Optimize your network with a stronger digital core
An interconnected digital core should sit at the heart of any organization’s digital transformation efforts. It establishes their presence in the digital world, and connects them to the locations with the highest concentrations of key service providers. This allows enterprises to optimize for the most cost-effective deployment in each region, scale up those deployments quickly as business needs change, and connect regions with one another.
Network modernization is one example of how enterprises can optimize their digital cores. By deploying network infrastructure in proximity to traffic aggregation points and using direct, private interconnection to bring that infrastructure together, businesses can ensure the high performance and reliability they need from their networks. The fact that Equinix Fabric is available in so many different metros helps make network modernization quick and easy.
In designing connectivity between these metros, Equinix Fabric establishes a level of network resilience that goes beyond simple carrier diversity. We work with multiple carriers to eliminate single points of failure, validate route separation and utilize alternative PoPs wherever possible. We’ve also deployed observability and capacity management tools to help prioritize upgrades that add additional routes or bandwidth for customer traffic.
Customers have the added option of working with a network service provider (NSP) from the Equinix Fabric ecosystem to build additional resilience into their networks. They can achieve this by using the NSP to connect with offsite locations or by adding another backbone connection provided by the NSP.
Drive innovation and flexibility with digital ecosystems
Ecosystem partnerships also play a key role in making your digital infrastructure more agile and resilient, and your network is certainly no exception. Having access to a diverse roster of service providers is obviously an important part of any resilience strategy. However, successfully leveraging ecosystem partnerships requires more than just finding the right service providers. You need to be able to exchange traffic with those service providers quickly, reliably and securely.
Equinix Fabric offers the largest global private network of direct cloud on-ramps with over 210+ native deployments in 46 markets. This is nearly 2.5x more major on-ramps than the largest competitor, and more than the next 13 combined. In markets where Equinix operates, it has over 40% market share of on-ramps. Equinix Fabric has the interconnection density, capacity and automation needed to create reliable connectivity to a range of providers in your digital ecosystem.
In addition, you can tap into our vibrant digital ecosystems to access partner solutions that support further network resilience. For instance, you can use Equinix Fabric alongside our Network Edge portfolio of virtual network functions (VNFs) from top providers. These VNFs perform just like a physical device from the same provider would; the difference is that you can stand up the virtual device in a matter of minutes, not months. This gives you the flexibility to adapt your network any time your needs change, rather than getting locked into CAPEX-intensive physical hardware.
For instance, you can deploy additional capacity on demand to support traffic spikes that could otherwise overwhelm the network and create instability. You can also deploy high-availability configurations paired with multiple network connections to enable instant failover.
Connect the edge locations that matter most—locally and globally
The digital edge refers to the places where businesses get close to end users and devices to minimize latency and maximize engagement. The term doesn’t describe any one specific location. Instead, different applications will be deployed at different edge locations to meet different requirements around latency, security, costs and more.
Equinix Fabric helps you stay connected to all the different edge locations that matter to your business by providing connectivity both within metros and between metros. Each Equinix IBX data center that offers Equinix Fabric availability can connect with other IBX data centers in the same metro, via either cross connects or our Equinix Metro Connect® service. This allows for additional redundancy, as edge nodes within a particular IBX data center will be connected to other facilities within the metro.
Within each metro, there are redundant switches connected to the Equinix Fabric backbone via redundant routes, with redundant carrier availability. Connectivity between the switches and the backbone is provided via software-defined and software-orchestrated L2/L3 links. Since the backbone connects your infrastructure to all other Equinix Fabric metros, you can ensure global route redundancy even if it’s only deployed in one Equinix Fabric metro.
Learn what Equinix Fabric can do for you
At the end of the day, network resilience is all about being able to adapt quickly to whatever connectivity challenges come your way. Equinix Fabric is an extensible interconnection platform that provides the infrastructure agility, global reach and service provider integration you need to make this happen.
To learn more about how Equinix Fabric can support direct, secure and dynamic connections across your globally distributed digital infrastructure, read our guide to Equinix Fabric today.