Equinix and Datapipe Collaborate to Deliver Hybrid IT Offerings for Enterprises 

Equinix, Inc. together with Datapipe today announced a collaboration to provide managed Hybrid IT Solutions for Amazon Web Services (AWS). The solution leverages Equinix's global footprint of more than 100 International Business Exchange (IBX) data centers and combines Equinix's Cloud Exchange interconnection solution with Datapipe's managed services and the AWS platform.  The integrated solution gives enterprise customers unprecedented security, choice and control for how they architect, build, migrate and manage enterprise applications and workloads in the AWS cloud.

Studies show that enterprise customers are turning to hybrid clouds to maximize performance of business-critical applications, but are continually faced with challenges related to reliability, performance and security.  In fact, in a recent survey of more than 650 global enterprise IT leaders, security, reliability and performance were listed as the top three drivers for a direct connection to the cloud.  By deploying hybrid IT inside an Equinix data center, organizations are able to strike the right balance between the AWS public cloud, private clouds and traditional IT environments, all of which are architected, deployed and fully managed by Datapipe.

Equinix and Datapipe customers deploying hybrid IT solutions are able to achieve the benefits of agile and elastic cloud environments while not having to compromise on the security and control offered by traditional IT environments. These multi-platform solutions are delivered through a global footprint of datacenter choices combined with Datapipe's deep expertise in architecting, deploying and managing the unique demands of managing highly available enterprise-class applications.

The joint solution provides improved security and performance, better control, and higher throughput versus connecting to AWS via the public Internet. It provides direct bandwidth for access to AWS services and the seamless integration with dedicated IT environments, such as complex databases, to support highly available, data-intensive applications. The result is improved user Quality of Experience (QoE) and more effective migration to and adoption of the AWS cloud.

A recent survey of more than 650 global enterprise IT leaders conducted by Dimensional Research and sponsored by Equinix showed that 91 percent of global businesses planned to deploy public cloud services in the next 12 months, and 85 percent of respondents indicated that they see strong value in having direct connections to those providers. Security, reliability and performance were listed as the top three drivers for a direct connection, with 77 percent placing strong value on having a single source for colocation and interconnection.

Key use cases for the Datapipe and Equinix Hybrid IT Solution for AWS include:

• Compliant solutions – With hybrid IT, sensitive data is protected in a Datapipe-managed private cloud or physical environment within an Equinix data center, while public cloud compute resources can be accessed, as needed, via the AWS cloud.
• Complex database environments – Datapipe offers integrated managed solutions for end-to-end hybrid infrastructures encompassing AWS environments and Direct Connect, highly available database components housed in an Equinix data center, and the security and governance controls around the entire environment.
• Cloud disaster recovery – A hybrid IT model allows organizations to maintain mission-critical applications in a secure Datapipe-managed private cloud or physical environment within an Equinix data center while using the AWS cloud for disaster recovery services.