Equinix (EQIX): Significant Partnership With VMware (VMW) Expanded

By Dan Anderson ● Sep 22, 2020
  • Global interconnection and data center company Equinix, Inc. (Nasdaq: EQIX) announced that it is expanding on a collaboration with VMware, Inc. (NYSE: VMW).

Global interconnection and data center company Equinix, Inc. (Nasdaq: EQIX) announced that it is expanding on a collaboration with VMware, Inc. (NYSE: VMW) to help enterprises accelerate digital transformation. And as part of this expansion, VMware is going offer its SD-WAN Edge as a virtual network function (VNF) on Equinix’s Network Edge. VMware is also extending its presence in Equinix International Business Exchange (IBX) data centers across the Americas, Europe, Asia-Pacific and the Middle East to enable greater connectivity for customers on a global scale.

As enterprises worldwide are pursuing digital transformation initiatives, they increasingly embrace cloud-style models and services to meet their objectives. And with employees and customers dispersed across geographic locations and different cloud providers, there is major pressure on enterprise networks to become more agile, flexible, and easier to deploy and manage. 

And to meet these evolving demands, Equinix is collaborating with VMware to offer an easy-to-consume solution to enterprises, service providers, and partners that empowers remote workforces, reduces disruption, and increases business continuity efforts for companies at the digital edge.

The VMware SD-WAN by VeloCloud solution now available on Equinix’s Network Edge is an enterprise-grade virtual SD-WAN edge service that helps enterprises manage their own direct peering relationships with the cloud service providers of their choice via Equinix Cloud Exchange Fabric (ECX Fabric) or Equinix Marketplace. And it allows enterprises to enhance application performance for remote users within minutes and without any upfront capital expenses. 

By delivering fast, optimized, and secure site-to-applications at the edge via private interconnection, enterprises are able to deploy the solution to gain the consistent and predictable network performance required to meet their digital business needs.

Network Edge by Equinix offers enterprises a new way to deploy virtual network services, within minutes at the digital edge without a physical data center deployment or hardware requirements. And Network Edge enables companies to reduce capital expenses and scale IT and network services globally by virtually deploying a digital-ready infrastructure. By leveraging network functions virtualization (NFV), Network Edge offers customers the choice of virtual network services from multiple vendors.

The VMware SD-WAN by VeloCloud solution offers high-performance and reliable branch access to cloud services, private data centers, and SaaS-based enterprise applications. And offered on Network Edge, global companies can bring their own VMware SD-WAN license and deploy the solution in minutes, optimizing network connectivity between site and applications while eliminating the complexities of managing hardware and connecting to multi-cloud environments. 

Expanding on VMware’s secure-access service edge (SASE) vision, Equinix and VMware are also going to enable provisioning and accessibility of SASE components via Network Edge, ECX Fabric, and other connectivity options available through a single pane of glass on the VMware Orchestrator portal. Equinix has been partnered with VMware since 2013 to enable hybrid cloud infrastructures, helping Global 2000 enterprises and partners address the increasing volume and complexity of application workloads and data. 

KEY QUOTES:

“We are thrilled to work with Equinix to help enterprises accelerate their digital transformation initiatives and offer new world-class capabilities within the Equinix IBX facilities. With VMware SD-WAN Edge now available as a virtual network service on Equinix’s Network Edge, enterprises, partners and service providers alike will be able to have unique, globally available network solutions optimized for intrinsically secure access to any public, private or SaaS cloud for remote and branch users.”

— Sanjay Uppal, Senior Vice President & General Manager, VeloCloud Business Unit, VMware 

“An entire architectural shift driven by data transformation is happening across the IT landscape today. By expanding our collaboration with VMware to deliver an innovative new solution that empowers remote workforces, reduces disruption and enables business continuity, we can help companies deploy a digital ready infrastructure at the edge within minutes in order to accelerate their digital transformation efforts anywhere in the world.”

— Bill Long, Senior Vice President, Product Management, Equinix

“Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, the long-term growth prospects for the SD-WAN market remain exceptionally robust. Driven by the ubiquitous imperative of digital transformation, a growing number of organizations worldwide are looking to scale initial deployments, which often begin with a limited number of sites, to encompass all branch offices supported by their WAN. As they do so, they prize agility, resilience and operational simplicity. VMware’s SD-WAN by VeloCloud solution, now available on Equinix’s Network Edge, is designed to address those needs and help organizations dynamically scale their IT infrastructure in lockstep with the demands of digital business.”

— Brad Casemore, Research Vice President, Datacenter Networks, IDC