REDWOOD CITY, Calif. and
LONDON, March 21, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Equinix, Inc.
(Nasdaq: EQIX), the global interconnection and data centre company,
today announced that it will be significantly expanding the
availability of the Equinix Cloud Exchange™, bringing the
innovative solution to three new markets including Dublin, Milan
and Stockholm. Bringing direct,
private access to multiple cloud providers to these new markets
supports European businesses who are undergoing digital
transformation and enables global enterprises to simultaneously
orchestrate hybrid and multi-cloud solutions across multiple
locations and gain the global scale, performance and security they
need to compete. These new markets also provide additional
flexibility with where enterprises locate their cloud workloads and
data across the region depending on their business needs and local
regulations.
Equinix data centers house a growing cloud ecosystem of over 500
Cloud Service Providers (CSPs) and SaaS solutions globally. The
Equinix Cloud Exchange offers direct, private connections to more
than 50 leading CSPs including Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google
Cloud Platform, IBM SoftLayer, Microsoft Azure ExpressRoute and
Office 365, Oracle Cloud and Salesforce. This interconnected
approach allows companies to boost cloud application performance,
reduce latency, scale and improve network control and
visibility—delivering a quality cloud experience to end users.
Highlights / Key Facts
- Equinix Cloud Exchange is an advanced interconnection solution
that enables seamless, on-demand and direct access to multiple
clouds and multiple networks across the globe. By bringing together
cloud service providers with enterprises consuming cloud and
enabling them to establish private, high-performance connections,
the Equinix Cloud Exchange gives enterprises direct access to the
services they need to build sophisticated hybrid cloud solutions
inside Equinix International Business Exchange™ (IBX®) data
centers.
- Since its initial launch in 2014, more than 625 businesses have
connected globally to the Equinix Cloud Exchange including Aon,
Beeks Financial Cloud, CDM Smith, Ellie
Mae, Hathaway Dinwiddie, and Walmart. Equinix has continued
to see strong demand for cloud connectivity — year-over-year growth
of Equinix Cloud Exchange more than doubled from 2015 to 2016.
- The addition of Cloud Exchange in three new markets in addition
to the five existing European markets (London, Frankfurt, Amsterdam, Paris and Zurich) means extending companies' ability to
access low-latency, private cloud connectivity without going over
the public internet or a WAN. More Europe-based businesses can now leverage the
performance, security and a consistent quality of experience that
only direct, private connectivity can deliver.
- Equinix Cloud Exchange offers software-defined direct
connections to multiple cloud services from a single physical port
at both Layer 2 and Layer 3, so enterprises can easily access
cloud-based services. Real-time provisioning of connections gives
enterprise the flexibility to ramp up and down services according
to their changing business requirements.
- The European Commission states, "The huge potential of the
digital economy is underexploited in Europe, with 41% of enterprises being
non-digital, and only two percent taking full advantage of digital
opportunities."1 As European businesses undergo digital
transformation, many will turn to cloud-based technologies, as the
cloud has been a catalyst for global IT transformation. To support
this shift, Equinix will roll out Cloud Exchange in the following
key European metros, making Cloud Exchange available in 24 markets
by the end of 2017:
- Dublin (available
March) – At a time when global volumes of data are mushrooming,
that presents both indigenous and foreign direct investment (FDI)
companies with an abundance of opportunity, unique to Ireland. Coupled with the country's favorable
corporate tax structure, data privacy laws and potential for mining
big data, Ireland continues to be
an attractive destination for digital business infrastructure.
- Milan (available
September) – Milan is the economic
and financial heart of Italy and
is the country's second largest city, playing a vital role in the
Italian economy which is the third largest in the Eurozone.
Furthermore, Italian enterprises use of cloud computing (40%) is
more than double the Eurozone average (19%).2
- Stockholm (available
September) – Stockholm's status as
a key international business and technology hub is growing
dramatically. The city has been ranked as a top "future region" by
the Financial Times, as well as Europe's best region in terms of prospects for
inward investment and for economic and business expansion.
Equinix's interconnection and data center platform has become
the home of the interconnected cloud globally, with more than 150
colocation facilities located across 41 markets. According to a
recent report by Gartner – Deliver Data Center Modernization Using
Three Cloud-Complementary Approaches (February 2017) – digital businesses should,
"Enhance data center interconnection capabilities with cloud
providers and digital business partners by building colocation
network hubs."
Quotes
- Ross Winser, research
director, Gartner; "Deliver Data Center Modernization Using Three
Cloud-Complementary Approaches (February 2017)":
"As digital business
strategies progress, reliance increases on cloud-based systems and
cloud-based partners that participate in transactions (or host
entire systems). Accordingly, data center modernization strategies
must address the critical need for interconnectivity among data
centers, cloud suppliers and business partners, as well as
customers.[…] Consider using colocation network hubs to connect
directly with cloud partners using high-bandwidth, low-latency,
standardized connections located within the colocation facility to
remove the unpredictability of internet-based cloud connections.
This can improve the performance of hybrid system architectures
that are heavily influenced by network performance between the
cloud providers and the enterprise infrastructure."
- Eric Schwartz, president,
Equinix EMEA:
"When Equinix introduced Cloud Exchange,
businesses were just beginning to leverage the cloud but there was
still serious scepticism around performance and security. Over the
last few years however, global business adoption of cloud has been
tremendous and now we see customers securely connecting to many
clouds and across multiple regions all on the Equinix Cloud
Exchange. We believe these three new markets will make Cloud
Exchange that much more appealing for enterprises looking to
distribute their cloud infrastructure across Europe.
Additional Resources
- Maximizing Cloud Impact - A New Paradigm for Connecting Clouds
within the Enterprise [white paper]
- How Interconnected Clouds Can Boost Your Performance for Less
Cost [blog]
- Equinix Cloud Exchange Availability Map [graphic]
- Cloud Exchange for Enterprise [video]
About Equinix
Equinix, Inc. (NASDAQ: EQIX) connects the world's leading
businesses to their customers, employees and partners inside the
most interconnected data centres. In 41 markets across five
continents, Equinix is where companies come together to realize new
opportunities and accelerate their business, IT and cloud
strategies. 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 centres 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 centres; 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.
1 European Commission web page, "The importance of
the digital economy".
https://ec.europa.eu/growth/sectors/digital-economy/importance_en
2 "Cloud computing - Statistics on the use by
enterprises" by Eurostat, 2014.
http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/documents/2995521/6208098/4-09122014-AP-EN.pdf/627ddf4f-730a-46ca-856b-32532d8325c5
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SOURCE Equinix, Inc.