Contributing to M-Lab's Infrastruture is Easier Than Ever
We’ve added a new, flexible set of options to expand and diversify our global fleet of measurement vantage points. 
Motivations
Since M-Lab was founded in 2008, our mission has been to measure the Internet, save the data and make it universally accessible and useful. As the Internet evolves, we are committed to producing data and tools that reflect these evolutions. Our platform, a global fleet of virtual and physical servers, is a fundamental part of how we accomplish this.
In 2022, we announced our initiative M-Lab to the Cloud, our effort to expand our presence in cloud networks. Since that announcement, 35% of our traffic is directed to virtual servers.
As a continuation of those efforts, we’ve added a new, flexible set of options for contributing to M-Lab’s infrastructure.Our goal is to expand and diversify our platform to include more user-relevant pathways.
A new, flexible set of options
New vantage points can be managed by M-Lab or managed by their host. They can be virtual or physical, and scaled to support either a full site or a minimal site. All options can be placed in “on-net” or “off-net” networks, or in other words, located in edge, access or interconnection points.
| Deployment Option | Summary | Key Feature | Timeline |
| Virtual, cloud deployments | Sponsored or directly allocated cloud resources, managed by M-Lab | Easiest option for cloud providers or organizations without direct access to a network. | Available today |
| Full Site | Multiple colocated servers, managed by M-Lab | Redundant support fit for regions with a higher testing demand | Available today |
| Minimal Site | Single server, managed by M-Lab | A lighter set of requirements for contributing physical, M-Lab managed servers | We are open to Trusted Testers in 2024 Q2 and plan to make this option generally available by 2024 Q3. |
| Host Managed | Single server, running M-Lab software, managed by the host organization | Make it easy for those already managing servers to contribute to the platform | We are open to Trusted Testers in 2024 Q3 and plan to make this option generally available by 2024 Q4. |
For a full overview of specifications, please see our Contribute page.
You can also watch and review the slides from our March 2024 Community Call, where we reviewed each option in detail.
Interested?
If you are interested in contributing to M-Lab’s infrastructure, please fill out our Infrastructure Contribution Form and a member of our team will reach out to you shortly.