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SAN FRANCISCO—As complicated as moving an enterprise to a public or hybrid cloud can be, there are Internet service providers that actually can hide all that complexity and make the process 1-2-3 clickable, as unlikely as it seems.
The Equinix Cloud Exchange, currently available in 21 markets globally, is one of them. Largely because it is such an easy service to deploy, and because it bypasses the Internet for security purposes, it is expanding at a rapid rate.
As one of the world’s largest data center operators, Equinix can securely connect enterprises to up to 43 public clouds, including Google, Microsoft Azure, IBM, Amazon, and Alibaba. As of Oct. 28, its latest option for its users is Oracle’s cloud.
At Oracle OpenWorld in San Francisco, the two Redwood City, Calif.-based companies jointly announced an agreement to provide dedicated, direct access to Oracle Public Platform and Infrastructure Services via the Equinix Cloud Exchange in six markets worldwide: Amsterdam, Chicago, London, Singapore, Sydney and Washington, D.C. Additional markets will become available over time.
Secure Connection is Independent of the Internet
Enterprises using the Oracle cloud on the Equinix network will be able to securely and seamlessly connect their existing Oracle applications, databases, compute and storage to Oracle’s new IaaS and PaaS public clouds. Global trends in big data and analytics with business investment in database and cloud-based applications will continue to drive more interest in Oracle’s cloud services, and access to the best-of-breed SaaS applications in Oracle Cloud—including mobile and analytics.
By offering a direct, non-Internet connection via the highly secure Equinix Cloud Exchange, Oracle customers can utilize the full benefit of cloud services in a secure and high-performing environment, Equinix Vice-President of Service Providers Jim Poole told eWEEK.
“There are certain enterprise situations, usually hybrid cloud installations, that require direct private connectivity to whatever the cloud platform might be—in this case, Oracle,” Poole said. “Oracle has joined our Cloud Exchange—our intermediary platform for connecting one to many clouds. This can be done on a co-located basis for large enterprises, which have very complex, high-I/O requirements, or tethered to an NSP (network service provider) into the Exchange, which connects on to the Oracle cloud.”
Industry research by Forrester, Gartner, and 451 Group indicates that CIOs and CTOs view security and performance as key challenges associated with moving business applications into the cloud. Equinix Cloud Exchange addresses these concerns through its direct connection to multiple clouds and cloud services, including Oracle, which enables customers to create connections to cloud-based business applications while reducing the application latency often associated with conventional cloud access, Poole said.
Private Connectivity Options
By connecting to the Equinix Cloud Exchange, Oracle expands its platform reach and offers the private connectivity options that enterprise customers require for dynamic, flexible, hybrid multi-cloud architectures, Poole said.
Oracle’s 400,000 customers include all 100 of the Fortune 100 companies, and the company has sold about 1,000 ERP (enterprise resource planning) systems running in the cloud. By offering direct access on Equinix Cloud Exchange, Oracle will enable its enterprise customers to build sophisticated cloud solutions, enabling them to establish private, high-performance connections with between on-premise architecture and Oracle public cloud, Poole said.
Cloud is the fastest growing part of Oracle’s business. Oracle Cloud currently has about 62 million users and carries an average of 23 billion transactions each day. Oracle Cloud runs on 30,000 devices and uses 400 petabytes of storage in 19 data centers around the world.
Equinix’s Cloud Exchange is currently available in 21 markets globally: Amsterdam, Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Frankfurt, Hong Kong, London, Los Angeles, New York, Osaka, Paris, Seattle, Silicon Valley, Singapore, Sydney, Tokyo, Toronto, Washington D.C., and Zurich.