Equinix, Inc. has announced it has established Solution Validation Centers in eight key markets around the world. The Solution Validation Center provides a demonstration and proof-of-concept testing environment that enables prospective and existing Equinix customers to assess and measure the performance of application platforms and new deployments from secure, highly connected and globally distributed International Business Exchange™ (IBX®) data center locations.

The Equinix Solution Validation Center is designed to facilitate the testing and adoption of new technologies, validate application readiness, and demonstrate system, and solution performance advantages from Platform Equinix™ locations around the world.

“The Solution Validation Center offers a production data center environment for customers to test and validate their IT architectures. By engaging with a world-class team of solutions architects, as well as Equinix technology partners, customers and prospective customers alike can validate application readiness and demonstrate the performance advantages delivered by Platform Equinix,” said Brian Lillie, CIO, Equinix.

Solution Validation Center engagements are managed by Equinix global solutions architects, a team of technology experts who take a consultative approach to address customers’ technology challenges, and recommend customized, reliable solutions, such as how to bridge network, data center and cloud infrastructures to accelerate business performance. With technical certifications and extensive hands-on experience, Equinix’s team of more than 20 solutions architects is located in key markets around the globe to help prospective and existing customers solve their data center challenges.

More than 25 engagements have been tested and validated inside Equinix Solution Validation Centers to date. In addition to offering proof-of-concept testing for customer deployments, the Solution Validation Center provides a platform for Equinix to showcase and validate the benefits of its solution offerings. Additionally, technology vendors can utilize the Solution Validation Center to prototype and deploy new technology in an environment that develops market and customer demand by solving for real-world problems at Internet scale.

Equinix customers and technology partners including BlueBox, Box, Cloud Scaling, Desktone, McGraw-Hill, NetApp, and Redapt have leveraged the Solution Validation Center to test and validate a wide range of deployments including:

  • Private, public and hybrid cloud architectures using AWS
  • WAN aggregation for more efficient network architectures
  • NetApp Private Storage for AWS, which enables customers to take advantage of cloud services while retaining full control of their data; demo platforms are available for testing and validation by Equinix customers in the Singapore, Silicon Valley and Ashburn data centers
  • A demo environment built on NetApp storage systems deployed across three geographically dispersed data centers, allowing customers to test Desktone solutions and validate the performance of desktop-as-a-service
  • Bandwidth on demand SDN use cases with Ciena, Vello and Cyan

Solution Validation Centers are now open in eight key markets around the world, including Amsterdam, Ashburn (Washington, D.C. metro), London, Miami, New York, Singapore, Silicon Valley, and Sydney. Equinix plans to expand the Solution Validation Center to four additional locations in 2014.