Data centre company Vapor IO forged a coalition of software, hardware and networking companies which aims to accelerate the roll out of edge compute technology in the US.

By bringing together disparate parts of the edge ecosystem, Vapor IO CEO Cole Crawford said the Kinetic Edge Alliance will help remove “the guesswork from edge deployment and operations that exists today”.

“Delivering edge computing at scale, across the entire United States, requires a great deal of collaboration,” he added. “The alliance will accelerate the rollout of edge computing, delivering a platform for wireless operators and application providers to deliver new edge-enabled products and services to customers.”

Initial partners include Federated Wireless, Linode, MobiledgeX, Packet, StackPath, Alef Mobitech, Detecon International, Hitachi Vantara, New Continuum Data Centers, Pluribus Networks, and Seagate Technology.

The group aims to launch edge compute equipment and services across the top 30 US metropolitan markets, beginning with six cities in 2019.

Vapor IO’s edge architecture Kinetic Edge gave the group its name. The architecture relies on software and high-speed connections to combine several micro data centres and place computing power closer to users.

The group is already working on a deployment in Chicago. Vapor IO launched two of its micro data centres in the city in 2018 and expects a third site to come online by end-March.