Equinix, Inc. has announced that it has achieved Microsoft Gold Cloud Platform status via its Equinix Professional Services (EPS) organization. This designation reinforces Equinix's ongoing commitment to delivering Microsoft hybrid cloud to its customers inside a global footprint of International Business Exchange™ (IBX®) data centers. Since Equinix began offering direct access to Microsoft Azure in 2014, it has seen significant growth in the amount of enterprise customers developing hybrid and multi-cloud deployments across five continents including North America, South America, Asia, Europe and Australia. Equinix currently offers direct connections to Microsoft Azure via the Equinix Cloud Exchange™ in 20 metros around the world.
Equinix's Gold Competency status was awarded in recognition of its expertise in the areas hybrid cloud enablement through EPS. Hybrid cloud continues to be a top priority for enterprise CIOs. In fact, based on results from IDC's 2017 CloudView Survey, nearly 70% of cloud users expect that within two years the majority of their IT capabilities will be delivered through some form of cloud service — public, private, or hybrid. Yet the path to the hybrid cloud can be technically challenging. Through EPS and Equinix's ability to provide direct access to Microsoft Azure via the Equinix Cloud Exchange, Equinix helps its enterprise customers advance their cloud strategies and capitalize on these cloud benefits by seamlessly incorporating cloud services into their existing architectures.
"Hybrid cloud is revolutionizing the way enterprises do business, and Equinix is committed to empowering our customers to deploy high-performance, scalable and secure hybrid cloud solutions on a global scale. A critical component of this is interconnectivity to Microsoft Azure and Office 365 platforms inside our vast platform of data centers. We are honored to have reached Gold partner status with Microsoft, and look forward to providing additional ways for our global customers to achieve improved performance of their cloud-based applications," said Bob Breynaert, global managing director, Microsoft strategic alliance, Equinix.
Microsoft Gold certification, provided to a select group of partners who demonstrate that they meet strict criteria, is the highest level of certification for companies that are part of the Microsoft partnership program. Companies, such as Equinix, that attain this status must provide successful client references and demonstrate that they have developed innovative products and solutions based on Microsoft technologies. Equinix has been aligned with Microsoft for many years to provide high-level interconnection and global access to Microsoft Azure. Equinix will also be expanding its role as a critical partner in Microsoft hybrid cloud solutions by integrating Microsoft Azure Stack into its interconnection offerings.
"We are incredibly proud to have achieved Gold Cloud Platform status. The recipe for our accomplishment ultimately stems from the right mix of a number of symbiotic ingredients: Equinix's hybrid cloud enabling interconnection platform with unprecedented global reach, Microsoft's reputable cloud service offerings, the exceptional quality of work delivered by our Professional Services organization, and last but not least, our extremely innovative customers. Teaming with a pioneering organization like Microsoft is instrumental in being able to deliver end-to-end solutions that quickly deliver business results and satisfy the evolving needs of our customers," said Ryan Mallory, vice president, global solutions enablement, Equinix.
With Equinix, applications and workloads operating in a hybrid cloud are optimized for business value. By directly and securely connecting to Microsoft Azure and Microsoft Azure Stack inside Equinix, customers can take advantage of:
- Superior application performance and user experience
- Enhanced compliance by connecting privately to Microsoft Azure and keeping data within region, without going over the public internet
- Increased cloud security, by bypassing the public internet
EPS offers practical guidance and proven solutions to help enterprise customers optimize and future-proof their data center architecture and cloud journey. EPS provides hands-on experience in assessing, enabling, migrating, optimizing, planning, designing, testing and deploying IT infrastructure, networks and cloud architectures.
*Source: IDC FutureScape: Worldwide Cloud 2017 Predictions; Doc # US41863916, Nov. 2016
