Equinix Inc EQIX

Equinix, Inc. (Equinix), incorporated on June 22, 1998, operates as a real estate investment trust (REIT). The Company connects various companies directly to their customers and partners inside interconnected data centers. The Company operates through three segments: Americas, EMEA and Asia-Pacific. The Company's platform Equinix, combines a global footprint of International Business Exchange (IBX) data centers, a range of interconnection solutions, ecosystems and support. Its customers include carriers, mobile and other bandwidth providers, cloud and information technology (IT) services providers, content providers, financial companies and enterprises. It provides each customer access to a choice of business partners and solutions based on their colocation, interconnection and managed IT service needs. Its colocation offerings include operations space, storage space, cabinets and power for customers' colocation needs inside Equinix's IBX data centers. Its interconnection offerings include Equinix Cloud Exchange, which enables simultaneous, direct and secure connections to multiple clouds from a single port; Equinix Performance Hub, which takes enterprise IT inside any one of its global data centers, and Equinix Data Hub, which enables secure, compliant access to business-critical data and analytics wherever users are located around the globe.

Colocation and Related Offerings

The Company's IBX data centers provide its customers with secure environments that are necessary for optimum Internet commerce interconnection. Its IBX data centers include multiple layers of physical security, cabinet space availability, on-site trained staff, dedicated areas for customer care and equipment staging, alternating current/direct current (AC/DC) power systems, and other and fault-tolerant infrastructure systems. Some specifications of offerings provided by individual IBX data centers may differ based on original facility design or market. Within its IBX data centers, customers can deploy their equipment and interconnect with a choice of networks, cloud providers or other business partners. It also provides customized solutions for customers looking to package its IBX offerings as part of their solutions. Its colocation offerings include Cabinets, Power and IBXflex.

Interconnection Solutions

The Company's interconnection solutions enable interconnection and traffic exchange between Equinix customers. Its interconnection solutions consist of Physical Cross Connect/Direct Interconnections, Equinix Internet Exchange, Equinix Metro Connect, Internet Connectivity Services and Equinix Cloud Exchange. Physical Cross Connect/Direct Interconnections are the physical link between customers and can be implemented within approximately 24 hours of request. Customers may choose to connect to and peer through the central switching fabric of its Equinix Internet Exchange, rather than purchase a direct physical cross connection. With a connection to this switch, a customer can aggregate multiple interconnects over one physical connection with multiple, linked 100-gigabit ports of capacity, instead of purchasing individual physical cross connects.

The Equinix Cloud Exchange is an interconnection solution that enables direct access to multiple clouds from multiple networks around the world. Cloud Exchange provides virtualized, private direct connections that bypass the Internet to provide security with a range of bandwidth options. It allows businesses to connect to many participants (clouds, networks and enterprise customers) over a single physical port, enabling bandwidth allocation among various parties. The Equinix Cloud Exchange Portal and application programming interfaces (APIs) streamline the process of provisioning and managing connections to multiple cloud services and networks.

Equinix Performance Hub

The Equinix Performance Hub enables companies to securely and directly connect to public clouds, deploy a private cloud and lay the foundation of a hybrid cloud. Performance Hub solutions are extensions of a company's IT network that reside within Equinix data centers. An Equinix Performance Hub places corporate IT resources near user populations in IBX data centers connected to various networks and clouds. Performance Hub solutions can be implemented gradually, without closing or moving out of existing data centers.

Equinix Data Hub

Equinix Data Hub is an extension of the Equinix Performance Hub framework and is a data center solution for enterprises offering real-time analytics, Internet of Things (IoT), data collection and data protection. Data Hub use cases include cloud integrated tiered storage, big data analytics infrastructures and data protection and replication.

Solution Validation Centers

Equinix Solution Validation Centers (SVCs) are facilities that allow customers to test their IT infrastructure, network, cloud and data center rollouts in a real-world environment before full build-out and deployment. Customers can measure how their applications perform when moved off legacy systems, spot and address technical barriers, and optimize various infrastructure components, network connections and applications. As of December 31, 2016, its SVCs operated in 18 markets globally.

The Company competes with AT&T, COLT, NTT, CoreSite, Digital Realty Trust, Global Switch, Interxion, Telehouse, Digital Realty Trust, DuPont Fabros Technology, e-Shelter, Global Switch, CenturyLink, NaviSite, Rackspace, SunGard and Verizon Business.