What is Equinix?

Equinix is a global colocation datacenter provider based in Redwood City, California specializing across 27 countries. Equinix, like many data centers, have seen an influx of hybrid cloud service competitors within their facilities explode in growth.  Many clients find they need lower-cost bandwidth and colocation and access to cloud connectivity over anything and there is a great selection of Equinix competitors to choose from. 

If you have an Equinix colocation deployment today, collocating with another provider to have data center redundancy is an approach many enterprises have today. 

 

Need a Detailed Matrix of Colocation Providers? Get the Comprehensive eBook! In this eBook, we’ll cover:

  • Minimum colocation rack deployment 
  • Colocation provider’s Metered Power  
  • Datacenter footprint by US, EMEA, APAC and LATM 
  • Backbone connectivity 
  • Colocation provider’s ability to connect to cloud onramps such as AWS, Azure, OCI, and others.
      Here’s an example of the detailed breakdown you’ll get in the colocation eBook!

When considering any colocation provider, looking at the best ISP diversity options should be top of the list.  All the major providers have several external service providers “lit” in their data center. 

We are seeing more enterprises select a hybrid colocation environment to support workloads not cloud-ready or simply add a hybrid disaster recovery option to their topology.  We have successfully assisted hundreds of organizations design, negotiate, deploy and implement within global data centers include colocation moves. 

Many enterprises that have a data center footprint today need the flexibility to lift and shift to another facility, often close to their cloud instance.  The challenges with data center moves include: 

  1. Resources to deinstall and reinstall 
  1. Swing gear is to be used temporarily until the production environment arrives. 
  1. Equipment recycling, turning down older services, hard drive wiping. 
  1. Staff – taking critical staff out of the daily operation for a data center move is problematic 

What is “cloudier” is your choice of network connection from a third-party telco or private entity into cloud on-ramps.  Not all data centers should be treated equally, and every enterprise is unique.  Macronet Services removes the guessing, and potential cost/FinOps challenges and simply designs for your use case.  Our engineering methodology completes in minutes and generally saves clients 30-50% in network fees. 

Colocation Evaluation, Pricing, and Selection 

Macronet Services’ experience dates back to the early days of colocation when Exodus Communications ultimately started the commercial offering which became Savvis.  Using a colocation consultant such as Macronet Services affords an unbiased approach to your specific use case.   

 

Steps to evaluate colocation competitors 

  1. Location 
  1. Pricing 
  1. Hyperscaler reach – the ability to use cloud connectivity onramps globally 
  1. Managed Services – areas such as VM management, assessment, and deployment. 
  1. Remote Hands 
  1. Datacenter Move services – Ability to lift and shift gear to another colocation facility. 

 

Here Are the Top 5 Equinix Competitors in Alphabetical Order:

 

1. CoreSite 

Originally founded in 2001 following the dot.com bubble, it boasts 20+ datacenters in the US.  In December of 2021 CoreSite was acquired by American Tower, so there will be more to follow with their strategic plans in the future. 

Features 

  • Established Multi-Tenant Data Center (MTDC) provider 
  • In business since 2001 
  • Owns 90% of assets 
  • Strong financials 
  • NYSE (COR) 
  • Security and reliability 
  • 100% uptime SLA 
  • Redundant power and cooling systems (N+1 or 2N) 
  • 24x7x365 in house security 
  • Multiple layers of security including man traps and biometric scanners 
  • Remote hands support is available 
  • Best-in-class customer experience: scored 2x the industry average net promotor score (NPS) for telco companies 
  • Diverse customer ecosystem – connectivity to leading cloud providers and networks 
  • Helps customers meet US regulatory requirements 
  • Assessments and certifications such SOC 1 Type 2 and SOC 2 Type 2 

 

2. Centersquare

Centersquare (formerly Cyxtera Technologies) combines a worldwide footprint of 60+ data centers with a software-powered architecture that brings on-demand provisioning to a broad range of colocation, compute & connectivity services allowing IT leaders to rapidly deploy dedicated IT infrastructure with a cloud-like provisioning experience.
 

The Sweet Spot 

  • 60+ world-class data centers in 29 global markets with the Uptime Institute M&O Stamp of Approval 
  • 2+ million sq. ft. of data center space 
  • Close to 200 Megawatts of power 
  • 100% Availability SLAs 
  • Certified engineers and operations personnel 
  • Hybrid &, cloud native, cloud agnostic environments 
  • Software-defined perimeter solutions  

Data Centers 

  • Global footprint of world-class data centers with on-demand infrastructure services 
  • Leading software-defined perimeter solution for intelligent, adaptive secure access 
  • A complete suite of offense and defense-oriented threat management and analytics solutions 
  • Security solutions extend across public clouds and on-premises infrastructure for protection across hybrid I.T. 
  • Average of eight carriers per data center and growing 
  • Direct connect to MSOs and CDNs ideal for edge delivery 
  • Access to direct, private low-latency connectivity to public clouds 

Data Center Services 

  • 100% Availability 
  • Lower costs for managing IT 
  • Improved ability to respond to ebbs and flows of capacity needs through Cyxtera Extensible Data Center (CXD) 
  • Ability to provision data center resources in hours vs. months 
  • Network connectivity to leading network providers 
  • Connectivity to leading cloud providers 

 

Recently, it was announced Cyxterra was restructuring to become a REIT which it plans to complete the beginning of 2023. 

 

3. Digital Realty 

Digital Realty supports the world’s leading enterprises and service providers by delivering the full spectrum of data center, colocation and interconnection solutions. PlatformDIGITAL, our global data center platform, provides customers a trusted foundation and proven Pervasive Datacenter Architecture PDx solution methodology for scaling digital business and efficiently managing data gravity challenges. Our global data center footprint gives customers access to the connected communities among 280+ facilities in 50 metros, across 26 countries on 6 continents. 

The Sweet Spot 

 DRT provides global coverage, capacity, and ecosystem connectivity needs for enterprises of all by providing the leading global platform, cloud connectivity, and colocation solutions.

DRT’s PlatformDIGITAL is a fit-for-purpose platform for infrastructure proving 

  • infrastructure delivery 
  • Standardization of deployment and operations 
  • Leverage global digital ecosystems 
  • Shorten connection time to partners, providers, and markets

4. Expedient 

Expedient is not your traditional datacenter partner.  They were named VMware’s Americas Cloud Partner of the Year and acknowledged in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Disaster Recovery as a Service.  Expedient data centers are compliant with a variety of regulatory mandates, including the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) as well as the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS). Service Organization Control (SOC) reports are published annually for all locations. 

Product Differentiation:  

  • VMware-based Expedient Enterprise Cloud with 50% better value than hyperscale 
  • PushButton DR provides fastest failover in the industry 
  • Datacenter buy/leaseback of your corporate private facility
  • 100% SLA guarantee 
  • Predictable pricing 

Gartner Score – 4.8/5.0   

 

5. Flexential 

Flexential provides enterprises with colocation, network connectivity, cloud, security, and implementation services across its network of data centers.  Some of the key areas they have include: 

  • 30+ datacenters strategically located connectivity-rich data centers. 
  • Tier 3 & 4 rated servicing all major US markets and Europe with 3 million square feet of hardened raised floor space 
  • 170 MW of UPS capacity 
  • N+1 cooling redundancy 
  • 100% power SLA, and 1.3 PUE efficiency ratings. Ideal for AI, ML, IoT application environments that require up to 50 kW per cabinet of power. 
  • Cloud Managed Services  
  • Desktop-as-a-Service (DaaS)– Our cloud portfolio also includes desktop-as-a-service for fully managed, secure, and available virtual desktop instances for Windows and Linux environments. 
  • Recovery Cloud (DRaaS)– Additional cloud services include fully managed DRaaS for simple, cost-effective, cloud-based disaster recovery. 

Contact Macronet for a brief evaluation of your topology and we’ll provide suggestions on which provider(s) you should evaluate in your colocation and hybrid cloud initiatives. 

In addition, Macronet Services does have tools to help define a solid dark fiber network, 20+ years of experience and a maniacal focus on engineered solutions.  Please contact us for a quick assessment.