The Open Compute Project Foundation (OCP) and the Open IX (OIX) community have formed a new alliance to harmonize data center facility standards for hyperscale and metro-edge interconnection. The partnership aims to deliver a unified, open framework combining the OIX-2 data center standard with OCP Ready™ v2, simplifying how operators certify and scale facilities to support the growing demands of hyperscale and AI workloads.
The collaboration focuses on creating a co-branded open standard to streamline the design and assessment of metro-edge facilities—where dense network interconnection meets hyperscale cloud and AI infrastructure. By aligning OIX’s emphasis on fair, open access to interconnection with OCP’s data center design best practices, the alliance seeks to make large-scale interconnect deployment faster, more transparent, and easier to validate through standardized criteria.
The initiative extends the OCP Ready™ program, originally created to benchmark hyperscale data center readiness across logistics, power, and connectivity. Under the new alliance, OCP and OIX will jointly define a metro-edge data center site assessment, establishing common benchmarks for colocation and network operators serving hyperscale and “neocloud” users.
“OIX is extremely excited to be co-developing this new open data center standard with OCP,” said Eli Scher, Chair of OIX. “Our organizations are entirely aligned in our goal of providing the greater Internet community with open access to operational best practices and consensus-developed engineering standards.”
🌐 Analysis:
This collaboration strengthens the ecosystem around open, interoperable data center design—a key theme at this year’s OCP Global Summit. Metro-edge facilities have become critical as AI, 5G, and hyperscaler networks push compute closer to users. By merging the OIX-2 and OCP Ready™ frameworks, the alliance aligns with ongoing initiatives by Equinix, Digital Realty, and EdgeConneX to standardize edge-scale interconnection. Expect new certifications and reference designs emerging from this alliance to guide both cloud providers and colocation operators over the next year.
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