GoGrid Joins Equinix Cloud Exchange
Datacenter and interconnection specialist Equinix said it has attracted a new member to the Equinix Cloud Exchange: GoGrid, a cloud and open data services infrastructure provider.
GoGrid joins other cloud services providers like Amazon Web Services, Microsoft, and TW Telecom on the Equinix Cloud Exchange.
The Exchange is designed to bring together cloud service providers and users so they can establish private cloud connections within the Equinix facilities. Equinix touts the service as allowing customers to connect to multiple clouds and networks.
Cloud service providers like GoGrid are migrating to cloud exchanges to offer private cloud connectivity to enterprise customers. In the case of Equinix Cloud Exchange, connectivity is provided through a single link. The cloud exchange offers advanced interconnections and direct access to multiple clouds.
GoGrid said it would connect its Cloud Bridge product to the Equinix Cloud Exchange to offer global links to datacenters where customers' infrastructure is located. It would then offer cloud and big data products "in a more secure, predictable and high-performance manner."
Mark Worsey, GoGrid's chief operating officer, added in a statement that the company expects to leverage the Cloud Exchange to establish hybrid cloud deployments that would connect enterprise customers and cloud service providers.
Equinix claims 4,500 customers worldwide, of which 450 are cloud service providers deployed within the company's more than 100 global datacenters.
The Cloud Exchange is currently available in 13 international markets, including Silicon Valley, Los Angeles, New York, Washington, London, and Paris. Equinix said it plans to expand to a total of 19 markets by the end of 2014.
Equinix argues that the key to cloud performance is the quality of interconnection. Hence, it launched the Cloud Exchange as a platform that would bring together service providers and users to speed cloud deployments. The company's pitch is that its Cloud Exchange eliminates the public cloud's limitations and vulnerabilities.
The Cloud Exchange works by combining an automated interconnection of the cloud with improved service orchestration. Members of the Cloud Exchange are given access to technology that allows them to manage connections to numerous cloud services. The entire process of connecting to cloud services is automated, Equinix stresses, thereby reducing the cost of interconnections.
The company also promotes the Cloud Exchange as providing a "one port, many virtual circuits" feature that allows service providers and their customers to stay connected via a single, physical port as the number of Cloud Exchange users grows.
Equinix, which also offers datacenter colocation services, announced in April it was partnering with Microsoft to deliver Windows Azure ExpressRoute private network connections to international customers. These services are now available.
An Equinix executive said last month the partners were targeting May for general availability of the private-connection-to-public-cloud service in Washington, D.C., and Silicon Valley. Equinix has existing “exchange provider” agreements with Microsoft in those regions.
