REDWOOD CITY, Calif., June 22, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Equinix, Inc. (Nasdaq: EQIX), the global interconnection and data center company, today announced that it has achieved Microsoft Gold Cloud Platform status via its Equinix Professional Services (EPS) organization. This designation reinforces Equinix's ongoing commitment to delivering Microsoft hybrid cloud to its customers inside a global footprint of International Business Exchange™ (IBX^®) data centers. Since Equinix began offering direct access to Microsoft Azure in 2014, it has seen significant growth in the amount of enterprise customers developing hybrid and multi-cloud deployments across five continents including North America, South America, Asia, Europe and Australia.  Equinix currently offers direct connections to Microsoft Azure via the Equinix Cloud Exchange™ in 20 metros around the world.

Equinix's Gold Competency status was awarded in recognition of its expertise in the areas hybrid cloud enablement through EPS.  Hybrid cloud continues to be a top priority for enterprise CIOs.  In fact, based on results from IDC's 2017 CloudView Survey, nearly 70 percent of cloud users expect that within two years the majority of their IT capabilities will be delivered through some form of cloud service — public, private, or hybrid. Yet the path to the hybrid cloud can be technically challenging. Through EPS and Equinix's ability to provide direct access to Microsoft Azure via the Equinix Cloud Exchange, Equinix helps its enterprise customers advance their cloud strategies and capitalize on these cloud benefits by seamlessly incorporating cloud services into their existing architectures.

Highlights / Key Facts

• Microsoft Gold certification, provided to a select group of partners who demonstrate that they meet strict criteria, is the highest level of certification for companies that are part of the Microsoft partnership program. Companies, such as Equinix, that attain this status must provide successful client references and demonstrate that they have developed innovative products and solutions based on Microsoft technologies.  Equinix has been aligned with Microsoft for many years to provide high-level interconnection and global access to Microsoft Azure.  Equinix will also be expanding its role as a critical partner in Microsoft hybrid cloud solutions by integrating Microsoft Azure Stack into its interconnection offerings.
• With Equinix, applications and workloads operating in a hybrid cloud are optimized for business value.  By directly and securely connecting to Microsoft Azure and Microsoft Azure Stack inside Equinix, customers can take advantage of:
• Superior application performance and user experience
• Enhanced compliance by connecting privately to Microsoft Azure and keeping data within region, without going over the public internet
• Increased cloud security, by bypassing the public internet
• EPS offers practical guidance and proven solutions to help enterprise customers optimize and future-proof their data center architecture and cloud journey.  EPS provides hands-on experience in assessing, enabling, migrating, optimizing, planning, designing, testing and deploying IT infrastructure, networks and cloud architectures.
• Equinix will be showcasing its interconnection capabilities at the upcoming Microsoft Inspire conference, taking place July 9- 13, in Washington, D.C.

Quotes

• Bob Breynaert, global managing director, Microsoft strategic alliance, Equinix:
  "Hybrid cloud is revolutionizing the way enterprises do business, and Equinix is committed to empowering our customers to deploy high-performance, scalable and secure hybrid cloud solutions on a global scale. A critical component of this is interconnectivity to Microsoft Azure and Office 365 platforms inside our vast platform of data centers. We are honored to have reached Gold partner status with Microsoft, and look forward to providing additional ways for our global customers to achieve improved performance of their cloud-based applications."
• Ryan Mallory, vice president, global solutions enablement, Equinix: "We are incredibly proud to have achieved Gold Cloud Platform status. The recipe for our accomplishment ultimately stems from the right mix of a number of symbiotic ingredients: Equinix's hybrid cloud enabling interconnection platform with unprecedented global reach, Microsoft's reputable cloud service offerings, the exceptional quality of work delivered by our Professional Services organization, and last but not least, our extremely innovative customers. Teaming with a pioneering organization like Microsoft is instrumental in being able to deliver end-to-end solutions that quickly deliver business results and satisfy the evolving needs of our customers."
• Robert Mahowald, group vice president, applications and cloud business models, IDC
  "In our recent research, we are seeing a strong trend within enterprise IT to move applications and workloads off premises onto cloud platforms such as Microsoft Azure, to achieve cost and application performance benefits. Equinix is helping enterprise customers easily make this transition by enabling direct, low-latency, secure connections to cloud services within its global footprint of data centers."

Additional Resources

• Maximizing Cloud Impact - A New Paradigm for Connecting Clouds within the Enterprise [white paper]
• Microsoft Azure Stack and Equinix Deliver the True Value of Hybrid Cloud to Digital Business [blog post]
• Learn more about Equinix and Microsoft [web page]

About Equinix
Equinix, Inc. (Nasdaq: EQIX) connects the world's leading businesses to their customers, employees and partners inside the most interconnected data centers.  In 44 markets worldwide, Equinix is where companies come together to realize new opportunities and accelerate their business, IT and cloud strategies. http://www.equinix.com/.

Forward Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from expectations discussed in such forward-looking statements. Factors that might cause such differences include, but are not limited to, the challenges of acquiring, operating and constructing IBX centers and developing, deploying and delivering Equinix services; unanticipated costs or difficulties relating to the integration of companies we have acquired or will acquire into Equinix; a failure to receive significant revenue from customers in recently built out or acquired data centers; failure to complete any financing arrangements contemplated from time to time; competition from existing and new competitors; the ability to generate sufficient cash flow or otherwise obtain funds to repay new or outstanding indebtedness; the loss or decline in business from our key customers; and other risks described from time to time in Equinix's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. In particular, see Equinix's recent quarterly and annual reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, copies of which are available upon request from Equinix. Equinix does not assume any obligation to update the forward-looking information contained in this press release.

*Source: IDC FutureScape: Worldwide Cloud 2017 Predictions; Doc # US41863916, Nov. 2016

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SOURCE Equinix, Inc.