Equinix Brings the Latest Arm and AI Technology to Bare Metal Platform for Cloud Builders

Equinix, Inc. announced new cutting edge technologies for Equinix Metal that companies can consume as a service, with the latest from AMD, Ampere, Intel, Nutanix, and full-stack accelerated computing from NVIDIA. This expansion of features and availability will give businesses more ways to build and scale -as a service (-aaS) offerings, modernize their infrastructure, and power hybrid multicloud architectures and cloud native applications.

Gartner predicts that “by 2025, 40% of newly procured premises-based compute and storage will be consumed as a service, up from less than 10% in 2021.”  With six new metros and the latest new hardware options from these leading providers now available on demand at Equinix Metal, customers can gain more raw processing power and throughput than ever before – just a few clicks away and with close proximity to clouds and end users. The new enterprise solutions also give customers on-demand artificial intelligence (AI) and hybrid infrastructure, so they can build new digital capabilities quickly.

Developers and IT leaders use Equinix Metal’s battle-tested APIs, integrations with popular DevOps tools and first-class Kubernetes ecosystem to deploy, maintain and scale their applications next to the clouds, users, networks and partners that matter most to their businesses. For example:

• Cybersecurity company HUMAN leverages Equinix Metal to get closer to their customers with ultra-low latency networking. 
• Super League Gaming, (Nasdaq: SLGG), a global leader in video game experiences and entertainment at the intersection of the creator economy, gameplay content, and the metaverse, uses Equinix Metal to deliver real-time content and live video streaming to millions of users around the world. 
• Blockchain leader Solana Foundation is able to deliver new nodes on-demand to its global end users on the Solana blockchain in minutes with Equinix Metal. 

As part of the news today, Equinix is announcing:

• Updated Gen3 Configs with Next Gen Chips from AMD, Ampere, and Intel – Equinix Metal has announced the upcoming availability of a new hardware lineup with the latest processors including 3^rd Gen AMD EPYC, Ampere Altra and 3rd Gen Intel Xeon Scalable processors with built-in AI accelerators. These solutions, expected to come to market in early 2022, are part of Equinix Metal’s next generation (Gen3) of server configurations, which are curated for common workloads and are available on demand in minutes.
• NVIDIA AI – In November, NVIDIA announced an expanded collaboration with Equinix to bring the NVIDIA LaunchPad program – which includes instant, short-term access to AI infrastructure – to nine global Equinix locations, which were today revealed to be Equinix Metal datacenters. The LaunchPad program includes curated labs and enables qualified enterprise accounts  to test and prototype NVIDIA AI software including NVIDIA AI Enterprise. Enterprises can then deploy and scale AI in Equinix Metal or NVIDIA DGX Foundry, also running at Equinix.  
• Workload Optimized Servers – In addition to its Gen3 line up, Equinix Metal has introduced a new line of optimized configurations. These powerful machines give customers a faster way to deploy infrastructure tailored for specialized workloads, such as AI training or in-memory databases, without the long lead times common for special order hardware.
• Hybrid Multicloud on Demand – Equinix Metal is now certified for Nutanix Cloud Platform, enabling complete freedom to run applications on any platform with seamless deployment and improved business agility with a single, unified management plane across bare metal, public cloud and on-premises environments. Equinix and Nutanix are currently enrolling customers in a trial program in preparation for general availability (GA).
• 6 Additional Metros – Equinix will expand availability of Equinix Metal to six additional  metros in 2022 across the Americas (Atlanta and Montreal); EMEA (Helsinki and Stockholm); and Asia-Pacific (Melbourne and Osaka). In addition to offering bare metal as a Service in these 24 markets, Equinix also provides interconnection and networking through Equinix Fabric and Network Edge, enabling customers to take their applications global in minutes.
• Operating System Partners – Maintainers or experts of Ubuntu, Debian, FreeBSD, NixOS, Talos, Alpine Linux, Alma Linux, Rocky Linux, and VyOS will now certify and provide cloud images for Equinix Metal users to consume, enhancing performance, security and multicloud use cases.
• Ecosystem expansion – Equinix has further expanded its ecosystem with fully documented and tested partner solutions from Cycle.io, Era Software, Macrometa, Mist.io, HarperDB and Kubermatic. Explore these and our other partner solutions here.