Using Direct Link, customers can quickly build out hybrid computing solutions by letting them house their own IT equipment in the same data center facility as IBM Cloud. This network link gives customers the ability to merge their own IT resources with IBM’s cloud services powered by SoftLayer.
As a result, customers at Zenium Frankfurt One will now be able to take colocation space to house their IT infrastructure from as little as a single rack up to caged areas and purpose-built, dedicated data suites; and directly connect them to IBM Cloud services. DirectLink services ensure that businesses derive the best from their in-house resources whilst having direct access into the IBM Cloud—a true hybrid approach.
IBM selected Zenium’s data center in Sossenheim to launch its first SoftLayer facility in Germany last year. There were a number of factors which led IBM to choose Frankfurt One which include the fact that as the newest purpose-built facility in the region it offers market-leading energy efficiencies (a PUE of 1.3 at full design load) coupled with two diverse 110kV power feeds, robust physical security and resilience levels of Tier 3+. In addition, the data center is carrier neutral and provides access to the full range of carriers available in Frankfurt.
“The quality and scale of Zenium Frankfurt One provides IBM with a foothold to grow our business in Germany. Our goal with the Direct Link product suite is to continue creating avenues that facilitate a transparent hybrid cloud experience. Our IaaS platform can now be linked from a complete gamut of service providers. And because Direct Link connections do not go over the public Internet, they offer users more reliability, faster speeds, lower latencies and higher security than typical connections” said Francisco Romero, COO at SoftLayer, an IBM Company.
Franek Sodzawiczny, Founder and CEO, Zenium Technology Partners added “We were delighted to have been chosen by IBM originally and to be a part of their evolving business with the introduction of these new services. The quality of the data center infrastructure that sits behind a cloud service is absolutely crucial and consistent with Zenium’s core philosophy of operating facilities that deliver the maximum availability.”
