Equinix and IBM Collaborate to Accelerate Hybrid Cloud Journeys

Equinix® and IBM® are collaborating to help customers and partners integrate multiple cloud solutions in hybrid environments, solve digital transformation challenges, automate time-consuming work, and simplify collaboration. Together, we are working to make it easier for our joint customers to access IBM Cloud® services from their digital infrastructures on Platform Equinix® worldwide via direct and secure interconnection of hybrid IT infrastructures.

IBM Cloud Satellite can be deployed to 230 Equinix data centers across 64 metros with Equinix Fabric™, helping enterprises connect to IBM Cloud from their physical or digital infrastructures. Equinix Fabric is software-defined interconnection designed for companies to connect to IBM Cloud — including in metros with no native IBM Cloud Direct Link presence. Further, it is also designed to enable IBM users to connect with other cloud or SaaS providers in an integrated hybrid multicloud architecture.

Equinix and IBM are working to help enterprises accelerate their hybrid cloud journeys. Equinix Metal™ is now certified to run IBM and Red Hat applications, with an initial focus on Red Hat OpenShift, delivered via IBM Cloud Satellite™. Equinix Metal, the automated, interconnected bare metal-as-a-service (BMaaS), is available in Equinix International Business Exchange™ (IBX®) data centers  around the world.

IBM Cloud Satellite brings IBM Cloud services securely to any environment where data resides – whether at the edge, on premises, or on other public clouds. It is designed to enable clients to access cloud services with consistency and security across any environment, meeting them wherever the data resides.

A driving force behind our collaboration on hybrid multicloud infrastructure is the shift we are seeing from cloud-only deployments to hybrid and multicloud strategies. The Equinix 2020-21 Global Tech Trends Survey reported that hybrid cloud adoption has increased by 12%, while multicloud models have increased 11%, compared to similar declines for public and private cloud. 46% of enterprises are using a hybrid cloud model and 28% are now using a multicloud model.

Source: Equinix 2020-21 Global Tech Trends Survey

IBM Cloud Satellite on Equinix Metal expands workload deployment options

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.

Running IBM and Red Hat applications delivered via IBM Cloud Satellite on Equinix Metal can create a managed global solution for orchestrating containers on Red Hat OpenShift. Since Red Hat OpenShift is infrastructure agnostic, it can be used to manage containers across any combination of on-premises or cloud environments. IBM Cloud Satellite can provide Red Hat OpenShift as a managed service on virtually any x86 infrastructure and addresses security and lifecycle maintenance. Using Equinix Fabric to privately connect multiple cloud platforms can create a singular LAN-like environment for seamless, automated delivery across Platform Equinix, IBM Cloud, and other cloud platforms to run workloads using IBM Cloud Satellite.

Designed for hybrid multi-cloud environments and coupled with Equinix Fabric and Network Edge, this metro-based deployment methodology can help address use cases on a global scale in application and data management, distributed architectures and real-time performance.

Programmatic digital infrastructure simplifies multicloud container management

The demand for real-time response and accuracy is pushing enterprises to move their applications closer to users, and to position data collection and machine learning models near the network edge to take advantage of low latency responses. Bringing this work from the metro core or cloud to the edge is key but isn’t always optimal for every location. For example, if there are one hundred retail stores in a region, data inferencing can be performed on a regional basis with a single Kubernetes cluster at a metro edge on Equinix Metal driving both operational and commercial efficiencies.

To create an effective user experience, this type of compute needs to be deployed programmatically with Infrastructure as Code to reach each resource, which can be achieved through Terraform providers. Once the desired end state is defined in Terraform, providers deliver the code for deploying workloads based on workload type to more than one infrastructure. Programmatic digital infrastructure with IBM Cloud Satellite on Equinix Metal is designed to achieve on-premises-level performance standards, low latency, and can simplify the complexity of container management on multiple clouds through Equinix Fabric.

We are helping businesses address:

• Real-time streaming analytics
• Distributed container management and orchestration
• Process automation
• Metro-targeted storage integration and governance
• Visual analytics
• Regulatory compliance

Equinix is part of IBM’s ecosystem of partners fueling hybrid cloud environments by helping clients manage and modernize workloads from bare metal to multicloud and everything in between with Red Hat OpenShift, the industry’s leading enterprise Kubernetes platform. IBM Cloud Satellite is engineered to give clients the flexibility to bring their applications to environments where their data resides while leveraging the security of IBM Cloud. By leveraging IBM’s Edge Application Manager with Red Hat OpenShift hosted on IBM Cloud Satellite, Equinix can help deploy containerized workloads and extend the reach of hybrid multicloud.

Equinix is uniquely positioned to enable both the on-demand edge infrastructure and private cloud interconnection needed for high performing hybrid mulitcloud architectures. Equinix and IBM enable the seamless delivery of a managed, global platform for running cloud-native applications on Red Hat OpenShift across Platform Equinix.

To learn more, check out the Equinix/IBM Solution Brief