Equinix vs. Digital Realty

With the massive amount of data they’re generating, companies are looking to modernize their compute, storage, and networking infrastructure, either on-premises or in cloud environments, with the help of data center operators such as Equinix and Digital Realty.

More businesses are turning to off-site data centers because of the flexibility, improved security, and lower costs offered by cloud services. This is supported by a forecast, which predicts that by 2022, the worldwide public cloud computing market will have grown to $495 billion, and 10% of global IT organizations intend to switch to serverless architecture by the end of 2022.

Equinix and Digital Realty are well-regarded data center operators that are on par with each other with the number of data centers they own and the services they provide, so choosing one may be a challenge.

See below to see how Equinix and Digital Realty compare against each other in the data center market:

Equinix vs. Digital Realty: Portfolio

Equinix is an enterprise network, cloud computing data center, and colocation provider. This platform provides businesses from various industries with data center and cloud computing solutions to improve remote management, installation, and troubleshooting of data center equipment. It has more than 220 International Business Exchange (IBX) data centers across 63 major metropolitan areas.

Equinix is one of the world’s largest data center operators. With over 20 years of experience, their platform offers businesses a range of economic plans and interconnection solutions for their mission-critical operations. By advising, building, and implementing the appropriate cage, suite, and server cabinet solutions to fulfill the expectations for physical security and power utilization, Equinix can assist organizations with achieving their data center demands.

Organizations can choose between on-site and off-site data centers. Equinix delivers security features, in terms of transmission efficiency and security of data and services. Equinix also enables digital leaders to scale, introduce new services rapidly, and interact with partners and consumers quickly. Moreover, the majority of the platform’s data centers are fueled by renewable green energy.

Digital Realty serves major organizations’ data center needs by delivering data-driven digital transformation solutions that empower and link enterprises and service providers. With over 290 data centers scattered across 50 major metropolitan areas, Digital Realty offers businesses the combination of cloud-enabled and privately supported applications to meet all cloud connectivity requirements.

Digital Realty enables growth for enterprises by adding local capabilities and access to new markets worldwide. In addition, digital businesses can efficiently address data flow concerns and achieve 99.999% always-on and available uptime with Digital Realty’s Pervasive Data Center Architecture (PDx) architecture.

A multi-tenant data center platform from Digital Realty gives businesses a range of alternatives for implementing colocation, connectivity, hybrid IT architecture, and the edge.

With the help of Digital Realty’s cloud solutions, companies can reverse traffic flow, take advantage of connections, and become data-centric, which organizes cloud, core, and edge in a way that makes it possible for platforms, enterprises, and connectivity providers to release growth potential. Additionally, Digital Realty uses renewable energy to run and maintain its data centers.

Equinix vs. Digital Realty: Partners

Equinix has worked with some of the world’s leading and recognized cloud service providers to give organizations the best possible cloud solution. Additionally, the platform includes the Equinix Reseller and Equinix Referral Program partner programs.

Digital Realty collaborates with leading solution providers to give organizations the most efficient performance possible. This platform offers three partner programs: the Alliance Partner Program, Real Estate Brokers Program, and Channel Partner Program. Through these programs, Digital Realty has, for instance, successfully assisted commercial real estate brokers in offering specialized data center solutions that support their clients’ mission-critical applications.

Equinix vs. Digital Realty: Use Cases

Equinix

Nestlé Japan required a solution to replace its outdated mainframe infrastructure and construct a new electronic data interchange (EDI) system to enable the company’s cloud access to Amazon Web Services (AWS). The organization now has a unified picture of monitoring, alert detection, escalation, and disaster recovery, allowing it to ensure these new and critical systems run smoothly.

Zoom, the widely used video conferencing platform, had an unexpected increase in the number of users in Australia and needed to develop the infrastructure necessary to provide a flawless user experience for its consumers, while also facilitating future growth in this region. With Equinix’s help, Zoom can now scale effectively in Australia and provide customers with conferencing services without any interruptions, which should increase the number of people using this platform.

Lufthansa City Center (LCC) is a travel agency franchise that requires a scalable, adaptable, and secure infrastructure and connectivity. The firm had to ensure 24-hour access with minimal latency and upgraded security and performance. LCC was able to get a one-stop cloud solution from Equinix and dedicated infrastructure, flexible virtual desktops, assured data sovereignty, enhanced performance, and improved stability of IT services for travel businesses.

Digital Realty

AT&T, a telecommunications leader, wanted to upgrade its core network infrastructure. They required a significant and specific geographic footprint, network density, carrier neutrality, and the capacity to provision many cabinets and satisfy significant power demands at different sites, while maintaining privacy, security, and business continuity standards.

The company sought Digital Realty to meet the needs of increased data and the capacity to offer SD-WAN services by deploying redundant 100 GB fiber connectivity to all contracted locations, allowing them to accomplish this core network upgrade on time and on budget. As a result, AT&T and Digital Realty collaborate to provide capabilities to customers.

IBM Cloud planned to expand its worldwide data center footprint to accommodate the rising demand for its infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) offering. Therefore, it needed a data center partner to achieve a combination of power, space, and pricing. IBM Cloud protected private cloud deployments with Digital Realty, while providing connectivity and throughput speeds.

Hive, a machine learning (ML) company, intended to switch from a cloud-only architecture to a hybrid environment for greater flexibility and a more cost-effective solution. The platform aimed to allow worldwide data collection initiatives by providing storage and bandwidth, while significantly lowering the cost of cloud computing services. Hive saved up to 80% on cloud network costs by using on-demand, secure multicloud connections and managing full-time global data collecting and analysis with Digital Realty.

Equinix vs. Digital Realty: User Reviews

Equinix and Digital Realty are both prominent data center operators globally that receive positive reviews from users and employees at several review sites. Equinix has a slight edge here due to the volume of reviews.

Equinix vs. Digital Realty: Recognition

Equinix and Digital Realty platforms have received numerous accolades for their green usage and data center services in appreciation for their sustainable approach.

Equinix

• 451 Research Firestarter, by 451 Research, 2019
• HPE GreenLake Momentum Partner of the Year, HPE Partner Awards, 2022

Digital Realty

• Nareit Leader in the Light, sustainability in data centers, 2021

Equinix vs. Digital Realty: Overall

The objective of a data center is to ensure a company and its clients can operate seamlessly and efficiently.

Equinix is a bit ahead, in terms of both experience and user reviews. With decades of expertise as a data center provider, top-tier organizations have recognized the company as a trusted platform. However, in terms of data center numbers, Digital Realty has a large global presence.

Equinix provides various services and offers enterprises multiple cloud service provider (CSP) and data center options, from on-premises to cloud to colocation services. The team at Equinix also supports and guides companies in designing and developing data centers to support their business operations. Overall, Equinix appears to come out ahead of Digital Realty.