Equinix Launches Large Expansion of Interconnection Services in EMEA to Help Enterprises Simplify Hybrid Multicloud Connectivity

Equinix, Inc., the global interconnection and data centre company, has announced one of its largest expansions of Equinix Cloud Exchange Fabric™ (ECX Fabric™) in seven new EMEA markets to help global businesses simplify hybrid and multicloud infrastructures. With this expansion of Equinix’s industry-leading interconnection service to Barcelona, Brussels, Geneva, Istanbul, Lisbon and Sofia, and extending into Hamburg in Q2 2020, enterprises and service providers can seamlessly interconnect to a rich ecosystem of clouds, networks, partners and customers that matter most to their digital businesses.

As global IT decision-makers respond to an increasingly dynamic world including competitive pressures, growing customer demands, globalisation, and challenges posed by COVID-19, many are accelerating their digital transformation efforts and continuing to prioritise the adoption of hybrid and multicloud solutions. In response to this market shift, Equinix is extending its ECX Fabric service in EMEA to help digital businesses simplify hybrid multicloud deployments and expand their global interconnection opportunities on Platform Equinix®.

Designed to support enterprise digital transformation initiatives, ECX Fabric is a global interconnection service available in 45 strategic markets that allows businesses to exchange their data on demand, and between metros through private connections. This capability enables enterprises, network services and cloud providers alike to consistently scale their digital businesses just as rapidly as the digital economy requires it.

ECX Fabric provides scalability, agility and connectivity over a self-service portal or APIs. Through a single port, customers in any ECX Fabric-enabled market can create and manage on-demand connections in a globally consistent way. By extending ECX Fabric from Lisbon in the West to Istanbul in the East, Equinix is making it easier for digital businesses to increase their global reach by gaining broad access to the ecosystems they need for scaling their businesses globally. 

ECX Fabric key facts:

• As digital transformation fuels the need for virtualised, on-demand, multicloud infrastructures, global businesses are using virtual connections to expand into new regions. ECX Fabric supports this evolution to multicloud adoption by directly, securely and dynamically connecting distributed infrastructure and digital ecosystems globally, on Platform Equinix.
• Platform Equinix is a dynamic data centre and interconnection platform essential for any enterprise deploying hybrid multicloud at the edge. With a global footprint of more than 200 International Business Exchange™ (IBX^®) data centres, Platform Equinix contains a very high share of the world’s public cloud on-ramps and the most physically and virtually interconnected ecosystems in the world.
• ECX Fabric enables streamlined access to the world’s largest cloud providers, including Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure and Google Cloud on Platform Equinix via global, software-defined interconnection. With more than 2,000 customers connecting their digital infrastructure to more than 600 other participants on the platform, ECX Fabric enables the world’s leading digital businesses to connect to the cloud.
• With the addition of the seven new EMEA markets, ECX Fabric will be available to customers across 45 strategic markets in the Americas, EMEA and Asia-Pacific regions including Amsterdam, Atlanta, Barcelona, Boston, Brussels, Canberra, Chicago, Culpeper, Dallas, Denver, Dublin, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Geneva, Hamburg, Helsinki, Hong Kong, Houston, Istanbul, Lisbon, London, Los Angeles, Madrid, Manchester, Melbourne, Miami, Milan, Munich, New York, Osaka, Paris, Perth, Seattle, São Paulo, Silicon Valley, Seoul, Singapore, Sofia, Stockholm, Sydney, Toronto, Tokyo, Warsaw, Washington D.C. and Zurich.
• Benefits to enterprises: On-demand, software-defined interconnection on ECX Fabric gives enterprises the agility to capitalise on changing market conditions and new opportunities. Through one port, on one platform, enterprises can quickly connect to the largest ecosystems of clouds, networks and partners available on ECX Fabric, including clouds not currently available for direct connection within a local market. By connecting local services and distributed infrastructure via ECX Fabric, enterprises can also solve their application performance and digital customer experience challenges. Additionally, ECX Fabric, along with a growing portfolio of Edge Services, offers enterprises the ability to quickly deploy and interconnect virtual network functions globally.
• Benefits to service providers: By leveraging ECX Fabric as a global extension of their infrastructure, cloud and network service providers can quickly expand their global reach into new markets and respond to the connectivity needs of their customers with dramatically reduced time to market. The virtualised nature of these connections is also ideal for testing local market demand before deploying physical infrastructure. The rich ecosystem of cloud service providers available on Platform Equinix also allows network providers to offer customers on-demand, private connectivity to multiple cloud providers via ECX Fabric, ultimately helping their customers extract more value from the cloud.
• Private interconnection is essential as digital transformation fuels higher demand for localised digital services at the edge. According to the recently released Volume 3 of the Global Interconnection Index (GXI), a market study published by Equinix installed interconnection bandwidth capacity is expected to reach 13,300+ Tbps with a 51% compound annual growth rate worldwide by 2022.

Maurice Mortell, Managing Director, Ireland, Equinix commented

“Irish enterprises have been propelled into an entirely new way of doing business; one that relies on fast, secure digital connectivity across multiple locations and geographies. While many were already well on their way to digitally transforming their operations, none expected their entire business to depend on that progress so soon.

The restrictions being implemented by authorities across the world in response to COVID-19 present challenges for businesses, including those looking to scale internationally. By expanding our interconnection service, ECX Fabric, we are helping Irish enterprises to scale into, and reach, even more European markets without requiring a physical presence in them. In doing so, we are ensuring that Irish enterprises do not have to halt their expansion plans due to an inability to reach new markets.”