Realizing the Benefits of Local Clouds with Equinix and AWS

Moving to the cloud is an essential step in an organization’s digital transformation journey. According to IDC, over 70% of CIOs in Asia-Pacifc have a cloud-first strategy in place in 2020, including workload determination for hosted, public or local cloud. 74% are currently using Software-as-a-service (SaaS) and over 50% are using Platform-as-a-service (PaaS) and Infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS).[1]

In fact, the Global Interconnection Index (GXI) Volume 4, a study published by Equinix, predicts that Asia-Pacific will lead in private connectivity bandwidth growth for Cloud & IT Services globally, with a 51% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) between 2019 and 2023. This is a strong indication that companies in the region are turning to cloud. To help customers accelerate their digital transformation journeys, AWS has validated Equinix IBXs in 20+ metros to ensure redundant power, cooling, and network connectivity along with sufficient physical security and rack support. This allows you to deploy AWS Outposts to our IBXs faster.

Adding AWS Outposts to the virtualization mix

For “hard to shift” infrastructure applications which require security, compliance, local data processing and low latency, it is becoming more common for organizations to look at AWS Outposts with Equinix to rehost or rearchitect systems. Local clouds, such as AWS Outposts, skip the service provider component and allows enterprises to manage applications on-premises or at an Equinix location. It is forecast that businesses in Asia-Pacific will run 40% of their applications on local clouds, both hosted and on-premise.[2]

Enterprises are increasingly shifting to local clouds for a number of key benefits, notably:

• Better design: On-premises solutions tailored to specific customer requirements
• Reduced cost: Local clouds can provide controllable, scalable cost advantages over public offerings
• Management consistency: Enforce consistency across public and local cloud to save duplication of effort and skills
• Lower complexity: Reduce complexity by replicating functionality across local clouds
• Time-to-deployment: customers can deploy & use AWS Outposts in as little as six weeks in Equinix IBXs in 20+ metros

However, local cloud on its own isn’t the solution to all virtualization requirements. To meet growing infrastructure needs, over 90% of enterprises in Asia-Pacific expect to rely on a mix of on-premises/dedicated private cloud, several public clouds, and legacy platforms by 2022.[3]

Distributed applications entail the management of multiple clouds across local and public infrastructure, with many businesses lacking the ability or capacity to tie all of these different environments together with direct, secure connectivity for optimal application performance and data protection. A hybrid multicloud strategy can help solve this challenge, by placing on-premises critical applications and information resources in close proximity to cloud workloads.

Enabling enterprises to embrace a hybrid multicloud strategy

Equinix and AWS to help enterprises accelerate their hybrid multicloud transformations with AWS Outposts and AWS Direct Connect  at  Equinix International Business Exchange™ (IBX®) data centers.

With Equinix Fabric™, businesses can leverage private and secure connectivity to quickly deploy hybrid multicloud infrastructures by connecting private IT infrastructure to multiple cloud platforms within minutes over high-speed, low-latency virtualized connections.

To support real-time workloads, enterprises can use Equinix Fabric to easily connect to AWS services via AWS Outposts in the same metro where their infrastructures are located. For other workloads, like data backup, they can connect to 150+ AWS services via an AWS Direct Connect location in a different metro.

Reliable AWS adjacent hybrid infrastructure

As a trusted partner, Equinix has more certified AWS Outposts locations than any other data center provider. Currently, AWS Outposts is available to customers in Equinix IBX data centers across strategic markets globally, including Hong Kong, Melbourne, Osaka, Singapore, Sydney and Tokyo in Asia-Pacific.

Platform Equinix® delivers easy access to AWS Direct Connect in 33+ business-rich, metros to give businesses a fast, secure and reliable on-ramp to AWS over private, high-speed, low-latency connections. Leveraging AWS Direct Connect on Platform Equinix, businesses can bypass the public internet and achieve private connectivity and full integration between AWS cloud services and their business applications. And using AWS Direct Connect with  Equinix Fabric, enterprises can scale high-speed, virtual interconnection to AWS around the world.

By also tapping into the power of the unmatched digital ecosystems located at Equinix, organizations can further unlock value as they gain access to potentially thousands of new global partners they can interconnect with via Equinix Fabric.

The right partners will help businesses build up optimized local cloud solution and 76% of large enterprises stated believed the same.[4] Discover how our collaboration with AWS can bring you the hybrid cloud advantage and power your digital business.

[1] IDC Infobrief, sponsored by Equinix and AWS – Business Impact of Local Clouds: How Partners Can Position Local Cloud Solutions, January 2021

[2] IDC CloudPulse Survey, 2020

[3] IDC FutureScape: Worldwide Cloud 2020 Predictions — APEJ Implications, January 2020

[4] IDC’s Enterprise Perception of On-Premises Private Cloud Solutions from Public Cloud Providers, July 2020