Equinix Beefs Up Edge Services with Packet Purchase

Equinix has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Packet, a bare metal automation platform, to accelerate the development and delivery of its interconnected edge services.

By combining Packet’s developer-oriented bare metal service offering with Equinix’s interconnection capabilities and organic bare metal efforts, Equinix intends to create a “world-class, enterprise-grade” bare metal offering across Platform Equinix, a data center and interconnection platform.

Equinix anticipates the Packet acquisition to close during this quarter. Financial details of the transaction weren’t disclosed.

Equinix’s Sara Baack

“By acquiring Packet we are making it easier for enterprises to seamlessly deploy multicloud solutions at Equinix and extract greater value from our rich ecosystems and global interconnection platform,” said Sara Baack, Equinix’s chief product officer. “Packet’s innovative and agile bare-metal service, and neutral approach to software stacks, fit our own cloud-neutral model and match our strategy for helping enterprises flexibly deploy digital infrastructure, within minutes, at global scale. Our combined strengths will further empower companies to be everywhere they need to be, to interconnect everyone and integrate everything that matters to their business.”

Bare metal is a key foundational element allowing customers to deploy distributed, hybrid multicloud infrastructure on demand, according to Equinix. Packet’s proprietary technology automates physical servers and networks without the use of virtualization or multitenancy, it said.

With a combined Equinix and Packet solution, enterprises and service providers will be able to build and deploy low-latency services at the edge either through their choice of owned physical deployments, or by utilizing the combined offering, which leverages as-a-service consumption to reduce capex and resource requirements.

Equinix expects to disclose additional details of the deal upon completion of the acquisition.

“We started Packet in 2014 with a vision to redefine the next wave of cloud with a focus on the distribution and automation of fundamental infrastructure,” said Zachary Smith, Packet‘s CEO. “This dovetails perfectly with Equinix’s strategy for helping enterprises implement new digital architectures in a growing number of edge locations. The incorporation of Packet into Equinix will accelerate the delivery of enhanced edge services to Equinix’s growing customer base, while continuing to serve the developer community that has come to rely on Packet’s unique offering.”