Manufacturing & Supply Chain

Equinix, Inc, the global interconnection and data centre company, has announced that its total investment in Ireland now surpasses €18.5 million with the launch of Equinix Cloud Exchange. The interconnection solution will provide customers with direct access to the biggest global cloud service providers, including Microsoft Azure and Office 365.

The service is designed for businesses that need access to multiple cloud service providers (CSPs). Equinix Cloud Exchange allows enterprises to mix and match each nuanced digital requirement with the CSP that best caters to it.

The company has continued to see strong demand for cloud connectivity. Year-on-year growth of Equinix Cloud Exchange in markets where it already has a presence more than doubled from 2015 to 2016.

Following its acquisition of TelecityGroup in 2016, the company has invested more than €18.5 million in expanding and improving its Irish data centre sites and rolling out more advanced business solutions, such as Equinix Cloud Exchange, to better meet the needs of its Irish customers.

Equinix data centres house a growing cloud ecosystem of over 500 CSPs and SaaS solutions globally. The global Equinix Cloud Exchange platform offers direct, private connections to leading CSPs, including Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud Platform, IBM SoftLayer, Microsoft Azure ExpressRoute and Office 365, Oracle Cloud and Salesforce. Through Microsoft, Irish customers will gain from a dedicated, high-throughput network connection between Microsoft Azure data centres and their own on-premise IT environments.

By eliminating the need to build separate connections with each individual CSP, Equinix Cloud Exchange enables greater speed to market and scalability. The technology behind the Cloud Exchange makes it possible to interconnect with multiple cloud services in near real time.

Bypassing the public internet, the solution offers faster private cloud connectivity that removes the security and time concerns that many businesses have when considering cloud adoption. Testing by Equinix has found that businesses can increase data throughput by up to 147% when using Cloud Exchange, as opposed to public internet connections.

Maurice Mortell, managing director for Ireland and emerging markets, Equinix, said: “Equinix Cloud Exchange will help Irish and Irish-based businesses better navigate their digital journey. Most of the bigger businesses in Ireland are now either adopting cloud, or seriously contemplating it. This is a natural next step for those businesses in their digital transformation. Equinix Cloud Exchange provides the flexibility, access, security and speed to market that businesses in Ireland need to achieve a stronger competitive advantage.”