NSPs Tap Equinix for On-Demand, Private Multicloud Connectivity

Equinix, Inc., the global interconnection and data center company, has announced that adoption of Equinix Cloud Exchange Fabric™ (ECX Fabric™) among its network service provider (NSP) customers has soared with NSPs increasingly turning to ECX Fabric to provide on-demand, private multicloud connectivity to their business customers.

ECX Fabric enables networks to streamline their access to the world's largest cloud providers such as Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure and Google Cloud on Platform Equinix® via global, software-defined interconnection. With NSPs currently utilizing 35% of the more than 14,800 active virtual connections to date, ECX Fabric has the potential to become the de facto global standard for how the world's leading networks connect to the cloud.

In today's digital economy, customers want on-demand, private connectivity to their cloud providers. Among the more than 1,400 customers currently using ECX Fabric, leading NSPs such as Spectrum Enterprise, Telstra, Frontier Communications and Axtel are rapidly adopting ECX Fabric in order to meet these evolving digital demands. By collaborating with Equinix and leveraging its rich ecosystem of cloud service providers via ECX Fabric, NSPs can offer their customers on-demand, private connectivity to multiple cloud providers, ultimately helping their customers extract more value from the cloud.

ECX Fabric is a software-defined interconnection service that enables any business to connect between its own distributed infrastructure and any other businesses', including the world's largest network service and cloud providers, on Platform Equinix. Available across 35+ locations, ECX Fabric is designed for scalability, agility and connectivity over a self-service portal or API. Through a single port, customers can discover and reach anyone at Equinix on demand, locally or across metros.

Born out of the need for businesses to quickly and efficiently respond to changing IT requirements driven by digital transformation, ECX Fabric helps meet these needs by allowing businesses to exchange their data on demand across metros through private connections. This capability allows enterprises, network services and cloud providers alike to scale their digital businesses just as rapidly as the digital economy requires it.

Equinix's vast ecosystem of enterprises, cloud service and network providers within its data centers, along with ECX Fabric's intuitive portal user interface and APIs, makes it easier for network service providers to quickly enable interconnection for their customers.

With ECX Fabric, NSPs can provision virtual connections to their cloud providers within minutes, versus the traditional method that could take weeks and even months. As a result, ECX Fabric can dramatically improve the speed to market for NSPs looking to offer customers high-performance multicloud connectivity over a software-defined interconnection platform.

In addition to the increased traction in the network provider market, ECX Fabric has recently received multiple industry accolades. Last month, during PTC'19, the Pacific Telecommunications Council's 41st annual conference, ECX Fabric received the PTC 2019 Innovation Award for Best Cloud/DataCenter/Interconnection Innovation, an award recognizing the most outstanding innovation in cloud or enterprise data centers and interconnection.

In October 2018, Equinix also won two MEF 2018 Awards—the largest awards program in the world focusing on emerging dynamic network services powered by LSO (Lifecycle Service Orchestration), SDN, NFV, SD-WAN and Carrier Ethernet technologies. During MEF18, an event focused on enabling agile, assured and orchestrated communications services for the digital economy, ECX Fabric was honored for both the MEF 3.0 Implementation Project 2018 Award, and the MEF 18 Proof of Concept Gold award.

NSP-enabled private connectivity to strategic cloud service providers, as well as other enterprises or businesses, is essential as digital transformation fuels higher demand for localized digital services at the edge. According to Vol. 2 of the Global Interconnection Index, a market study published recently by Equinix, the capacity for private data exchange between enterprises and cloud and network service providers is forecast to grow nearly 10 times faster than public internet traffic by 2021.

Bill Long, Vice President, Interconnection Services, Equinix, said, "Network service providers are increasingly turning to ECX Fabric as a way to provide on-demand, private multicloud connectivity to meet the evolving business demands of their customers. By helping NSPs connect their customers to multiple clouds and other service and IT providers anytime, anywhere and on any device, ECX Fabric is quickly becoming the gold standard for helping network providers connect their customers to the cloud sooner."

Jim Fagan, Global Platform Executive, Products and Technology, Telstra, explained, "Telstra is making incredible progress in supporting our customer's digital transformations around the world with the Telstra Programmable Network (TPN) platform and SD-WAN services, many of which are enhanced by Equinix Cloud Exchange Fabric. With Telstra's API-based integration of ECX Fabric into TPN, our customers can now have automated connectivity to leading cloud providers including AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google and Oracle in just a few clicks and as little as two minutes. By aligning with the ECX Fabric, we are better enabled to serve our enterprise customers who are digitizing infrastructure and seeking efficiencies as they expand their operations domestically and internationally."

Robert Schroeder, Vice President, Data Product Management, Spectrum Enterprise, said, "Clients depend on our network and services to deliver reliable connectivity across their network. The ECX Fabric enables us to deliver the Cloud Connect solution and further enhance the performance of a client's public cloud environment."