Equinix Leverages Cisco's Tail-f Network Control System to Help Make Multi-Cloud Access a Reality for Enterprise Customers Worldwide

BARCELONA, Spain, March 2, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- At Mobile World Congress 2015 today Cisco and Equinix, Inc., the global interconnection and data center company, announced that Equinix has deployed the Cisco Tail-f Network Control System (NCS) as part of the foundational technology powering the Equinix Cloud Exchange – the Equinix Programmable Network. This technology enables the automated network and service provisioning for cloud providers and their enterprise customers that Cloud Exchange has become known for. Tail-f Systems, now part of Cisco, provides multi-vendor service orchestration and network automation solutions based on NETCONF and YANG.

Equinix Cloud Exchange is an advanced interconnection solution that enables seamless, on-demand and direct access to multiple cloud services and networks across the globe. Equinix chose the Tail-f technology for its vendor neutrality, providing a single network-wide interface to all network devices, applications and services, as well as a common modeling language. This enables Equinix to provide multi-cloud services in an agile and vendor-agnostic way, simplifying and accelerating cloud access for the enterprise.

Enterprises today are looking to move workloads to the cloud to achieve business agility, improve application performance and control costs. Because no one single cloud provider can help a company achieve these goals, many enterprises are pursuing a multi-cloud architecture, in which applications span multiple private and public clouds. Equinix Cloud Exchange, with direct access to leading cloud providers such as AWS, Cisco, Google Cloud Platform, Microsoft Azure, SoftLayer, and others, enables enterprises to realize their multi-cloud goals.

Equinix Cloud Exchange enables this via its SDN foundation, the Equinix Programmable Network. The combination of Tail-f NCS together with Equinix's SDN-based architecture, enables the enterprise to instantaneously provision new and direct connections to the cloud, something that otherwise could take weeks to achieve.

Highlights / Key Facts

• Tail-f's NCS provides multi-vendor, multi-service programmability to the Equinix Programmable Network, the foundation for Equinix Cloud Exchange. This provides enterprise customers with agility and vendor neutrality that allows for rapid deployment and provisioning of multi-cloud environments.
• NCS allows Equinix to deploy an architecture that is YANG and NETCONF compliant, which addresses the issues around automation and programmability when real-time configuration is essential.
• Equinix Cloud Exchange is currently available in 19 markets – Amsterdam, Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Frankfurt, Hong Kong, London, Los Angeles, New York, Osaka, Paris, Sao Paulo, Seattle, Silicon Valley, Singapore, Sydney, Tokyo, Toronto and Washington, D.C. – with additional expansions planned for Melbourne and Zurich in early 2015.

Quotes

• Ihab Tarazi, chief technology officer, Equinix

"Our goal with the Equinix Cloud Exchange is to provide multi-cloud interconnectivity solutions that satisfy high-performance application needs in a secure environment. Tail-f NCS is a key part of our foundational programmable network and allows us to provide multi-cloud services in an agile and vendor-neutral way. Tail-f's support for YANG also allows us to quickly define new services without the burden of vendor-specific configuration protocols.

• Fredrik Lundberg, director, Strategy and Planning, Cisco

"We have worked intensely with Equinix over the past six months to develop a foundational architecture for the Equinix Cloud Exchange. Our model-based orchestration solution, Tail-f NCS, gives Equinix superior speed and flexibility. We are excited to work with Equinix to deliver on the promises of SDN."

Note to Editor:  The Tail-f Network Control System (NCS) is transitioning to the Cisco portfolio and will soon be marketed under the name "Cisco Network Service Orchestrator (NSO) enabled by Tail-f."

Additional Resources

• Equinix Programmable Network (EPN):  A dynamic foundation for multi-cloud [blog]
• Read blog series: Cisco at MWWC 2015 at Cisco SP360 Blog: http://blogs.cisco.com/sp
• Follow us on our LinkedIn page and Twitter @CiscoSPMobility for targeted updates and announcements
• Subscribe to Cisco's SP360 feed

About Cisco
Cisco is the worldwide leader in IT that helps companies seize the opportunities of tomorrow by proving that amazing things can happen when you connect the previously unconnected. For ongoing news, please go to http://thenetwork.cisco.com.

About Cisco Tail-f NCS
NCS provides a single network-wide interface to all network devices and all network applications and services, as well as a common modeling language and datastore for both services and devices. A transaction engine handles transactions from the operations at the service layer to the actual deployment of configuration changes in the network.

Designed to be a generic solution that can be used in any type of network, NCS supports the implementation of network applications and service on a wide variety of networking devices, both traditional hardware-based devices and virtual software appliances.

About Equinix Cloud Exchange
The Equinix Cloud Exchange is an advanced interconnection solution that enables seamless, on-demand and direct access to multiple clouds, across multiple networks around the globe. By combining the automated interconnection of cloud, network and managed service providers with advanced service orchestration for the first time, the Equinix Cloud Exchange provides enterprises with simple, scalable, direct access to the multiple cloud services they need to build highly flexible hybrid cloud solutions. This removes the security, performance and vendor lock-in concerns holding many organizations back from fully adopting and reaping the benefits of cloud services. For more information on the Equinix Cloud Exchange, please visit http://www.equinix.com/solutions/by-services/interconnection/exchanges/equinix-cloud-exchange/.

About Equinix
Equinix, Inc. (Nasdaq: EQIX), connects more than 4,500 companies directly to their customers and partners inside the world's most networked data centers. Today, businesses leverage the Equinix interconnection platform in 32 strategic markets across the Americas, EMEA and Asia-Pacific. 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.

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SOURCE Equinix