Network Agility at Cloud Speed

How modern enterprise networking with Equinix and AT&T can deliver the network agility multicloud organizations need

Erik Hensarling
Chris Porell
Network Agility at Cloud Speed

Speed and agility have become top priorities for IT leaders operating dynamic hybrid and multicloud architectures. Infrastructure and connectivity requirements can change quickly based on new opportunities or disruptions in the broader IT landscape—and that’s not likely to change anytime soon. Enterprise use cases increasingly require fast, flexible infrastructure solutions and easy interconnection with a wide range of clouds and service providers. IT teams often struggle to respond to these dynamic needs with traditional physical equipment in on-premises data centers, but on-demand virtual infrastructure can help them go to market faster and adjust rapidly to the evolving needs of their business.

Moreover, the move to the edge continues to accelerate, furthering the need for flexible infrastructure solutions that connect distributed environments across many global locations. Both enterprises and service providers are interconnecting edge infrastructure 20% faster than the core, according to the Equinix Global Interconnection Index (GXI) 2023 report. As the edge matures and organizations increasingly rely on complex distributed architectures, agile networks have become foundational to a successful digital transformation to ensure “the edge” becomes integral to the strategy.

Equinix and AT&T are working together to implement more agile modern networks to meet the demands of global multicloud businesses. Our integrated offerings support a broad range of networking capabilities, digital services and traditional data center services. These offerings allow you to design a holistic agile network in a vendor-neutral environment that gives you maximum options for connecting to all the right partners in all the right places as your business evolves.

Edge infrastructure calls for cloud-native agility

Learn how a cloud-native and cloud-neutral approach to networking will prepare the enterprise for shifts in strategy and enable these organizations to react quickly as use of edge matures.

Download analyst report
Edge Infrastructure Calls for Cloud-Native Agility

Digital-ready infrastructure to enable network agility

In pursuit of network agility, companies need the freedom to change connectivity on demand to meet evolving business requirements. They may need to scale infrastructure up or down suddenly because the demand for resources has changed without warning. Or they could be looking to implement a distributed edge strategy without having to stand up physical hardware.

Digital-ready infrastructure solutions offer many advantages:

  • Faster deployments—often in minutes instead of weeks or months
  • Reduced costs—since you only pay for what you need for only as long as you need it
  • Increased productivity for IT teams who no longer need to work inside a data center
  • And, of course, greater agility to scale on demand

These benefits are the reason why Equinix and AT&T Business have collaborated to deliver hybrid networking solutions that combine physical and virtual networking capabilities, with digital and data center cloud interconnection services. Our integrated digital-ready solutions help you take advantage of the best of both business-class WAN services with digital interconnection to build the agile network you need for the future of your business.

Delivering the core components of the modern agile network

In our view, a modern agile network should enable three core elements to support the needs of multicloud organizations:

  1. The ability to implement the right connection for each business location needed—a strategy we call network right-sizing
  2. Distribution of infrastructure to the digital edge—the optimal places where your key users, facilities and partners are located
  3. Interconnection to key network, communication, security and cloud providers in your ecosystem

AT&T Business and Equinix have been working together for many years to deliver modern networking solutions to our shared customers. Our combined solutions leverage Equinix Digital Services, including Network Edge virtual networking services and Equinix Fabric® software-defined interconnection. Network Edge offers on-demand, virtual SD-WAN gateways, routers, firewalls, load balancers and multicloud routers. Furthermore, Equinix Fabric provides direct access to hundreds of network, IaaS, SaaS, security and other cloud providers. Both are provided through an easy-to-use self-service portal.

Through the partnership between Equinix and AT&T, businesses can access the vast AT&T fiber and 5G network in Equinix International Business Exchange™ (IBX®) data centers around the world. Traditional AT&T Business solutions—from prebuilt Ethernet to WAN technologies—are available in Equinix data centers via Network Edge. And today, AT&T Business also provides Managed Digital Infrastructure capabilities for customers that want fully managed services.

As the architects assigned to the partnership, we’re collaborating to ensure that these technologies work together seamlessly, all connected by Equinix Fabric. Together, our combined portfolios can help your organization create a more flexible infrastructure roadmap to meet your current needs and prepare you for the future of your business.

Helping you transform your network for tomorrow

AT&T Business with Equinix can deliver scalable, on-demand infrastructure and cloud connectivity, while also filling the gap for managed services, voice services and more. We’re excited about what our integrated solutions are doing for shared customers around the world. In fact, Equinix recently named AT&T Business the regional Partner of the Year in the Americas for consistently delivering value to their customers using Platform Equinix.

We know there are many possibilities for how companies might mix and match solutions to address their specific networking needs. That’s why we offer a variety of networking and infrastructure solutions for you to choose from—physical and virtual, self-serviced or fully managed. Our cohesive solutions can help you improve network performance, accelerate deployments, reduce costs and increase IT versatility.

You can find out more about the collaboration between Equinix and AT&T Business on our partnership webpage.

And learn more about the importance of cloud-native agility in our latest analyst report.

 

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Erik Hensarling Global Solutions Architect
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Chris Porell Guest Author: Principal Consultant, AT&T Enterprise Solution Consulting
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