Welcome to our second biannual update for 2025. While we publish release notes with every release and highlight improvements on social media, this blog post offers a broader view of how PeeringDB is evolving. With increased development resources and a sharper focus on user needs, we’re delivering new features, streamlined tools, and making strides in usability and security. Here’s what we’ve been working on — and what’s coming next.
PeeringDB’s board recently approved an increase in funding for development and operations, giving us around 50% more resources to work with. This boost means all our committees now have better access to the support they need to move ideas forward.
One reason behind this decision was to help us roll out and improve new features more quickly. For example, our daily .KMZ download of interconnection facilities was an instant hit — but fine-tuning it took longer than we’d like.
If you haven’t seen it yet, we publish a .KMZ file of facility data updated daily, which you can now explore directly on a map (Figure 1).
People and process
The Product Committee has now stabilized, and we’re working more efficiently than ever. With more discussions happening asynchronously, we’re able to make decisions on change proposals faster.
We still rely on input from the community to guide our work. If you’ve got a feature idea or run into a bug, please let us know — GitHub is the best place for that, but we also welcome feedback via our mailing list or in person at industry events. Just as important as the idea itself is hearing how it would help you — we want to build features that make a real difference.
The last six months
peeringdb-py
We’ve made peeringdb-py more robust, more reliable, and much easier to install — you can now get it up and running with a single command.
peeringdb-py is our reference implementation for a local PeeringDB cache. If you’re integrating PeeringDB data into your own systems, we recommend using it or a similar caching tool. Keeping queries local helps reduce latency and makes your services more resilient.
You can now query peeringdb-py using our API, and it syncs automatically — so you’re always working with up-to-date data.
Come over to the dark side
We’ve also added dark mode (Figure 2). If that’s your style, you can enable it full-time or just after dark. Head over to your profile settings to set your preference.
MFA requirement coming soon
The Product Committee has decided to require Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) for all users starting 1 July 2025.
We’ve already taken the first step by adding support for Passkeys, alongside existing options like:
- Time-Based One-Time Passwords (TOTP)
- U2F hardware security tokens
- Passkeys
You can manage all your authentication methods through a new, unified settings page. If you log in to update PeeringDB records or access contact information, please make sure you’ve enabled at least one second factor.
This change also affects authenticated API access. From 1 July, basic authentication will no longer be supported. You’ll need to switch to using an API Key.
Anonymous access isn’t going away. You’ll still be able to make anonymous queries via the website and API. Just keep in mind that anonymous users can’t see contact details and have a lower query limit.
Search
Search will always be a top priority for us. We’ve rolled out several improvements to v2 search based on your feedback, and we’ll be building on this work throughout 2025.
One new option lets you hide exchanges that aren’t present in any interconnection facility (ixfac). You can enable this in your profile or directly from the Advanced Search page, making results more relevant when searching for Internet Exchange Points (IXPs).
We’ve also made it easier to turn searches into reusable queries. You can now copy the API call for any search directly to your copy buffer — with support for multiple languages, not just curl. If you regularly pull data from PeeringDB, this small feature could save you a lot of time (Figure 3).
The other side of improving search is improving data quality. We are now continuously enforcing place name normalization. That means fewer problems with alternative spellings requiring alternative searches.
User Management API
We’ve expanded our user management tools to give organizations more control and flexibility.
Previously, you could:
- Set user permissions
- Require users to use email addresses from a specific domain
- Prompt users to revalidate their accounts periodically
Now, we’ve introduced a User Management API. While it doesn’t create new accounts, it allows you to automate many user-related tasks, including:
- Listing all users affiliated with your organization
- Updating user permissions
- Adding existing PeeringDB users to your organization
- Removing users from your organization
It’s a great way to streamline user administration and integrate account management into your own workflows.
Security
We now only support TLS 1.2 and 1.3. Gaurang Maheta suggested this change. We have a responsible disclosure policy and welcome security reports.
Coming Up
Website
We’ve begun rolling out our new web interface (webUI). webUI changes will be introduced gradually — starting with PeeringDB volunteers, then extending to one in five users. If you’re selected, you’ll be notified that you’re seeing the updated design and will have the option to opt out. We’ll be using both the opt-out rate and user feedback to help us fine-tune the experience and decide how quickly to roll it out more broadly.
Comparison
We’re developing a new comparison feature that will let users do basic side-by-side analysis of different interconnection facilities or exchanges. Once you’ve found the data you need, you’ll be able to export it for offline analysis — making it easier to evaluate options and make informed decisions.
Get ready for MFA now
You will have to use a second factor when authenticating from 1 July 2025. If you haven’t set up a second factor yet, please do so as soon as possible.
If you’re sharing credentials for a role account, we recommend that each user create their own account instead. And if you have any automated tools using the API, make sure they’re updated to use API Keys — basic authentication with a username and password will no longer be supported.
If you have an idea to improve PeeringDB you can share it on our low traffic mailing lists or create an issue directly on GitHub. If you find a data quality issue, please let us know at support@peeringdb.com.
PeeringDB is a freely available, user-maintained database of networks and the go-to location for interconnection data. The database facilitates the global interconnection of networks at IXPs, data centres, and other interconnection facilities, and is the first stop in making interconnection decisions.
Leo Vegoda is PeeringDB’s Product Manager.
The views expressed by the authors of this blog are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views of APNIC. Please note a Code of Conduct applies to this blog.