Rod Hall Weighs In On Equinix-Facebook Data Center Collaboration

Data center services giant Equinix Inc EQIX announced its plans to deploy technology designed by Facebook Inc FB in the latter’s Open Compute Project [OCP] to develop an open source-based ecosystem that would enable enterprises to create next-gen IoT [Internet of Things] and hybrid cloud platforms.

JPMorgan’s Rod Hall quoted news reports as mentioning that Equinix and Facebook would collaborate on technology innovation to create a diverse, open source platform for both software and hardware. In order to facilitate this ecosystem, Facebook’s Wedge open source switches that were contributed to OCP would be a part of the new architecture inside Equinix.

“We expect ~25 of these “below hyperscale” operators to adopt commodity switching solutions this year representing nearly half of data center switching ports sold,” Hall wrote. He added that these commodity switches could likely be supplied by Cisco Systems, Inc. CSCO, in case the company decides to compromise on margins in an attempt to maintain market share.