Manufacturing & Supply Chain

Equinix, Inc, the global interconnection and data centre company, has announced the next phase in the evolution of Platform Equinix^® with the unveiling of Network Edge services, a new product innovation enabling companies to modernise networks virtually, within minutes, by deploying network functions virtualisation (NFV) from multiple vendors to connect their digital supply chains at Equinix.

Designed to accelerate digital transformation for global businesses, Network Edge offers enterprises a new way to deploy network services on Equinix’s global interconnection platform, without a physical data centre deployment or hardware requirements. As an additional option within Equinix’s broad portfolio of physical and virtual interconnection services, Network Edge enables enterprises to reduce capital expenses and scale IT and network services globally by virtually deploying a digital-ready infrastructure.

Offered as a broad suite of vendor-neutral, virtual network services, Network Edge allows customers to select, configure and connect network and security devices in real time and from a choice of industry-leading vendors including Cisco, Juniper Networks and Palo Alto Networks. By bringing seamless, ultra-low latency network services closer to end users, clouds and valuable ecosystems in more locations, Network Edge can dramatically improve network optimisation efforts in an economical way.

Network Edge also includes built-in integration to Equinix’s global on-demand, SDN-enabled interconnection service, Equinix Cloud Exchange Fabric™ (ECX Fabric™). By combining Network Edge with ECX Fabric, customers can deploy virtual edge devices and interconnect them to clouds and network providers located in new global markets, extending their reach to potentially thousands of new business partners around the world. This empowers companies to be everywhere they need to be to interconnect everyone and integrate everything that matters to their businesses.

The new Network Edge Services will help Irish businesses and start-ups scale to Silicon Valley and other global tech hubs in a matter of minutes in a cost efficient way – without the need to deploy their infrastructure in a data centre and without any upfront capital expenses for additional equipment or infrastructure.

This will be of particular interest to Irish businesses wishing to expand to the world’s tech capital and propel their services and innovations to a global stage. Without the need to deploy any physical infrastructure, it helps to reduce the ‘gamble’ associated with international expansion – instead allowing businesses to test the market virtually with digital-ready infrastructure.

The service currently helps businesses scale to Silicon Valley, Amsterdam, Ashburn, London and Singapore, along with Chicago, Dallas, Frankfurt and Sydney later in the year. It allows enterprises to quickly and securely launch data-heavy technologies and services in new markets with ultra-low latency.

Maurice Mortell (pictured), Managing Director for Ireland and Emerging Markets, Equinix, said: “This is great news for businesses in Ireland. We know that FDI is important for our own economy and likewise, Irish firms are of huge importance to global economies. In fact, Ireland is the ninth-largest source of FDI in the United States.

“From MedTech to IoT, Irish companies are major contributors to some of the greatest technological advancements of today and it’s important that we give more businesses here the opportunity to succeed globally. Investors look for companies with scalability and that is what Network Edge Services will give Irish businesses. By providing a fast, cost-efficient route to some of the world’s leading economies, we are giving businesses the interconnection platform they need to grow and thrive.”

Highlights/Key Facts

• As global businesses digitally transform, they require modernised global IT infrastructures in proximity to digital services in order to succeed. They also require high levels of data security and the ability to connect globally with multiple partners across various business ecosystems.
• With Network Edge, enterprises can deploy virtual network services within Equinix International Business Exchange™ (IBX^®) facilities without upfront capital expenses for additional equipment and infrastructure. Network Edge is also compatible with existing physical deployments on Platform Equinix, further accelerating the path to digital business on a global scale.
• Network Edge offers customers the choice of virtual network services from multiple vendors. Current Network Edge devices available include the Cisco^® Cloud Services Router 1000v, the Juniper^® vSRX Virtual Firewall and Palo Alto Networks^® VM-Series Firewall, with additional edge devices, including the Cisco SD-WAN, being added soon onto Platform Equinix.
• Network Edge is ideal for specific digital business uses cases, such as:
  • Cloud-to-cloud routing—As cloud adoption continues to grow, many applications now span multiple clouds. To maximise data moving from one cloud to another, virtual routers deployed using Network Edge can seamlessly route data with ultra-low latency between two clouds.
  • Migrating from one cloud to another—Deploying a virtual router with Network Edge can create a private connection between two clouds, allowing for more efficient data transfers when moving large amounts of data from one cloud to another for backups, migrations or analytics.
  • Hybrid cloud firewall—To help protect networks with public-facing endpoints created when public-facing applications are hosted on public clouds, Network Edge can be used to deploy virtual cloud firewalls within minutes. Network Edge can also deploy a virtual firewall in conjunction with physical firewalls.
  • Branch-to-cloud SD-WAN—To accelerate the transformation of branch offices, Network Edge will soon offer the ability to quickly build interconnection hubs at Equinix and optimise connectivity between branch locations, cloud providers, SaaS providers and thousands of potential business partners via ECX Fabric.

Sachin Gupta, Senior Vice President, Product Management, Enterprise Networking Business, Cisco, said: “As the consumption of applications from multiple clouds continue to grow, enterprise networks are tasked with delivering a fast and secure application experience for their users, wherever they are. Working with Equinix’s Network Edge services allows our enterprise customers to achieve proximity to SaaS and cloud providers for their global locations. The service will also provide the ability to automatically deploy and manage Cisco SD-WAN services to ensure an optimal application experience.”

Mike Taylor, Chief Technology Officer, World Wide Technology, commented: “Our customers’ legacy network designs were built to provide connectivity to their centralised private data centres. Today, applications are rapidly moving to the cloud, and those legacy architectures struggle to scale and address the performance demands of their users. The need for a low-latency, interconnected architecture is driving cloud-edge designs that bring end users and business-critical apps closer together, helping them achieve a faster time to market with a network that can match the agility, pace and reach of cloud-native infrastructures. We believe by using Equinix’s new Network Edge services, we can quickly build distributed multicloud infrastructures that help our customers realise the full value of their cloud-based applications.”

According to Eric Hanselman, Chief Analyst, 451 Research: “Digital transformation is driving enterprises to modernise their global IT infrastructures, and the continued adoption of hybrid and multicloud strategies further accentuates this need. As applications become more distributed, residing in both data centres and multiple public clouds, the network must also become distributed, capable of providing consistent policies governing network and security services. Virtual network services like Network Edge, offered in a vendor-neutral fashion and integrated with ECX Fabric, will accelerate global interconnection opportunities for customers. We think these services provide distinct value to enterprises and differentiation for Equinix in the market as well.”

Bill Long, Vice President, Interconnection Services, Equinix, said: “As we continue evolving the Equinix global interconnection platform, we are introducing new product innovations to help enterprises transform their global businesses at the digital edge. With Network Edge, we’re providing both an extraordinary suite of virtual network services, and a compelling value proposition to help enterprises scale globally by deploying digital-ready infrastructures at the edge, within a matter of minutes. By seamlessly integrating Network Edge with our ECX Fabric service, customers can also tap into the world’s largest interconnection ecosystem, virtually, and unlock enormous business value through our platform.”