Frankfurt am Main, 12 October 2022. The IX-API development team has added some new key features, most notably statistics, to the IX-API standard, giving users of the API insights 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.
Next to statistics, the IX-API team is also working on the interoperability of IX-API. Earlier this year, the open-source project Peering Manager added support for version 2 of the IX-API extending this way its functionality for users to be able to peek in realtime into their IX resources. 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.
In order, to stimulate wider adoption of the API by other IXP’s, the IX-API team also made deployment of the API 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. All three exchanges will start implementing these new features in the IX-API in Q1 2023.
Ruben van den Brink, CTO of AMS-IX: “Observability is important, because successful 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.”
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.”
Richard Petrie, CTO of LINX: “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.”
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