Architecting for the Interconnected Era

At Equinix, we talk a lot about Interconnection.

When companies can connect directly and securely to their customers and partners inside our data centres, it creates tremendous opportunities for growth and shared value. As these businesses become increasingly interdependent and cloud-enabled, they need reliable, secure and fast connectivity to make it happen. They need access to many clouds and real-time data across geographies. Most importantly though, they need data centres that are positioned and built with the future (and its’ possibilities) in mind.

From geographic location, to design through to operations, Equinix data centres are architected for the interconnected era. All Equinix IBX sites, including those in Sydney and Melbourne, are selected for their geographic resilience, but also for their capacity to facilitate better interconnection.

In Sydney, our data centres are now hubs for over 600 different companies, many of whom are ‘talking’ to each other; plugging in or connecting their systems in some way.

As you walk the corridors of these facilities, each frequented daily by around 200 engineers, there are conversations around how companies can connect to each other to accelerate business value. For anyone who thinks data centres are quiet, desolate spaces, think again. Inside these buildings, some of the most important business partnerships are born. “Two network engineers walk into a bar…”, as I like to think of it.

There are many reasons for this, and similarly, many reasons why companies choose Equinix.

Our Sydney data centres are the only place where companies can set up direct links to both of Australia’s two largest peering points along with getting access to: the Southern Cross Cable Head, and the PIPE Pacific Cable. With SY1, SY2, SY3 and soon SY4, “on net” with these transoceanic cable systems, facilitating global connectivity for our customers is an easy process. With direct access to the largest peering exchanges, including Equinix’s Sydney peering exchange, delivering the best user experience to Australian customers is done simply within the building. Not to mention access to Equinix’s cloud exchange providing secure direct connectivity to Amazon AWS, Microsoft Azure Epxress route, Softlayer Direct Link and Oracle Fast Connect to mention a few.

Equinix data centres are also located centrally, at the very hub points of the world’s major cities.

In Sydney, our IBX data centres are merely 6 kilometers from the Central Business District. What does this mean for customers? Well, ease of access to our sites, lower latency and faster connections into key financial and business sites. For many customers, our centres and facilities become an extension of their own office, and we’ve designed them as such to be like that.

Every Equinix data centre meets or exceeds all local and regional structural standards for floods and earthquakes. IBX data centres, including those in Sydney, are built at elevations above sea level and are weather proofed from the inside out. This includes being built above 100 year flood plains.

Further, the specific redundancy measures for all Equinix data centres is a minimum of N+1 for power systems and all major equipment, meaning there’s at least one backup for each and every functioning part at every level of the system designed for concurrent maintainability and with no single point of failure.

In the design and construction of each and every Equinix IBX data centre, considerations are made around risk, ease of access to carriers, power and global networks.

When it comes to day-to-day operations, the Equinix team in Australia has more than 80 engineers on hand with deep subject matter expertise in all key infrastructure components. Controls provide visual representation of each data centre’s building infrastructure systems, including HVAC systems, security, fire suppression, battery backup, generators and their fuel levels. Not to mention that all of our sites are manned 24/7.

A great flow-on advantage too is our ability to leverage more than 145 data centres globally and the lessons that come from running them. No other provider has the global footprint of Equinix, let alone the capacity to leverage this sort of scale.

Our approach to data centre engineering, operational excellence and best in class processes is why Equinix has earned a global reputation and many operational and reliability awards. It’s also why our customers can trust us with their most critical business processes.

We’re ensuring better interconnection is not just possible. Rather, that it can change the future of Australian businesses – beginning with a single conversation in a (highly secure) Equinix corridor.