Virtacore Systems, which specializes in hybrid cloud services, will be the first U.S. customer tenant for Equinix to use its Business Suite offering, the companies said today. Equinix (EQIX), which provides colocation and interconnection services, recently began offering data center suites in its new facility in Ashburn, Virginia.
Virtacore currently leases space in Equinix International Business Exchange (IBX) data centers in four strategic markets - Silicon Valley, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Washington, DC. Virtacore also plans to move into other Equinix IBX facilities around the world.
Business suites offer enclosed data center suites for customers requiring larger footprints. This marks a change for Equinix, a colocation provider that typically offers space in cabinets and cages in an open data floor. Equinix says its new Business Suites offering represents a middle ground between the retail and wholesale markets, rather than a move to compete directly with wholesale providers like Digital Realty, DuPont Fabros and CoreSite.
Virtacore benefits from the ability to quickly and securely interconnect with network and service partners in order to speed the deployment of its hybrid cloud services to enterprise customers. The company's offerings are built on VMware's vCloud Platform and managed through a single integrated portal, as well as Google Apps for Business technologies. Virtacore provides cloud hosting and managed hosting services for start-ups, small and medium sized businesses, developers and enterprises.
"We have been involved with Equinix for more than eight years," said Virtacore CEO George Naspo. "The expansion with Platform Equinix and the addition of Equinix Business Suites will enable us to reach new customers, grow faster, and help our organization and our customers to improve efficiencies. We are confident this expansion will allow us the flexibility to keep pace with the aggressive growth Virtacore has been experiencing in our cloud services this year."
"By leveraging Platform Equinix, Virtacore is able to quickly deploy its hybrid cloud services to serve its global customer base," said Charles Meyers, president of the Americas at Equinix. "The cloud services market has become one of the fastest growing ecosystems in our data centers and companies like Virtacore have benefited as Equinix customers look for partners who can help them quickly migrate to the cloud while assuring the highest security and performance."
