The Internet2 Distributed Storage Initiative (I2-DSI) project is a replicated hosting platform for Internet content and services. Content is distributed at the network edge, improving latency and reducing bandwidth consumption. Content is gathered into channels that are then published to a URL. Participating I2-DSI sites subscribe to channels of interest and replicate the content. A resolution service redirects channel requests to the closest replica.

A central tenet of the I2-DSI project is that access to network resources can be improved by replicating them at the network's edge. I2-DSI is investigating the issues surrounding replicated services, including:

• Replication protocols
• Coherency and replica consistency
• Replication of active content
• Replica resolution

I2-DSI has constructed a geographically distributed testbed in order to investigate these issues.