Equinix launches Cloud Exchange

Equinix, Inc. has announced the launch of the Equinix Cloud Exchange, 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 cloud consumers 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.

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 provides 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.

Next-Generation Interconnection Capabilities Enable High-Performance Multi-Cloud Environment
Representing an industry first, the Equinix Cloud 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 highly 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. This breakthrough capability provides faster performance, better reliability, increased security, and quicker and easier deployment of cloud applications, bringing significant benefits to the broad community of industry participants looking to realize the benefits of cloud computing.

“As an increasing number of enterprises move to the cloud, they require a new level of interconnectivity to access multiple clouds, across multiple sites, from a broad range of networks,” said Tony Bishop, chief strategy officer at The 451 Group. “With its global datacenter footprint and extensive ecosystem of network and cloud service providers, the Equinix Cloud Exchange addresses many of the most pressing challenges holding corporate users back from relying on the cloud for mission-critical business including latency, security and performance issues.”

Interconnection Track Record Positions Equinix to Solve Pressing Cloud Connectivity Challenges
Equinix earned a position as the world’s leading data center and interconnection company by enabling the growth of the most influential and highly interconnected business ecosystems in the IT industry. This 15-year track record has made the company the trusted home to the widest range of networks, cloud providers and prospective cloud services customers in the world.

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