Equinix, Inc. and Nimbo have announced two solutions to streamline Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud deployments inside Equinix — the AWS Direct Connect Converged Infrastructure bundle and Equinix Cloud Exchange™ enablement solutions.  Both will be available in all Equinix International Business Exchange™ (IBX^®) data centers that offer AWS Direct Connect or Equinix Cloud Exchange.

Today, enterprises are looking to move more production workloads to the cloud to achieve business agility, improve application performance, and control costs. However, many organizations must navigate a range of tools, technologies and data security concerns when expanding their private IT platform to include the advantages that the cloud can provide. AWS Direct Connect bundles are a set of advanced hybrid architectures that help reduce this complexity while providing peak performance for customers moving to AWS.

"We are seeing significant growth in enterprise customers looking to connect to AWS in our facilities, and specifically in a hybrid model. These customers are increasingly looking to hybrid cloud architectures to maximize their IT investments and realize the benefits of the cloud. With these integrated solutions, we are helping enterprises expedite their transition to the cloud and quickly extend their existing infrastructure to AWS," saidGreg Adgate, vice president, global technology partners, Equinix.

The AWS Direct Connect Converged Infrastructure bundles feature deployment tools from Nimbo; NetApp's NPS capability and Cisco Intercloud Fabric; along with secure, direct connection inside Equinix's data centers.  These bundles enable enterprises to use the same storage and network management tools used in their on-premises deployments as they migrate to public or hybrid cloud architectures.  Customers can now connect familiar infrastructure to AWS and receive the crucial security, performance and control they need, while benefiting from direct, private access to AWS.  Locating their infrastructure in the same Equinix data center as an AWS Direct Connect access node provides a high level of security, performance and control, enabling customers to fully leverage the flexible options that hybrid cloud provides.

In addition to collaborating on the AWS Direct Connect Converged Infrastructure bundles, Equinix and Nimbo will also provide Equinix Cloud Exchange configuration and foundation enablement services, either as part of the Equinix Cloud Exchange Starter-Kit or as individual, stand-alone offerings.  The Equinix Cloud Exchange Configuration Package provides enterprises with configuration and testing services for a supported cloud service provider, such as AWS, along with the customer router(s) attached to the Equinix Cloud Exchange. This provides a turnkey cloud connection, an immediately useable cloud account, and a seamless extension to cloud services for corporate resources.

Equinix has seen tremendous enterprise adoption of AWS Direct Connect since Equinix announced its availability in select data centers in 2011. In 2014 alone, Equinix experienced a 90 percent increase in the number of enterprise connections to AWS. Many Equinix and NetApp customers have experienced the benefits of securely connecting to AWS, ensuring the performance and availability of mission-critical applications and workloads.

Equinix, leveraging its acquisition of Nimbo, has developed integrated deployment tools to ease the setup and configuration of networking and cloud-based storage for AWS. Nimbo specializes in migrating business applications to the cloud with extensive experience moving legacy applications into a hybrid cloud architecture, and connecting legacy data centers to the cloud. Additionally, Nimbo is an Advanced Consulting Partner in the AWS Partner Network (APN). 

This article was originally posted “Equinix And Nimbo Streamline Enterprise Migration To AWS” from Cloud Strategy Magazine.