Edge firm Vapor IO is to deploy AWS’ on-premise Outpost hardware at Cellnex tower sites in Europe.

Vapor launched its Kinetic Grid Edge platform in the US in June 2021, with a partnership with network provider Zayo. It was subsequently rolled out to 32 US markets, and is now available in 36.

The company announced plans to expand into Europe last month through a partnership with the Spanish telco Cellnex Telecom. The first deployment is set to be at a Cellnex site in Barcelona, Spain, and will include an AWS Outpost.

The Kinetic platform, housed within a micro data center container, aims to support applications close to users and data sources, making distributed Edge applications faster and more reliable, and minimizing traffic toward the core of the network. The platform makes use of VMware's Telco Cloud platform to provide a multi-cloud grid. The system prioritizes applications that need low latency and adapts to local infrastructure failures.

AWS Outposts, first launched in November 2018, is an on-premise Edge computing solution providing the ability to run AWS services locally. The hardware is available as 1U and 2U appliances, as an up-to-42U rack, and as a multiple rack deployment. Vapor has previously deployed its platform via Outposts in Las Vegas, Nevada.

The size of the Vapor container or Outpost deployment, as well as the precise location of the Barcelona site, weren't shared.

“Building applications that extend from the core to the Edge has never been easier,” said Cole Crawford, founder and CEO of Vapor IO. “The new AWS Outposts are the perfect form factors for Edge deployments. They are self-contained and remotely manageable, creating a performant operating environment for applications that use AWS services. Developers that build AWS-based applications at the core can now extend those skills all the way to the Edge.”

Vapor said Cellnex has made a 'portfolio of small, carrier-neutral Edge data centers and tower ground space' available for hosting Vapor IO’s Kinetic Grid and AWS Outposts. The company added that several fiber routes, provided by Cellnex and/or its mobile network operator customers, can interconnect the Outposts to create a “grid” of Edge nodes.

Eduardo Fichmann, director of global product strategy and innovation at Cellnex, added: “Working with Vapor IO to host and integrate AWS Outposts into Europe’s first truly integrated core-to-Edge, carrier-neutral Kinetic Grid environment will appeal to developers and service providers. Using Vapor IO’s Kinetic Grid platform and co-locating AWS Outposts with operator equipment at the towers or Edge data centers will give rise to new revenue growth for the company...[and] will help accelerate the deployment of applications and services that require computing in places physically closer to the end user.”

Bringing AWS Outposts to Cellnex sites using will ‘improve the delivery of new, monetizable services’ by allowing for local processing, according to Vapor.

“This makes it possible to reduce data traffic towards the core of the wireless and fiber networks while enhancing the ability to meet data residency requirements, making it possible to develop stable, low latency services that leverage familiar AWS services,” the company said, with potential use cases including computer vision, retail, robotics, autonomous vehicles, and gaming.

The Vapor announcement includes a map of planned future deployments across Europe including locations at major cities in the UK, Netherlands, Portugal, Ireland, France, Switzerland, Italy, Germany, Poland, and Sweden.

This week also saw American Tower partner with Qualcomm to roll out Edge servers at its existing Edge facility site in Denver, Colorado. As well as operating a core data center unit based on its 2021 acquisition of CoreSite, the company operates a portfolio of six small Edge sites in the US. The company last year revealed it has identified more than 1,000 tower sites capable of hosting 1MW Edge facilities.

Tower firm SBA Communications also claims to have ‘30 to 40’ Edge sites in development or operation under its SBA Edge brand.