BT and Equinix have announced an expansion of their partnership to help multinational organisations transform interconnectivity across their digital value chain. BT’s AI-ready, Global Fabric network-as-a-service (NaaS) platform is now deployed in over 30 Equinix data-centres, growing to over 40 in the next year. This will span the world’s top 30 business locations covering 95 per cent of the world’s cloud interconnection traffic.
It will add to Global Fabric’s international footprint, which BT believes will be one of the largest of any NaaS platform. When fully built-out, Global Fabric will be available to customers internationally via 140 points-of-presence (PoPs) hosted in the world’s top cloud locations across 40 countries. It will offer 74 per cent direct coverage of hyperscaler clouds and pre-provisioned high-bandwidth connectivity to over 700 data-centres.
Global Fabric connects multinational organisations securely, flexibly and reliably. It transforms the ease at which they can deploy and scale interconnectivity with third parties such as customers and suppliers across their full digital value chain.
It provides visibility and control of both access and core networks. This allows organisations to achieve the best end-to-end network performance for their workloads, from users and devices in offices, factories and other operational sites, to the multi-cloud core, which interconnects apps and digital services such as AI. It is built on a fully resilient architecture and offered with a range of management options. With legacy networks, setting up or changing connectivity could take weeks. With Global Fabric, it happens in an instant.
Equinix’s global platform interconnects multiple clouds hosting the apps, solutions and marketplaces underpinning the digital economy. It provides access to approximately 2,000 network services, approximately 3,000 cloud and IT services, over 400 content and digital media services, and more than 4,800 enterprises.
The agreement expands BT’s ability to offer its customers a comprehensive choice of the best locations for their business to digitally interconnect with partners, suppliers, customers and other stakeholders across their full value chain.
It builds on BT Group’s quantum secure communications relationship with Equinix following the joint achievement of the UK’s first data centre to data centre connection using the technology.
According to Equinix’s Global Interconnection Index, digital ecosystems are growing exponentially. Eighty per cent of business-to-business sales interactions are expected to occur in digital channels by the end of 2025. By integrating industry value chains, leading businesses are innovating at a rate 25 per cent higher than their peers.
Arun Dev, Global Interconnections, Equinix, said: “Our partnership enables BT to offer its customers interconnectivity with the full Equinix global digital ecosystem of cloud and IT services, as well as hundreds of content and digital media services, and over 4,800 enterprises hosted at our datacentres globally.”
Matt Swinden, director, digital connectivity, Business, BT, said: “The BT-Equinix partnership is a terrific example of our strategy to build the strongest digital foundations for our customers. Global Fabric combined with Equinix’s global ecosystem of infrastructure, cloud and digital service widens the choice we offer to customers of the best locations to interconnect their full business value chain. It will help make trading, partnering and operating a multinational business, better on BT.”
