8x8 Taps Equinix

By Paula Bernier, Executive Editor, IP Communications Magazines

When it comes to real-time services, latency is a definite no-no. To ensure that it can continue providing customers with high-quality voice, messaging and video solutions, 8x8 Inc. has contracted Equinix (News - Alert) to provide it with collocation and interconnection services out of Ashburn, Va.

The data center will provide 8x8, which has more than 20,000 business customers in the U.S., with high-reliability, redundant and low-latency customer connectivity as well as direct access to more than 190 networks.

“8x8 (News - Alert) is another leading example of a cloud service provider leveraging Platform Equinix to deliver innovative services as a result of Equinix’ rich business ecosystems,” says Vince DiMemmo, general manager, Global Cloud & IT Services at Equinix. “Equinix helps companies such as 8x8 to quickly and efficiently exchange critical business data with strategic partners and enables optimized delivery performance to their growing roster of customers.”

With the expansion to Equinix’s International Business Exchange DC6 campus, 8x8 now maintains five data center operations in three areas of the U.S. That includes Silicon Valley, New York City and Washington, D.C.  

“The Equinix DC6 IBX data center not only enhances 8x8’s geographic diversity with increased availability and redundancy, it also provides us a local presence for our federal government customers,” says 8x8 Vice President of Network Operations Mehdi Salour (News - Alert). “As our customer base grows, in both SMB and enterprise, and businesses continue to adopt cloud-based services, Equinix’s global platform, cost-efficient connectivity, outstanding uptime performance and flexibility to quickly scale will be of critical importance to 8x8.”

As discussed in INTERNET TELEPHONY magazine’s July cover story “Latency Matters”, every second – or even millisecond – can make a significant difference, whether you’re talking about the quality of delay-sensitive traffic and/or the end user experience with cloud-based services.

Controlling latency was among the key drivers of Equinix’s recent purchase of Switch and Data, Jarrett Appleby, chief marketing officer at Equinix, recently told TMCnet.

Equinix sells data center space, power, cooling and the ability to interconnect with others. It has more than 130 cloud and SaaS companies within its data center and colocation sites.

Appleby calls the data center “the new network hub of this century.”

“The data center is becoming the new interconnection hub for the convergence of network and services,” he says. “It’s kind of like the wave we rode 7 or 8 years ago with the Internet peering community. The networks needed to interconnect with the content guys, and what that drove is that rapid growth rate and the need for making it easier to exchange data for Internet, which evolved to video and content distribution worldwide. The big folks we were working with were the Google’s (News - Alert) and the Microsoft’s and the Yahoo’s of the world.”

The same thing is happening now with new WAN solutions, he says, noting the expansion of Ethernet beyond LANs to also include carrier-class Ethernet.

He adds that network delay can have a significant impact on how an application performs and, thus, the end user quality of experience. And while that applies to a variety of applications, the big driver of the push to lower latency by bringing content closer to the edge is cloud services, says Appleby.

8x8 is a Platinum sponsor of ITEXPO West 2010. To be held Oct. 4 to 6 in Los Angeles, ITEXPO (News - Alert) is the world’s premier IP communications event. Visit 8x8 in booth #201. Don’t wait. Register now.

(source: http://hosted-voip.tmcnet.com/feature/articles/105046-8x8-taps-equinix.htm)