Equinix creates the basis of a coherent global cloud

By bringing together cloud service providers with cloud consumers and enabling them to establish private, high-performance connections, the new Equinix Cloud Exchange is being targeted as a solution for enterprises seeking direct access to the type of services they need to build sophisticated hybrid cloud solutions. 

The Exchange is an advanced interconnection solution that enables seamless, on-demand and direct access to multiple clouds and multiple networks across the globe. As such, it could prove to be an answer to the problem of managing data sovereignty and national interest that faces many large enterprises looking to establish cloud services across their businesses.  

Until now, companies concerned about relying on the open Internet for mission-critical business did not have a secure, reliable and scalable connectivity solution for a multi-cloud environment.  By eliminating the bottlenecks associated with traditional cloud access across the public Internet, the Equinix Cloud Exchange aims to provide a secure path for businesses to access cloud resources at much higher throughput.  

In fact, tests run in the Equinix Solution Validation Center showed increased throughput of 147 percent when connecting directly to the cloud as compared to public Internet connections.

Systems integrators, IT services companies, SaaS and IaaS providers, networks and cloud enablers can all leverage the Equinix Cloud Exchange to rapidly advance their cloud computing agendas, scale their businesses globally and speed their time to market.  At the same time, enterprises can achieve significant benefits by connecting through the Equinix Cloud Exchange, including increasing the privacy, performance and reliability of cloud service connections. 

Businesses can join the Equinix Cloud Exchange in 13 markets globally – Silicon Valley, Washington D.C., New York, Toronto, Seattle, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Dallas, Chicago, London, Amsterdam, Frankfurt and Paris – with expansion planned to a total of 19 markets by the end of 2014. 

Today customers can connect to Microsoft Azure ExpressRoute in Silicon Valley, Washington, D.C. and London with planned expansions into 13 additional markets by the end of 2014.

Customers can also access Amazon Web Services via the Equinix Cloud Exchange in Silicon Valley, Washington, D.C. and London. In addition, Equinix is working with other key cloud and network service providers to provide access to their services via the Cloud Exchange.

The Exchange will combine the automated interconnection of cloud, network and managed service providers with advanced service orchestration, providing enterprises with simple, scalable, direct access to the multiple cloud services they need to build flexible hybrid cloud solutions. 

Equinix’s Cloud Exchange Portal and APIs simplify the process of managing connections to multiple cloud services.  Businesses can use the Portal and APIs to allocate, monitor and provision virtual circuits in near real-time with the provisioning of those circuits automated end-to-end from the Cloud Exchange to the service provider.  

“Just as it was with the Internet, the key to realising the business benefits of the cloud is how well connected it is,” said Ihab Tarazi, chief technology officer at Equinix.  “But companies are recognising that the Internet has security and performance limitations, given that it is inherently open and shared publicly.  By utilising direct access via the Equinix Cloud Exchange, businesses no longer have to compromise on these essential requirements when accessing cloud providers.”

There are already 450 cloud service providers and 975 networks deployed within Equinix’s 100+ global datacentres.