The partners aim to make it easier for their joint customers to access IBM Cloud services from their digital infrastructures on Platform Equinix globally through the direct and secure interconnection of hybrid IT infrastructures
Equinix partners with IBM to help customers and partners speed up their hybrid cloud journeys. (Credit: Cristiano Tomás/Wikipedia.org)
Digital infrastructure company Equinix has joined forces with IBM to expedite hybrid cloud journeys for customers and partners.
Through their partnership, Equinix Metal and IBM will enable the integration of multiple cloud solutions in hybrid environments for enterprises. The companies will also address the challenges in digital transformation, enable automation of tasks that consume time, and simplify collaboration.
As part of it, the partners aim to make it easier for their joint customers to access IBM Cloud services from their digital infrastructures on Platform Equinix globally through the direct and secure interconnection of hybrid IT infrastructures.
According to Equinix, IBM Cloud Satellite can be deployed at 230 of its data centres across 64 metros with the Equinix Fabric software-defined interconnection service. This will help enterprises in connecting to IBM Cloud from their physical or digital infrastructures, said the company.
Equinix Fabric has been designed to help firms connect to IBM Cloud, including those in metros that do not have any native IBM Cloud Direct Link presence. The service is also designed to allow the users of IBM to connect in an integrated hybrid multi-cloud architecture with other SaaS or cloud providers.
On the other hand, IBM Cloud Satellite securely delivers IBM Cloud services to any environment where data is residing, irrespective of its location, whether at the edge, on premises, or on other public clouds.
To help enterprises fast track the hybrid cloud journeys of enterprises, Equinix Metal, an automated, interconnected, low-latency bare metal-as-a-service (BMaaS), has been certified to run IBM and Red Hat applications. Initially, the focus will be on Red Hat OpenShift, which will be delivered through IBM Cloud Satellite.
Equinix blockchain and neural data systems director Jason Sfaeols, in a company blog, wrote: “IBM Cloud Satellite on Equinix Metal expands the existing IBM delivery options with an on-demand BMaaS that is globally distributed and metro-based — across Equinix core and edge metros.
“When deploying and running Kubernetes workloads, businesses can use the combination of Equinix Fabric, Equinix Metal and Network Edge virtual network services on Platform Equinix to help create an interconnected digital infrastructure at global scale to their choice of thousands of customers, partners, and network and cloud service providers in the industry’s largest interconnected digital and business ecosystem.”
Recently, IBM unveiled an on-chip accelerated artificial intelligence (AI) processor called the IBM Telum Processor at the annual Hot Chips conference.