Equinix has announced a fully automated and interconnected bare metal service, Equinix Metal, that would offer digital businesses automated, “as-a-service” deployments. 

Tapping into the growing trend of as-a-service solutions, Equinix Metal will enable companies to deploy physical infrastructure of their choice at software speed across Equinix’s platform. 

“Equinix Metal is another important step forward in our product portfolio, enabling enterprises to bring together and interconnect hybrid multicloud infrastructures at global scale on Platform Equinix,” said Sara Baack, the Chief Product Officer at Equinix. 

Equinix Metal combines new subsidiary Packet’s API-first hardware automation technology with its very own cloud-driven data center-to-data center infrastructure Equinix Fabric, to give birth to four key features for businesses. 

“With Equinix Metal integrated with Equinix Fabric, infrastructure customers can move at software speed, and tap into the global reach, interconnection value, and unparalleled community of ecosystem partners that digital leaders have come to expect from Equinix,” added Ms. Baack. 

The first key feature is that Equinix Metal is fully automated with a click-and-configure interface and a provisioning API.  

Second, thanks to the above integrations, Equinix Metal offers a global, software-defined interconnection service that is available in 46 markets all around the world, enabling businesses to deploy the interface in under 15 minutes. 

“By deploying Grafana Cloud on Equinix Metal and adding direct, private connectivity through Equinix Fabric, our customers can more easily and securely interact with their metrics, logs and dashboards across on-prem, public or private cloud, or at the edge,” said Raj Dutt, the Founder and CEO, Grafana Labs who provide its mission-critical observability platform to some of the largest companies in the world. 

Next, as a result of Equinix’s acquisition of Packet in March 2020, Equinix Metal is production ready and helps enterprises seamlessly deploy hybrid multicloud architectures and quickly access thousands of networks, enterprises and clouds on Platform Equinix.

“Red Hat has championed an industry vision for open hybrid cloud architectures, with a consistent foundation from bare metal to virtualised infrastructures and the cloud, enabling customers to truly build any app anywhere,” said Chris Wright, the Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer at Red Hat. 

“Collaborating with partners like Equinix to help enable our customers’ hybrid cloud success is a key part of that vision, which is why we are pleased to be working with them to deliver Red Hat OpenShift on the Equinix Metal service,” he added. 

Lastly, with the focus on automating foundational hardware and integrating into DevOps, hybird cloud and open source software, Equinix Metal is a virtual, ecosystem-friendly product that gives users freedom and flexibility. 

“By augmenting its portfolio of foundational services with high-performance, fully automated compute, the addition of Equinix Metal can help digital businesses extract greater value from Platform Equinix’s rich ecosystems and global interconnection fabric and rapidly deploy the physical infrastructure of their choice,” said Mark Bowker, the Senior Analyst of ESG. 

The company’s global digital ecosystem reach further promises reduced latency, increased time-to-market speed, and stronger hardware security.

“With COVID-19 we’ve seen enterprises accelerate their digital transformation plans from years to months. Today’s digital leaders are increasingly gaining a competitive advantage by leveraging infrastructure choices that meet their exact needs and can be deployed globally and interconnected,” said Mr. Bowker.

Equinix Metal is now available on Equinix’s data centers in Silicon Valley, Washington D.C., New York, and Amsterdam. It is expected to be available at an additional fourteen global metros by early 2021.

In September 2020, Equinix and VMware expanded their hybrid cloud partnership to offer its SD-WAN Edge on Equinix Network Edge as a virtual network function.

Got a story, opinion or more information on this article? Contact us at editor@w.media.
And sign up to the W.Media Newsletter to get the latest data center, cloud and cybersecurity updates!