Equinix, a global interconnection and data center company, has formed strategic partnership with Microsoft to enable cloud connectivity to Windows Azure in key markets globally through Equinix International Business Exchange (IBX) data centers.
Windows Azure allows enterprises to flexibly build applications using any language, tool or framework.
According to the Cisco Global Cloud Networking Survey, the adoption of cloud-based applications will continue to increase as enterprises achieve the benefits of cost savings, flexibility, and reduced operational demands.
Among the challenges of cloud implementation, data protection security was cited as the top obstacle to a successful implementation of cloud services (72 percent), followed by availability and reliability of cloud applications (67 percent), device-based security (66 percent), visibility and control of applications across the WAN (60 percent) and overall application performance (60 percent).
Equinix neutral data center environment offers security, performance and a globally consistent experience for enterprises that are moving into the cloud, the company said.
With this offering Equinix customers can connect their owned and managed infrastructure directly to Windows Azure via Platform Equinix.
The solution can establish a private network connection that may reduce network costs, increase throughput, reduce latency and provide more consistent network performance than Internet-based connections.
With its Windows Azure through Platform, Equinix allows enterprises to bridge their cloud and data center strategies allowing full integration between cloud services and internal applications, and flexible and dynamic bandwidth through automated network provisioning.
A direct connection to Windows Azure will be available in multiple Equinix IBX data centers across the U.S. in the first half of 2014.
Equinix and Microsoft will be onboarding a small number of customers for early trials by the end of 2013, the company said.
Equinix data centers allow companies to gain direct and secure access to public and private cloud services. Once connected within an Equinix global data center, these businesses have the broadest selection of high-performance cloud services to create the architecture that best fits their objectives.
