Compass Datacenters entered the edge-computing market in February 2018 by acquiring EdgePoint Systems and BitBox USA. EdgePoint provided small, deployable data centers; BitBox monitored and maintained those facilities. Together, the acquisitions were intended to give Compass a combined core-and-edge infrastructure offering.
What Compass acquired
| Company | Role before the acquisition | How it fit Compass |
|---|---|---|
| EdgePoint Systems | Built compact, deployable edge data centers for customer-premises locations, including factory floors, big-box retail sites and cell towers. | Added the physical design and deployment capability needed to place computing close to users and devices. |
| BitBox USA | Monitored and maintained edge-computing facilities for customers. | Added ongoing operational support for distributed sites. |
Data Center Knowledge reported the acquisitions on February 7, 2018. The purchase price and other deal terms were not disclosed. Both founders joined Compass’s management team, and EdgePoint was renamed Compass EdgePoint.
Why Compass wanted an edge offering
Before the deals, Compass focused on mid-size, single-tenant data centers in secondary U.S. markets and leased that capacity wholesale. The acquisitions broadened that model from centralized facilities to infrastructure that could also sit at or near a customer’s location.
That change addressed applications for which distance from the user or device affects performance. The 2018 announcement specifically pointed to the Internet of Things, autonomous vehicles, and virtual and augmented reality. Processing nearer to those workloads can reduce the distance data travels and limit the bandwidth burden on a central facility, although the announcement did not provide latency measurements or a guaranteed performance level.
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How the combined core-and-edge model works
1. Central facilities handle core workloads
Compass’s established data centers remained the centralized part of the architecture. They could provide larger-scale capacity for workloads that did not need to run at a customer site.
2. Compact sites handle local or latency-sensitive workloads
EdgePoint’s deployable facilities were designed for places such as factories, retail properties and cell towers. An edge site can place compute and storage nearer to sensors, machines, customers or wireless networks than a distant regional data center would be.
3. Operations continue after deployment
BitBox’s monitoring and maintenance role addressed the practical problem of operating many geographically dispersed facilities. Distributed infrastructure requires visibility into equipment and a process for maintaining sites that may not have a traditional data-center staff on location.
4. Connectivity, power and cooling still determine feasibility
Calling a facility “edge” does not remove ordinary data-center requirements. A deployment still needs suitable connectivity, reliable power, cooling, physical security and access for service work. The acquisition announcement did not specify Compass’s connectivity designs, power systems, cooling capacities or service-level commitments.
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Traditional colocation usually places a customer’s equipment in a shared facility. Edge colocation applies the same basic idea closer to the source or user of the data, potentially in a small modular site, a building, a factory or another distributed location. A provider may supply the space and infrastructure, manage the equipment, or provide both.
For a customer evaluating an edge-colocation proposal, the important questions are:
- Deployment location: Is the site actually close to the devices, users or network access point that create the latency requirement?
- Physical design: Is the facility modular or otherwise suitable for the available footprint?
- Operations: Who monitors the site, responds to alarms and performs maintenance?
- Connectivity: Which carriers or network paths are available, and how is redundancy handled?
- Power and cooling: What capacity and environmental controls are included?
- Service scope: Is the offer colocation, managed operations, or a combination?
Where Compass sat in the competitive landscape
The announcement placed Compass alongside both edge specialists and larger infrastructure companies. It named Vapor IO, which described a network of edge nodes around a city, and DataBank, which had announced plans for edge colocation at cell towers. Digital Bridge and companies in its portfolio were also discussed as competitors or adjacent providers.
| Provider or group | Edge activity described in the announcement | What is not established by that report |
|---|---|---|
| Compass, including Compass EdgePoint | Combined centralized data centers with deployable edge facilities and monitoring and maintenance capabilities. | Specific locations, pricing, connectivity partners, power and cooling specifications, and service-level terms. |
| Vapor IO | Described a network of edge nodes around a city. | Commercial terms and the full scope of services were not stated. |
| DataBank | Announced plans for edge colocation at cell towers. | Deployment schedule, pricing and operating specifications were not stated. |
| Digital Bridge and portfolio companies | Discussed as competitors or adjacent infrastructure providers. | The report did not identify one uniform product or specification for the group. |
What the acquisitions did—and did not—change
The deals gave Compass capabilities spanning deployment and ongoing operations, rather than proving that every Compass facility would become an edge site. They also did not establish an acquisition price, market-size estimate, guaranteed latency reduction or a particular customer rollout. Those details were not disclosed in the February 2018 report.
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Quick Recap
Key takeaways
- Compass acquired EdgePoint Systems and BitBox USA in 2018.
- EdgePoint supplied the physical edge-data-center buildout; BitBox supplied monitoring and maintenance.
- EdgePoint became Compass EdgePoint, and both founders joined Compass’s management team.
- The intended product was a core-and-edge infrastructure service, not just conventional wholesale data-center space.
- Factories, big-box retail sites and cell towers were cited as example edge locations.
- Compass entered a field that included Vapor IO, DataBank and infrastructure companies associated with Digital Bridge.
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