REDWOOD CITY, Calif.,
March 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/
-- Equinix, Inc., the global interconnection and data center
company, today announced that it has incorporated technology
designed by Facebook and available from the Open Compute Project
(OCP) to help develop an open source ecosystem inside Equinix
International Business Exchange™ (IBX®) data centers. As part
of this announcement Equinix and Facebook will collaborate on
technology innovation to build a diverse, open source platform for
both software and hardware. Building on contributions to OCP,
this ecosystem will be built on a new, open source architecture
that will enable faster innovation, and create greater efficiency
in data center and hybrid cloud deployments. To facilitate
this ecosystem, Wedge open source switches, developed by Facebook
and contributed to OCP, will be part of the new architecture inside
Equinix. By working with Facebook to build this ecosystem,
Equinix is able to provide its enterprise customers with an optimal
environment to push technology boundaries and develop
next-generation interconnection solutions.
Many industry trends are driving the need for the massive
scaling and performance increases provided by open source hardware
and software. For example, the industry is rapidly moving
toward a more software-centric model, wireless capacity for 5G is
currently limited, and there is an explosion of devices that
require massive scaling. OCP and the resulting ecosystem
forming inside Equinix will provide the scale and performance to
further drive these innovations and trends through
interconnection. As a result, customers will have an open
source hardware and software platform to deploy their mobile,
Internet of Things (IoT) and hybrid cloud deployments in a
cost-effective manner.
Highlights / Key Facts
- The open source platform will provide an environment for true
innovation across hardware and software, and enables access to the
dense ecosystem of networks and cloud service providers inside
Equinix data centers. Equinix is home to more than 1,100
network providers, as well as 500-plus cloud service providers,
which gives customers a broad choice of providers in any of
Equinix's 40 global markets. In total, Platform Equinix hosts more
than 6,300 customers, each of them potential customers or partners
in developing new solutions or new routes into untapped
markets.
- This open source platform will be powered by the Mesosphere
Datacenter Operating System (DCOS), which is based on the proven
Apache Mesos architecture that is used in production today, at very
large scale, by some of the world's biggest and most innovative
companies. DCOS is an ideal fit for Open Compute equipment because
it aggregates all data center resources into a single pool;
automatically schedules workloads wherever they can fit; and
simplifies the process of managing complex systems such as Apache
Spark, Apache Kafka and HDFS. This approach increases utilization
and slashes energy bills, while also improving both development and
operational efficiency. Placing DCOS in Equinix data centers will
help users achieve their goals around hybrid cloud environments and
IoT program applications, by enabling them to build their
application infrastructure once and deploy it anywhere.
- Equinix recently joined the OCP Telco Project along with
several leading network providers. Since it was founded five
years ago, OCP has brought new levels of openness to data center
technology, and momentum is continuing to build around open source
contributions for networking, servers, storage, and Open
Rack.
- The Open Compute Project has been proven to reduce costs and
provide a catalyst for innovation. In fact, Facebook has
saved their company billions since their work on OCP began.
Quotes
- Ihab Tarazi, CTO,
Equinix:
"We are thrilled to be working in close
partnership with Facebook as we bring a new level of innovation and
collaboration to our growing customer base. By working
together, we can drive technology evolution for
interconnection by defining the next-generation architecture for
the network and cloud edge, thus ensuring our customers have the
scale and performance they require for newly evolving platforms and
applications."
- Jason Taylor, Chairman and
President of the Open Compute Project Foundation, and VP of
Infrastructure, Facebook:
"The OCP community works best
when there is strong collaboration between companies, and that's
why I think the work on this open architecture for software and
hardware is so important. I look forward to seeing how the use of
OCP technology like Wedge open network switches helps Equinix
better meet the needs of enterprises."
- Tobi Knaup, CTO,
Mesosphere:
"The Open Compute Project has done an amazing
job bringing next-generation data center designs to enterprise
users, and Mesosphere is doing the same for webscale software with
our Datacenter Operating System. Through our partnership with
Equinix and Facebook, we will help our users run their data centers
even more efficiently, while also making it much simpler to build,
deploy and scale innovative enterprise applications."
- Andy Lawrence, Research VP,
Datacenter Technologies and Eco-efficient IT, 451
Research:
"As ever more people and devices come online
around the globe, sharing data-intensive content, it is vital that
the infrastructure and platforms are in place to support the
demanding performance needs of IoT. Equinix's involvement in
OCP and its plans to create an open source ecosystem inside its
global platform of data centers, is exactly the kind of initiative
that is needed. It will place the company in a position to better
respond to the needs of enterprises as they tackle the burgeoning
possibilities of IoT."
Additional Resources
- An Innovation Platform: Equinix Joins the Open Compute
Project [blog post]
- Equinix Uses Facebook Technology to Build an Open Source-Based
Ecosystem [blog post]
About Equinix
Equinix, Inc. (Nasdaq: EQIX) connects the world's leading
businesses to their customers, employees and partners inside the
most interconnected data centers. In 40 markets worldwide,
Equinix is where companies come together to realize new
opportunities and accelerate their business, IT and cloud
strategies. http://www.equinix.com/.
Forward Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements that
involve risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ
materially from expectations discussed in such forward-looking
statements. Factors that might cause such differences include, but
are not limited to, the challenges of acquiring, operating and
constructing IBX centers and developing, deploying and delivering
Equinix services; unanticipated costs or difficulties relating to
the integration of companies we have acquired or will acquire into
Equinix; a failure to receive significant revenue from customers in
recently built out or acquired data centers; failure to complete
any financing arrangements contemplated from time to time;
competition from existing and new competitors; the ability to
generate sufficient cash flow or otherwise obtain funds to repay
new or outstanding indebtedness; the loss or decline in business
from our key customers; and other risks described from time to time
in Equinix's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
In particular, see Equinix's recent quarterly and annual reports
filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, copies of which
are available upon request from Equinix. Equinix does not assume
any obligation to update the forward-looking information contained
in this press release.
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SOURCE Equinix, Inc.