IBM SoftLayer Added to Equinix Cloud Exchange

The Equinix Cloud Exchange interconnect solution that connects to a variety of cloud services has rounded out its list of top public cloud providers with the signing on of IBM SoftLayer.

IBM SoftLayer is the last of the biggest public cloud providers to sign on to the ever-growing cloud services interconnect offering. With this deal, Equinix is now offering connection to SoftLayer in nine markets in the Americas, Europe and Asia-Pacific.

However, it’s not the first time Equinix and IBM have worked together. Previously, they partnered on a direct connect solution inside Equinix’s International Business Exchange (IBX) data centers through SoftLayer’s Direct Link service, the cloud service’s dedicated network connection. The extension of the partnership to put SoftLayer on Equinix Cloud Exchange will provide Equinix’s customers and IBM with the same benefits already shared by the likes of Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and Google Compute Engine, all of which are already partners in Cloud Exchange.

“Equinix Cloud Exchange continues to build momentum with secure, low-latency connections to multiple cloud providers, and adding IBM SoftLayer to our growing portfolio will continue to help our enterprise customer realize the benefits of the cloud,” said Ihab Tarazi, Equinix’s CTO, in a prepared statement. “SoftLayer, with its broad reach into the enterprise market and proven success in networking will be a great asset to Cloud Exchange, enabling customers to seamlessly replicate data between markets. Our direct access capabilities to cloud services such as SoftLayer, provide enterprise customer with a choice of multiple clouds to better enable their hybrid cloud strategies.”

In its announcement Equinix noted that a recent survey of 650 IT decision-makers found that the majority (77 percent) said they plan to implement multi-cloud architectures in the coming year. At the same time, security and performance are still major inhibitors to cloud adoption. That’s where interconnection services like Cloud Exchange help to bridge the gap and make it easier for enterprises to transition to and access popular cloud services.