition to our leadership team,” said Cole Crawford, founder and CEO of Vapor IO. “During his tenure at Rackspace, he proved himself as an accomplished and ambitious operations leader, growing and evolving the organization’s operations teams as the business requirements changed over time. Jacques will play a key role in operationalizing our business as we continue to experience unprecedented momentum and demand.”
Prior to joining Vapor IO, Greyling spent fifteen years at Rackspace in numerous leadership roles, most recently as SVP Global Infrastructure. There, he led a global team of 1900 professionals across data-center engineering, operations, customer support, networking and development. During his time at Rackspace, Greyling also held positions as VP Global Datacenters and Engineering, VP Autohost, Managing Director UK and Director of Operations. Prior to Rackspace, he held positions with Datacentrix and Nissan Automakers.
“The market for Vapor IO’s colocation and interconnection services has been growing exponentially as telcos roll out 5G and more companies build services that depend on edge computing,” said Greyling. “As demand for the Kinetic Edge expands, I am committed to putting the customer in the center of all decisions we make. Vapor IO has built a world class team and I am pleased to be joining it, helping to guide and grow the company as it expands its Kinetic Edge footprint nationwide.”
Vapor IO’s Kinetic Edge is the fastest-growing platform of tower-connected edge data centers, delivering a new category of colocation which will move the intersection of the wireless and wireline networks much closer to the end user. The company recently announced its Series C funding led by Berkshire Partners, with participation from current investor Crown Castle, as well as former Crown Castle VP, Alan Bock, to its executive team.
Resources
- Blog
- Kinetic Edge video
- State of the Edge 2018 (free report)
- Open Glossary of Edge Computing
About Vapor IO
Vapor IO is developing the largest nationwide edge colocation and interconnection platform at the edge of the wireless network. Serving the world’s largest wireless carriers, cloud providers, web-scale companies and other innovative enterprises, the company’s Kinetic Edge combines multi-tenant colocation with software-defined interconnection and high-speed networking. The Kinetic Edge delivers the most flexible, highly-distributed edge infrastructure at the edge of the wireless network. The company has deployed its Kinetic Edge in Chicago, IL and has plans to have projects underway in the top 20 markets with 100+ sites.
Contacts
Eleni Laughlin
Mindshare PR
[email protected]
(510) 406-0798
Vapor IO Hosts Fourth Edgecon Event in Las Vegas, Alongside AWS re:Invent
The definitive edge computing event to take place November 28, 2018
AUSTIN, Texas–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Vapor IO, creators of the Kinetic Edge and also the leading provider of tower-connected edge colocation services, today announced Edgecon Vegas, a one-day gathering focused on edge computing. By invitation only, Edgecon brings together industry leaders for visionary presentations, brainstorming, and high-impact networking. Following successful events in Aspen, Barcelona and Los Angeles, Edgecon Vegas is hosted by Vapor IO and Packet and takes place November 28, 2018 during AWS re:Invent.
Edgecon travels the world delivering a unique and intimate gathering of the most visionary builders, dealmakers, and decision-makers in edge computing. Edgecon Vegas will coincide with AWS re:Invent and will include participation from top public cloud providers, IoT practitioners, infrastructure owners, wireless operators and edge computing developers. Together, attendees will talk real-world deployment of edge computing, define requirements for early deployments and meet potential partners.
Current speakers include:
- Cole Crawford, CEO and founder, Vapor IO: Cole is one of the leading thinkers in edge computing today. With over 20 years of data center experience, and numerous patents for edge technologies, Cole is a sought-out speaker and the founder of Edgecon.
- Zac Smith, CEO and cofounder, Packet: Zachary has spent his last 16 years building, running, and fixing public cloud infrastructure platforms. As the CEO of Packet, Zachary is responsible for the company’s strategic product roadmap. Prior to founding Packet, Zachary was an early member of the management team at Voxel, a NY-based cloud hosting company sold to Internap in 2011.
- Ihab Tarazi, CTO, Packet: Ihab is responsible for Packet’s technical and product strategy, engineering, and platform operations. He brings a wealth of data center and networking knowledge, having worked previously as the CTO of Equinix, as well as VP of Engineering and Technology at Verizon.
The Edgecon Vegas agenda is as follows:
- VIP Luncheon: On November 28 at 12:30pm, industry experts from Vapor IO and Packet will deliver insights from the real-world deployment of edge computing in the world’s first Kinetic Edge city – Chicago, IL.
- IFX VIP: Attendees will receive VIP access to the full two days of Packet’s premier infrastructure event, IFX, located near AWS re:Invent on November 28 and 29.
Edgecon Vegas is by invitation only, and the event is free of charge for confirmed guests. Request an invitation at https://edgecon.vapor.io
Supporting Resources
About Vapor IO
Vapor IO is developing the largest nationwide edge colocation and interconnection platform at the edge of the wireless network. Serving the world’s largest wireless carriers, cloud providers, web-scale companies and other innovative enterprises, the company’s Kinetic Edge combines multi-tenant colocation with software-defined interconnection and high-speed networking. The Kinetic Edge delivers the most flexible, highly-distributed edge infrastructure at the edge of the wireless network. The company has deployed its Kinetic Edge in Chicago, IL, and has plans to have projects underway in the top 20 markets with 100+ sites by 2020.
Contacts
Mindshare PR
Eleni Laughlin, 510-406-0798
[email protected]
Vapor IO’s Kinetic Edge Wins Telecom Council SPIFFY Award for Best Mobile Opportunity
Company wins award from peers with its Kinetic Edge platform and tower-connected edge colocation services
AUSTIN, Texas–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Vapor IO, creators of the Kinetic Edge and also the leading provider of tower-connected edge colocation services, has won the Telecom Council’s 2018 Zephyr Award for Best Mobile Opportunity. The Telecom Council identifies and recognizes companies who represent a broad range of cutting-edge telecom products and services. Vapor IO has been recognized for its Kinetic Edge platform, delivering a new category of colocation for edge computing, and moving the intersection of the wireless and wireline networks much closer to the end user.
“Our unique blend of colocation, interconnection and automation will drive the market forward.”
“We’re happy to accept the Telecom Council’s Zephyr Award for Best Mobile Opportunity and appreciate the acknowledgment as we continue to build the largest footprint of interconnected edge data centers,” said Cole Crawford, founder and CEO of Vapor IO. “Our unique blend of colocation, interconnection and automation will drive the market forward.”
Vapor IO’s Kinetic Edge enables carriers, cloud providers, CDNs, web scale companies and other innovative enterprises to place IT equipment (compute, storage, and networking) in Kinetic Edge locations—one hop from the existing 4G LTE and emerging 5G wireless networks. Its architecture creates city-sized logical data centers using high-speed fiber and both open and proprietary software. By interconnecting a ring of micro data centers, the Kinetic Edge provides highly-distributed resilience while also allowing compute and storage to span a wide geographic region while also allowing workloads and data to be placed extremely close to users.
With the first Kinetic Edge city, Chicago, online now, Vapor IO is first-to-market with a comprehensive package of edge colocation, interconnection and networking services to support the next generation of applications, including IoT, driverless cars, autonomous robots, augmented reality and services for the emerging smart city. Vapor IO plans to have 13 sites underway by the end of 2018, nearly 50 by the end of 2019 and over 100 by the end of 2020, providing coast-to-coast coverage.
For more about Vapor IO and their solutions, please visit www.vapor.io
Supporting Resources
- Blog
- Kinetic Edge video
- State of the Edge 2018 Report
- Open Glossary of Edge Computing
About the Telecom Council
The Telecom Council of Silicon Valley is Where Telecom Meets Innovation. We connect the companies who are building communication networks, with the people and ideas that are creating them – by putting those companies, research, ideas, capital and human expertise from across the globe together in the same room. Last year, The Telecom Council connected over 2,000 executives from 750 telecom companies and 60 fixed and wireless carriers across 40 meeting topics. By joining, speaking, sponsoring, or simply participating in a meeting, there are many ways telecom companies of any size can leverage the Telecom Council network. For more info: www.telecomcouncil.com
About Vapor IO
Vapor IO is developing the largest nationwide edge colocation and interconnection platform at the edge of the wireless network. Serving the world’s largest wireless carriers, cloud providers, web-scale companies and other innovative enterprises, the company’s Kinetic Edge combines multi-tenant colocation with software-defined interconnection and high-speed networking. The Kinetic Edge delivers the most flexible, highly-distributed edge infrastructure at the edge of the wireless network. The company has deployed its Kinetic Edge in Chicago, IL, and has plans to have projects underway in the top 20 markets with 100+ sites by 2020.
Contacts
Mindshare PR
Eleni Laughlin, 510-406-0798
[email protected]
Wireless Infrastructure Veteran Alan Bock Joins Vapor IO as Vice President of Business Development, Telecommunications
Crown Castle VP joins Vapor IO executive team to accelerate partnerships with telco operators, autonomous vehicle providers and smart cities
AUSTIN, Texas–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Vapor IO, creators of the Kinetic Edge and also the leading provider of tower-connected edge colocation services, today announced the addition of Alan Bock to its executive team, as vice president of business development, telecommunications. A veteran in the telecom industry and a former VP at telco infrastructure provider Crown Castle, Alan will focus on carrier relationships as well as relationships in emerging verticals that include autonomous vehicles and smart cities.
“Alan’s experience and knowledge of the wireless and edge computing industries is second to none, and we are thrilled to have him on the team at Vapor IO to partner with the wireless carriers and help build out our application ecosystem.”
Vapor IO’s Kinetic Edge platform delivers a new category of colocation which will move the intersection of the wireless and wireline networks much closer to the end user. The company recently announced its Series C funding led by Berkshire Partners, with participation from current investor Crown Castle. The funding will be used to build out the nation’s largest collection of colocation data centers and interconnection facilities at the edge of the wireless network.
“Vapor IO’s Kinetic Edge is the fastest-growing platform of tower-connected edge data centers. We expect to be in over 100 locations by 2020 and we are on track to become the largest provider of edge colocation and interconnection services,” said Cole Crawford, founder and CEO of Vapor IO. “Alan’s experience and knowledge of the wireless and edge computing industries is second to none, and we are thrilled to have him on the team at Vapor IO to partner with the wireless carriers and help build out our application ecosystem.”
Previously, Bock served in various roles at Crown Castle International, including vice president of corporate development and strategy where he led Crown’s M&A efforts, including the initial investment in Vapor IO. Prior to Crown Castle, Bock held various managerial and finance roles at Cypress Semiconductor and XO Communications. Bock was also recently on the board of directors of the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA), a leading consortium of wireless infrastructure in the US.
“The edge presents an awesome disruptive force in how networks are built. It will enable services that were unimaginable even five years ago,” said Bock. “Vapor is at the forefront, building the next generation internet at the edge of the network, and I’m thrilled to join their forward-thinking, innovative team. I look forward to making a mark as the company pushes the industry forward.”
Resources
- Blog
- Synse
- Kinetic Edge video
- State of the Edge 2018 (free report)
- Open Glossary of Edge Computing
About Vapor IO
Vapor IO is developing the largest nationwide edge colocation and interconnection platform at the edge of the wireless network. Serving the world’s largest wireless carriers, cloud providers, web-scale companies and other innovative enterprises, the company’s Kinetic Edge combines multi-tenant colocation with software-defined interconnection and high-speed networking. The Kinetic Edge delivers the most flexible, highly-distributed edge infrastructure at the edge of the wireless network. The company has deployed its Kinetic Edge in Chicago, IL and has plans to have projects underway in the top 20 markets with 100+ sites by 2020.
Contacts
Mindshare PR
Eleni Laughlin, 510-406-0798
[email protected]
Vapor IO Raises Series C Financing to Deploy Kinetic Edge Data Centers in Every Major US Metro Area
Over 100 edge locations planned by 2020; Vapor IO on track to be the largest provider of interconnected edge data center facilities, coast-to-coast
AUSTIN, Texas – September 5, 2018 – Vapor IO, developers of the first fully-integrated hardware and software solutions for edge computing, today announced a Series C funding round led by private equity firm Berkshire Partners, with participation from current investor Crown Castle. The new investment will be used to officially launch the company’s groundbreaking Kinetic Edge colocation and interconnection services, while rapidly expanding its footprint of edge data centers.
The Kinetic Edge platform offers a new category of colocation built around infrastructure-side edge computing at the intersection of the wireless and wireline networks. By deploying micro data centers at the base of cell towers and in nearby wireless aggregation hubs, Vapor IO expects to be the largest provider of edge data center colocation services integrated directly into the wireless infrastructure.
“As the concept of edge computing has gone from niche technology to mainstream trend, we have methodically laid the foundation for infrastructure-side edge computing,” said Cole Crawford, founder and CEO of Vapor IO. “Vapor IO is building the largest footprint of interconnected edge data centers and we are rolling out at an accelerated pace. We’re thrilled to welcome Berkshire Partners as a lead investor and to have the continued support of Crown Castle. This will help establish Vapor IO’s leadership in the market and offer unprecedented value and performance to our customers.”
The Kinetic Edge
Vapor IO’s Kinetic Edge enables carriers, cloud providers, CDNs, web scale companies and other innovative enterprises to place IT equipment (compute, storage, and networking) in Kinetic Edge locations—one hop from the existing 4G LTE and emerging 5G wireless networks.
“Vapor IO is a leader in edge computing,” said Beth Hoffman, a managing director at Berkshire Partners. “With premier technology, increasing mobile edge demand and a large market opportunity, Vapor IO is poised for impressive growth. We look forward to partnering with the company’s exceptional management team to deliver scalable mobile edge infrastructure and to having the opportunity to work alongside Crown Castle again.”
Vapor IO’s Kinetic Edge architecture will create city-sized logical data centers using high-speed fiber and both open and proprietary software. By combining multiple micro data centers, the Kinetic Edge can offer infrastructure that positions compute and storage extremely close to users while also spanning a geographic region. With Kinetic Edge, Vapor IO is first-to-market with a comprehensive package of edge colocation, interconnection and networking services.
Vapor IO will leverage its partnership with Crown Castle, as well as utilize its award-winning technologies—the Vapor Chamber, Vapor Edge Module and the Synse open source telemetry system—to build and operate the nation’s largest network of edge data centers.
Colocation on the Kinetic Edge
Vapor IO’s primary offering will be providing Kinetic Edge product bundles that include:
-
- Colocation: With rollout plans that include all major US cities, Vapor IO will offer customers edge computing colocation services that extends to all major metropolitan regions. Multiple sites in any one Kinetic Edge city can be treated as a single, logical data center than spans the entire metropolitan region.
- Interconnection: Edge meet-me rooms and interconnection services provide high-speed access to last-mile networks, regional data centers, metropolitan aggregation points and peering centers, as well as public cloud and private data centers.
- Software-Defined Networking: Using the web-based Vapor Edge Portal or secure APIs, Vapor IO customers can configure virtual private networks to create their own unique edge computing topology including Kinetic Edge data centers as well as private and colocation facilities—making it possible to treat all of a customer’s IT equipment in a region as if it were all in the same building.
- Highly-Secure Lights Out Multi-Tenant Facilities: The Kinetic Edge utilizes Vapor IO’s patent-protected enclosure systems, which include the Vapor Chamber and the Vapor Edge Module. Vapor IO’s Kinetic Edge is designed with multiple layers of physical and logical isolation to provide customers with a highly secure environment for their equipment.
- Remote Operation and APIs: Vapor IO’s data centers at the Kinetic Edge are designed for remote operation via the web-based Vapor Edge Portal as well as via APIs provided by Vapor IO, including those offered by the Synse open source telemetry system running in each location.
Rollout Plans
Vapor IO has deployed multiple Kinetic Edge data centers in Chicago, IL with plans to have 13 sites underway by the end of 2018, nearly 50 by the end of 2019 and over 100 by the end of 2020, providing coast-to-coast coverage. Specific cities and more detailed rollout plans will be announced later this year.
Continued Partnership with Crown Castle
Vapor IO has expanded its partnership with Crown Castle, the nation’s largest provider of communications infrastructure. The partner-driven edge colocation business that originally operated under the code name “Project Volutus” will now be offered commercially under the Vapor IO Kinetic Edge brand, but will continue to leverage Crown Castle’s assets, including its tower real estate and metro fiber.
“The exponential growth in mobile data and the development of new applications that require high speed data networks with low latency make this an exciting time to be in the shared communications infrastructure business,” said Phil Kelley, senior vice president of Corporate Development and Strategy for Crown Castle. “Vapor IO is a leader in edge computing and their solution provides edge colocation with the most dense compute per square foot, which optimizes the use of the valuable land under our towers. When you combine our distributed real estate and high capacity fiber connectivity with Vapor IO’s capabilities, Crown Castle is uniquely positioned to enable edge computing.”
Notes
J.P. Morgan Securities LLC was retained by Vapor IO as an adviser on the transaction.
Resources
- Blog
- Synse
- Kinetic Edge video
- State of the Edge 2018 Report
- Open Glossary of Edge Computing
About Vapor IO
Vapor IO is developing the largest nationwide edge colocation and interconnection platform at the edge of the wireless network. Serving the world’s largest wireless carriers, cloud providers, web-scale companies and other innovative enterprises, the company’s Kinetic Edge combines multi-tenant colocation with software-defined interconnection and high-speed networking. The Kinetic Edge delivers the most flexible, highly-distributed edge infrastructure at the edge of the wireless network. The company has deployed its Kinetic Edge in Chicago, IL and has plans to have projects underway in the top 20 markets with 100+ sites by 2020.
About Berkshire Partners
Berkshire Partners, a Boston-based investment firm, has raised nine private equity funds with more than $16 billion in aggregate capital and has made over 125 investments in primarily middle market companies since its founding in 1986. The firm is currently investing Berkshire Fund IX, a $5.5 billion fund raised in 2016. The firm seeks to invest $50 million to $500 million of capital in each portfolio company. Berkshire has developed specific industry experience in several areas including consumer products and retail, communications, business services, industrials and healthcare. Berkshire has a strong history of partnering with management teams to grow the companies in which it invests with the goal of consistently achieving superior investment returns. Previous investments in the communications sector have included Crown Castle, Telx and Lightower. For additional information, visit www.berkshirepartners.com.
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Media contact:
Eleni Laughlin
Mindshare PR
[email protected](510) 406-0798
Vapor IO, Packet, and the Linux Foundation Collaborate on “Open Glossary of Edge Computing”
Vapor IO, Packet, and the Linux Foundation Collaborate on “Open Glossary of Edge Computing”
Co-Creators of the State of the Edge 2018 report donate their open source glossary to The Linux Foundation, building a community around key terminology for the edge ecosystem.
Austin, Texas – June 27, 2018 – Vapor IO,
the leading provider of edge computing infrastructure and colocation, along with Packet, the leading bare metal cloud for developers, have published the first Open Glossary of Edge Computing, and are collaborating with The Linux Foundation to create an open source project around it. Similar to Wikipedia, the Open Glossary of Edge Computing is a freely-licensed glossary, written collaboratively by the people who use it. Edge computing will play a substantial role in shaping the next-generation internet, and shared definitions will reduce confusion and accelerate innovation. By combining many viewpoints in a transparent process, the Open Glossary of Edge Computing project seeks to capture the fast-changing lexicon of edge computing, presenting it in a form usable by journalists, analysts, vendors and practitioners.
“The Linux Foundation is at the forefront of open source efforts in edge computing as exemplified by the industry-leading Akraino Edge Stack, CORD and EdgeX Foundry projects,” said Arpit Joshipura, General Manager, Networking, The Linux Foundation. “Adding the Open Glossary of Edge Computing to our existing portfolio of open source frameworks helps us advance the industry and create a shared vocabulary around which innovation can happen. By providing a home and governance structure at The Linux Foundation, we can enable a community-driven process for evolving the Open Glossary of Edge Computing.”
The glossary emerged as a sibling project to the world’s first State of the Edge Report, also announced today. Vapor IO and Packet have contributed the Open Glossary of Edge Computing under the liberal and flexible Creative Commons BY-SA 4.0 license. The project encourages individuals and organizations with an interest in edge computing to publish and incorporate the glossary into their own works. The project also welcomes contributors from everywhere, providing a GitHub repository where individuals can join the community, present ideas, participate in discussions, and offer specific suggestions and improvements to the glossary.
“Edge computing now has its Rosetta Stone,” said Matt Trifiro, CMO of Vapor IO and a lead contributor to the the glossary. “We originally created the glossary for our internal use, but as we shared it for review, we were asked to make it a community resource. We chose The Linux Foundation as a long-term home for the project because they provide world-class support and have a proven track of organizing successful communities and attracting top-tier open source projects.”
State of the Edge Research Report
Also announced today is the State of Edge collaboration and their inaugural State of the Edge 2018 report. This year’s free report is available on the StateoftheEdge.com website. The State of the Edge report and platform has been created by a broad alliance of edge computing stakeholders, including Vapor IO, Packet, Ericsson UDM, Arm Holdings, and Rafay Systems. A current version of the Open Glossary of Edge Computing has been incorporated into the report.
Resources
- State of the Edge 2018 Report
- Open Glossary of Edge Computing
- @StateoftheEdge (State of the Edge on Twitter)
- Blog post on Linux Foundation website
About Vapor IO
Vapor IO is building the cloud of the future by delivering a suite of hardware and software for edge computing and operating the fastest-growing edge colocation business known as Project Volutus. The company’s technology enables highly-distributed micro data centers to be embedded in the wireless and wireline infrastructure, colocated with the last mile or Radio Access Network (RAN), and meshed together with software and high-speed fiber as part of the company’s Kinetic Edge, a technical architecture for city-scale edge computing. For additional information, please visit www.vapor.io.
About Packet
Packet is the leading bare metal cloud for developers. Its proprietary technology automates physical servers and networks without the use of virtualization or multi-tenancy – powering over 60k deployments each month across four “core” and 16 “edge” data centers. Committed to automating infrastructure no matter what it is or where it lives, Packet also provides its infrastructure automation solution via on premise and private deployment models. Learn more at www.packet.net.
About The Linux Foundation
The Linux Foundation is the organization of choice for the world’s top developers and companies to build ecosystems that accelerate open technology development and industry adoption. Together with the worldwide open source community, it is solving the hardest technology problems by creating the largest shared technology investment in history. Founded in 2000, The Linux Foundation today provides tools, training and events to scale any open source project, which together deliver an economic impact not achievable by any one company. More information can be found at www.linuxfoundation.org.
# # #
The Linux Foundation has registered trademarks and uses trademarks. For a list of trademarks of The Linux Foundation, please see our trademark usage page: https://www.linuxfoundation.org/trademark-usage. Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds.
Media contacts:
Eleni Laughlin
Mindshare PR
[email protected]
(510) 406-0798
Kristi Tan
The Linux Foundation
[email protected]