Equinix has teamed up with Alibaba's cloud subsidiary Aliyun to offer direct access to cloud services in Asia and North America through interconnections in Hong Kong and Silicon Valley.
Under the agreement, Equinix has agreed to provide direct access to the Aliyun cloud computing platform via the Equinix cloud exchange in the two cities.
The collaboration is designed to provide Chinese, American and multinational enterprises with dedicated access to Aliyun's suite of cloud services.
The agreement will also cover direct access to cloud services in North America. Further expansions are planned to new IBX data centers in North America and Asia, and Equinix also plans to offer direct access to additional cloud-based services from Aliyun, including SaaS-based applications.
IDC analyst Melanie Posey commented that the Alibaba-Equinix partnership will address an area of significant unmet demand.
“By offering connection to Aliyun’s cloud offerings on the Equinix Cloud Exchange, Equinix is empowering the enterprise to access Aliyun in a predictable, uncongested and cost-effective manner, something we hear enterprise customers repeatedly asking for,” she said.
“These dedicated connections will help companies realize the full benefits of the Aliyun cloud, including Alibaba’s global network of customers and application ecosystems, and expand into Asia quickly and securely.”
Aliyun is the largest public cloud service provider in China with more than 1.4 million customers, either directly or through independent software vendors (ISVs).