Equinix, Carpathia Partner on Government Clouds

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The cages housing customer equipment inside an Equinix data center.

In a strategic partnership aimed at the government market, colocation provider Equinix said it will team with Carpathia Hosting on an expanded suite of cloud computing and managed hosting solutions. The partnership brings together infrastructure and services,  allowing Equinix to offer compliant cloud solutions in its data centers, while exposing Carpathia's services to a larger pool of customers.

The Equinix-Carpathia solution is "uniquely built to meet the needs of federal agencies and enterprise companies, including those focused on healthcare and financial services" and will feature "integrated sales and delivery to customers," the companies said.

Equinix (EQIX) provides colocation services through its "Platform Equinix" network of more than 90 data centers on four continents. Carpathia specializes in advanced hosting services for government agencies that comply with regulatory requirements such as FISMA, DIACAP, HIPAA and PCI. Carpathia also offers InstantOn enterprise cloud services based on Citrix technology.

The partnership represents an evolution for Equinix, which had previously focused on its core colocation offering - leasing data center cages and cabinets in which customers can manage their own equipment - even as rivals in the colo sector pushed aggressively into managed services and cloud computing.

Targeting the Cloud Opportunity
The new offering arrives days after Federal CIO Vivek Kundra reaffirmed the Obama administration's goal to shift $20 billion in federal IT spending to a cloud model by 2015. Meanwhile, many enterprises are interested in cloud computing, but concerned about security and compliance. The Equinix-Carpathia offering is designed to appeal to both audiences.

"Enterprise and federal agencies face significant challenges when operating complex IT infrastructure deployments," said Jarrett Appleby, Chief Marketing Officer of Equinix. "The joint solution we offer will allow customers to fulfill their performance and compliance requirements, without concerns about security in the cloud or in the data center itself. With Carpathia’s premier managed hosting services and the global reach of Platform Equinix, these customers are now able to efficiently meet growing market demand.”

"We’re bringing to market a formidable combination of services on Platform Equinix that cannot be found through any single company or offering today," said Peter Weber, CEO of Carpathia Hosting. "Data integrity and security are driving increasingly complex requirements for our enterprise and federal customers. A world-class data center footprint is the foundation for delivering best-of-breed colocation, managed hosting, and cloud solutions that meet those requirements. "

Today's announcement deepens a relationship in which Equinix and Carpathia have supported nearly 200 customers, including the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Department of Health & Human Services, as well as the U.S. Department of Defense including the Marines and the U.S. Army.

Under terms of the partnership, Equinix will provide colocation services, standards compliance, physical security and its global, high-performance network ecosystem. Carpathia will offer the following services on Platform Equinix: