What if you could access new colocation resources, on demand, with a simple, standardized, interconnected design that’s ready for immediate use? Perhaps you need to get infrastructure up and running quickly to help your business expand into one or more new countries or regions. Or, maybe your global business has an imperative to scale into new technologies and connect more edge locations.
In the fight to stay relevant, organizations need to respond to ever-evolving business requirements with speed and agility. Creating scalable, repeatable infrastructure to support their strategic priorities comes with a host of challenges, though—and they don’t always have time to build out custom solutions. As global enterprises move away from running centralized, private data centers, they’re taking advantage of cloud and colocation to create a more flexible distributed hybrid IT infrastructure.
Companies choose colocation because it not only helps them reduce IT overhead but also allows them to tap into the colo provider’s interconnection ecosystems and expertise on data center performance, reliability, security, sustainability and more. In situations where speed and standardization are essential, pre-deployed server cabinets—designed based on the most frequently used specifications—help companies fast-track new infrastructure deployments while ensuring the best security, reliability and performance.
Secure Cabinets for interconnection at Equinix IBX data centers
An Equinix Secure Cabinet housed within an Equinix International Business Exchange™ (IBX®) data center is your entry point to our global interconnected business ecosystem and on-ramp to Platform Equinix®.
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Common roadblocks to building a global IT infrastructure
IT leaders are confronted with a variety of barriers to deploying new infrastructure quickly. For example, consider an enterprise that needs to expand into several new regions in the next few months. It might face a range of challenges, such as:
- Getting access to equipment in various locations
- Connecting its existing network into new regions
- Lack of available staff for new deployments
- Different legal and data privacy standards, currencies and languages in new regions
Any of these challenges could significantly slow down progress on deploying new infrastructure. But working with a colocation provider can ease many of these concerns—even more-so if the business takes advantage of standardized, prebuilt cabinets. That’s why Equinix created Secure Cabinet Express in our Equinix International Business Exchange™ (IBX®) data centers. It’s a standardized version of our Equinix Secure Cabinets that’s ready for immediate use.
A standardized colo cabinet that’s ready for service
Individually tailored solutions have their place. Who doesn’t enjoy choosing from among many custom options when designing a new car or planning a new kitchen? Likewise, for some IT deployments, you have time to work with experts to help you design a bespoke private cage or cabinet. But we’ve found that most businesses deploying a new cabinet in our colocation facilities follow a similar set of specifications on cabinet size, power configuration, cable management, power distribution units (PDUs), interconnection and other key cabinet specs. So, it makes good sense to take advantage of a standardized, prebuilt cabinet that already has the most commonly used space, power and connection settings.
When you’re in a hurry to stand up infrastructure, pre-installed, ready-for-service cabinets can be deployed in just a few days, instead of weeks or months. And it’s easily repeatable in locations around the world—so you get the same product no matter where you are.
Customer success story: Connecting new retail locations to the cloud
A large North American retailer needed to quickly connect regional stores in the Pacific Northwest to Google Cloud for better application performance and uptime. It used Secure Cabinet Express to deploy repeatable infrastructure in these edge locations and connect to its cloud and technology partners using Equinix Fabric®. The solution quickly enabled new stores to connect to the retailer’s hybrid cloud infrastructure.
Why choose prebuilt cabinets from a colocation provider?
Using prebuilt, standardized cabinets offers several benefits:
- Peace of mind with robust physical security and industry-leading uptime
- Easily repeatable and scalable deployment of IT infrastructure
- Interconnection-ready, pre-wired demarcation enabling all your connectivity needs
- Faster deployment cycles with cabinets that are ready within a few days
- Improved sustainability over operating your own data center
Preconfigured cabinets can massively simplify and speed up the process of setting up infrastructure so that your teams can focus on strategic tasks, not design reviews. With Equinix Secure Cabinet Express, you get a standardized cabinet construction in a size that accommodates most equipment, standard power specifications and PDUs, as well as interconnection-ready virtual circuits and physical circuits to connect you with your preferred cloud and technology providers via Equinix Fabric and Equinix Cross Connects, respectively.
Secure Cabinet Express is prebuilt and ready for service immediately—so it is perfect for situations that are highly time-sensitive.
Customer success story: Partnering with a new colo provider to minimize latency
A managed service provider (MSP) in Europe needed to immediately deploy a different colocation solution because its existing provider couldn’t accommodate its workload latency requirements. Secure Cabinet Express allowed the MSP to deploy in Platform Equinix in only a week and a half with low-latency connection to business partners and applications via Equinix Fabric and Equinix Internet Access.
Connecting your hybrid infrastructure
Deploying a prebuilt cabinet on Platform Equinix is about more than just speed and scalability. It also allows you to tap into our large global footprint and connect to a robust ecosystem of technology providers. A rich interconnection ecosystem supports the adoption of emerging technologies like IoT, AI, augmented and virtual reality.
Customer success story: Deploying a colocation offering for global customers
A global hosting provider based in Asia needed a standard colocation offering it could easily replicate for customers around the world. It needed to be located near its telecommunications partner for backbone connectivity. The company now uses Secure Cabinet Express as a standard colo deployment for its customers. It can deploy the solution within a few days and connect customers to key business partners via the Equinix interconnection ecosystem.
To learn more about Secure Cabinet Express and see how you can deploy prebuilt cabinets in our colocation facilities, read the ebook on Equinix Secure Cabinets and download the Secure Cabinets data sheet.
And stay tuned, because we’re looking forward to providing a more streamlined ordering process and delivering a more service-like experience for colocation on Platform Equinix.