Cloud Computing: Box gets more international with Equinix deal

Grazed from GigaOM. Author: Barb Darrow.

Box will use six Equinix IBX data centers worldwide to serve the business users of its file-sharing and storage solution. Up till now, Box had no data center capacity outside the US although more than half of its customers were international. Box, which offers a cloud storage and file sharing to business customers, is getting more global, inking a deal to with Equinix to run on six of that company’s IBX data centers around the world.

Up until now, more than half of Box’s claimed 14 million customers were outside the U.S. but all of its data center capacity were there. Now, Box will also run in Equinix IBX data centers in Chicago, Ashburn, Virg., Amsterdam, Sydney, Hong Kong and Tokyo, the company said. Using Equinix, Box said it can boost performance for those customers by 60 percent…

Equinix IBX facilities claim state-of-the-art energy efficiency, HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning) and fire-suppression systems. And they house multiple carriers, networks and internet service providers (ISPs).

That proximity makes it easy for IBX tenants to work with each other. It also helps that many of the big businesses that Box targets also run in these data centers. In a statement, Stefan Apnitz, Box’s VP of operations pointed out the advantages of that:”Having our largest customers just a cross connect away [from us] helps us forge stronger business relationships.”…

Read more from the source @ http://gigaom.com/cloud/box-makes-its-cloud-more-international-with-equinix-deal/