Unlock the Equinix podcast series to hear high-performance data center experts discuss how secure cloud architecture and edge data centers are driving innovation and cyber resilience in the Public Sector. Explore how Equinix Fabric and Network Edge enhance operational efficiency and security through colocation and hybrid multicloud strategies while maintaining regulatory compliance.
[Scott Robohn]
Welcome back to Unlocking Performance, the Future of Data Centers in the Public Sector with Equinix. I'm Scott Robohn, Consulting CTO at Carahsoft, and I'm thrilled to have you join us for the second episode of our series. In our first episode, we explored the transformative role of high-performance data centers in the public sector and the strategic partnership between Equinix and Carahsoft.
Today, we're diving into a topic that's top of mind for many public sector organizations, hybrid multi-cloud networking. It's a mouthful, we'll unpack it for you. We have the experts here to do that.
Before we get started, I just want to highlight some of the key benefits that our partners have working through Carahsoft. By collaborating with Equinix, you can enjoy flexible support models, including day-to-day support options tailored to your own customer needs. You'll also benefit from Carahsoft’s streamlined processes and the established financial terms and procurement advantages that Carahsoft brings to the table.
Plus, partners can sell easily without needing to become a signed Equinix partner. Carahsoft sales teams are here to accelerate your speed to sales and provide the resources from deal registration through deployment, and we're continuously investing in our joint solutions with partners like NVIDIA and Dell. Now, let's dive into our conversation.
Joining me again today are two incredible experts, Katie Truitt, Senior Cloud Specialist with Equinix. Hi, Evan Slack, Director of Sales here at Carahsoft. Thank you, Scott.
Good to see you both. Let's dive into how hybrid multi-cloud networking is reshaping the public sector landscape, the implications this has for where we put apps and data and all our compute resources, and the opportunities they generate for Carahsoft partners and customers, and how agencies can leverage this partnership and these sales plays to go after their digital transformation goals. So, Katie, we're going to put you up front today.
Let's start with the importance of hybrid multi-cloud networking. Can you set the stage, just unpack what is that mouthful of hybrid multi-cloud networking, and why is it so critical in the public sector right now?
[Katie Truitt]
Absolutely, Scott. Hybrid multi-cloud networking is becoming essential because public sector organizations are increasingly adopting multi-cloud strategies to meet diverse operational needs. Here at Equinix, we're right in the center of all that, right?
Because we are a neutral party in this, we are looking to choose the right tool for the job, and we aren't trying to push customers one way or the other. So when we have that baseline of solid connectivity, it makes everything else run smoother. Does that make sense?
[Scott Robohn]
It does. Can you unpack what neutral means with regard to your cloud partners and your telecom partners?
[Katie Truitt]
Absolutely. So here at Equinix, obviously, we've got these carrier-neutral facilities, which are multi-tenant co-location facilities. Now, when we talk about neutrality and all of that, that means that everybody has a seat at the table.
So from an Equinix perspective, we like to think of ourselves as an airport, right? The customers can come in, and they can use whichever gate, whichever cloud provider, whichever partner they need to get where they're needing to go.
[Scott Robohn]
And you really do get your pick, right? You get to whatever cloud services you have, you have connectivity right there, whatever carriers you're using for access, you know, ISPs, they're there too. You have a long list of options to select from in Equinix facilities.
Evan, let's bounce it back to you then. What's Kerasoft's role in supporting this hybrid multi-cloud motion?
[Evan Slack]
Yeah, good question, Scott. So consuming cloud can be very difficult for government agencies. They've got to balance the tremendous benefits of on-demand workloads and scalability, but for the procurement and budget cycle, the unpredictable costs month to month can be a real challenge.
So we want to be a bridge between technologies like Equinix and the government agencies, and we want to help simplify the procurement process. You mentioned earlier, we can do that with our pre-negotiated government-wide acquisition contracts and help ease that part of the procurement process for government agencies. We also have a lot of expertise in working with government agencies across the board and a lot of expertise and experience in cloud procurement.
And we want to bring that to the table to help our government customers with that.
[Scott Robohn]
Yeah. For our viewers and listeners, you know, if you're already an onboarded partner with Kerasoft, you know, and this is new to you, time to ask more about Equinix from your Kerasoft reps and figure out how to get these into your conversations and to help federal and other public sector digital transformation efforts. It's a common theme across the board.
[Evan Slack]
Absolutely. And then on the other side, what we're running into is the technical aspect of hybrid multi-cloud networking. We understand that can be really complex and it's difficult to have that expertise in-house to deliver that.
That's where, again, we're going to work with Equinix and our partners that have the technical expertise to meet the mission needs of government agencies.
[Scott Robohn]
So that's a perfect tee up to bounce us back to Katie. This is a rabbit hole that goes very deep, right? And this is not a technical webinar or session, but at the top level to make it, you know, consumable for many of our listeners, what can you say about Equinix solutions specifically for hybrid multi-cloud for public sector?
What's special? What things do you want to call people to?
[Katie Truitt]
Absolutely. And although I'm biased, I truly believe that platform Equinix is the place where multi-cloud solutions come together, right? And really that's because of three main things.
Number one is the direct and secure interconnections that we are able to give agencies. Agencies are able to bypass the public internet and connect directly to leading cloud providers like AWS, Microsoft, Azure, GCP, and that's through our fabric. So that's the first piece.
The second piece is we are extremely flexible, and that flexibility gives agencies solutions that are designed to adapt to the needs and allowing them to respond to changing workloads and technology requirements. And then the final piece of that puzzle is our global reach. We've got 270 plus data centers now.
We stretch across multiple countries, continents, so customers are able to replicate solutions that they do here in the States, in France or Germany, kind of pick your poison there. So I would say those are the three main things.
[Scott Robohn]
Yeah, I run into Equinix people and facilities all over the world, right? So I can validate all three of your value propositions here. You've also been on the cloud side of things, and without taking us on too much of a detour here, how does that inform what you see and what you're now delivering from the Equinix platform today?
[Katie Truitt]
Yeah, absolutely. I think prior to this life, I worked at AWS, right? So I was in a lot of conversations that were crafting how customers migrate to cloud.
And there was no easy button for that, Scott. I think that customers were bogged down by workloads and then how they were going to place those workloads in AWS. But having a partner that would set the stage at the baseline of that from a network connectivity perspective, that's where inception begins for us.
So I think that with a partner like Equinix and a partner like Kerasoft, those things are made a lot simpler for folks on the cloud side.
[Scott Robohn]
You definitely need knowledgeable partners. And Evan, you know this better than anyone. Kerasoft's user community is not monolithic.
There are all sorts of different sectors, cloisters, and use cases. Can you talk a little bit about the different use cases that you're seeing for multi-cloud adoption today?
[Evan Slack]
Absolutely. So two examples come to mind quickly. First, I'll go with a state government example.
And a really common scenario we're running into is the need to modernize their data center and the need to move it to a hybrid multi-cloud network. And that means they've got to combine legacy applications, on-premise environment, the use of their public cloud, which is usually two or three public cloud providers, and all the SaaS applications that they're using today. Katie mentioned that the Equinix fabric is the perfect tool to connect all of those resources and give them the increased latency, the improved performance that is going to deliver those applications to meet their mission needs, which are critical services like citizen services, emergency response, really critical applications and workloads to state and local agencies.
[Scott Robohn]
What about on the federal side?
[Evan Slack]
What else do you see that's different there? On the federal side, what comes to mind is really data-intensive applications. Think geospatial analytics or AI- decision making, that it's going to require high-speed interconnects to deliver the performance that demands the performance demands of those use cases.
So Equinix's high-density co-location facilities, again, are going to provide that multi-cloud network that allows the agencies to digest and process the large data sets in real time. Again, critical applications for government agencies, and they want to be able to run that in facilities that give them the best performance.
[Scott Robohn]
That physical location being very close to cloud connectivity and that decreased latency, increased performance but very, very low time to get your data from one place to the other or get your data to the right workloads, that's critical for so many of these data-intensive applications that you're talking about.
[Katie Truitt]
I was just going to say, we see that on the commercial side as well, right? So we've had major projects that rely around patient data care and those types of workloads need to sit and reside close to where that data is being generated, right? So I think for us, we're looking at, again, right tool for the job and what makes sense for the use case.
[Scott Robohn]
I think you raise another point too that we don't have a lot of time to dive into but, you know, technology is technology regardless of who the end users are. And again, the partnership between Equinix and Kerasoft and working with your commercial customers, some of whom are really pushing the boundaries of different tech adoption, that really benefits public sector users as well. And it always takes longer for public sector to adopt certain technologies but they can look to you and you specifically, Katie, as, okay, this is what we've seen in other customer bases and we can learn from that and help you have a better experience.
Evan, let's stick with you on this one and let's talk about opportunities for Kerasoft partners. You know, for people who aren't aware, Kerasoft has an incredible network of partners that work with public sector customers. How do they work Equinix into their customer conversations?
How do they learn more about what Equinix and Kerasoft do together?
[Evan Slack]
Absolutely. So our partners are really critical to the overall solution and delivering that. I often say Kerasoft is an inside sales and marketing organization.
We're not field sales. We're not engineers. We do have some of those capabilities but we rely on our partners to really work with our government agencies to implement the technologies and make sure they're successful.
So our partners are going to play a critical role in their relationships because some of them are very close with the use cases where you mentioned it's this similar technology but the use cases for the U.S. Navy or the U.S. Department of Agriculture can be very different and our partners are close with those government agencies and understand their mission needs specifically and can help design and architecture and implement those solutions to deliver the best solution for that customer.
[Scott Robohn]
Yeah and I would just say as you know being fortunate enough to be a consultant here at Kerasoft, I am just so impressed with you know we can use the term inside sales reps very lightly but if you're not on the inside it's hard to appreciate the megaphone toward the public sector that Kerasoft is. You know when we when we do things like do a Kerasoft webinar with Equinix it's not passive it's lots of well-trained callers going after the right people with the right titles you know for a webinar that might be interesting to them. So this the machine here from a marketing and outreach perspective is incredible.
I've been really impressed with that with the few years I've been involved with Kerasoft.
[Evan Slack]
Absolutely and it's by design where we're really specialized in the technologies that we're supporting and ingrained in them every single day. We have dedicated resources on our team that support partners like Equinix and others day in and day out so that we can be experts both to our partners and our government agencies that want to leverage those solutions for sure.
[Katie Truitt]
And I was going to say I mean it really creates a perfect marriage right because Kerasoft can do what they do really well and then for multi-cloud networking very strategic deals or projects they're able to lean on us too right. So I think we're trying to you know tout that to part to the partner world as to where you can basically grab those capabilities between the two companies.
[Scott Robohn]
Well let's let's take out our crystal ball and just look at toward the future a little bit and and here's an opportunity maybe for us to dive down just a little more detail. But you know we've seen this you know over the last 15 years the emergence of cloud not wanting to get stuck with just one cloud provider for certain cloud services driving multi-cloud and now this whole thought of well maybe what if I could move workloads around or move data around you know is that science fiction Katie what do you what's the future you see for hybrid multi-cloud and don't forget my own private data center in this conversation too.
[Katie Truitt]
No I think you hit the nail on the head Scott. We're seeing a growing emphasis on actually edge computing. You know AI driven analytics sustainability agencies will need flexible multi-cloud solutions to support these trends.
Hybrid multi-cloud networking will play a pivotal role in enabling agencies to adopt these technologies while maintaining security. If you look at the trend of where Equinix is making big bets it's an infrastructure. You know we are you know committing you know billions of dollars to ensure that customers have a landing zone once these technologies hit.
[Scott Robohn]
So I would say too to like really get an appreciation of that get a tour of an Equinix facility. They are incredibly impressive the security to actually get into the facility and the security to get into your space in the facility. You know there are no opportunities for people to accidentally wander somewhere.
So it's been really interesting to watch and to your comment about edge computing I really think as we see enterprise AI adoption continue to grow we're going to see inference at the edge right and more and more of that is going to drive edge computing you know in Equinix facilities and maybe even in your own data centers right. So that's definitely something I see coming up.
[Katie Truitt]
Absolutely and again we're doubling down on that right as a company because we see a very near future in which that's going to happen.
[Scott Robohn]
Yeah so very good yeah 2026 it's not it's not far from us right now we're recording on October 25. So Evan from your perspective you know what do you what do you see that compliments do you want to challenge Katie on anything you don't have to challenge Katie on anything.
[Evan Slack]
I'm agree with Katie because I would I would simplify it or summarize it and say that the infrastructure is absolutely important and I think in the past where your data center infrastructure was located was not an afterthought but not driving what the future of your workloads and of your environment would be. Having a secure and efficient solution and being able to invest in your infrastructure today so that you're prepared for the future. Workloads like cloud and AI and data-driven analytics and SaaS workloads and applications they're not going away.
You need a way to connect to everything and maximize that and we don't know what's going to happen in the future and so where technology leads but having infrastructure that is modernized today and built to scale for the future is going to be critically important and I think the partnerships with Equinix and with Carahsoft and our ability to help provide and implement and modernize agencies data centers today is going to be critically important for the future.
[Scott Robohn]
And I would just layer on that because you don't know what the future holds having an experienced partner with the infrastructure that Equinix has certainly helps future-proof things right. They've seen this movie before they've seen how things have transformed. Katie I don't want to steal anything from you there but anything you want to emphasize there?
[Katie Truitt]
No I think you know trends are trends in the market for a reason right and I think we have seen in the past where there have been you know massive shifts into one technology direction and then there's a recorrection so for us and our customers and our partners we want to ensure that we are helping them in whichever way they need to achieve their goals.
[Scott Robohn]
Yeah there's an interesting parallel to that in recent history and I think you know when there was fiber overbuild you know 20 years ago yeah there was a time when there was excess capacity but all that capacity has been absorbed and now we can't get enough fiber to many facilities today we're working really hard to do that. There are analogs to that today too that's a topic for another another podcast. But before we wrap this up what else would you like to add either of you that we haven't touched on today or anything you want to re-emphasize from today's conversation?
Evan we'll give it to you first.
[Evan Slack]
Right I would just re-emphasize the importance of modernizing your infrastructure for the future is key today and I like the idea that you don't need to be close to your data center that there's an emotional connection to that of the past but your data should run in where you get the best performance at the best cost advantages and when you understand that and invest in that I think it's going to open up opportunity for your technology long term. Totally agree.
Katie you get the last word on this.
[Katie Truitt]
A lot of pressure. No no I think that here at Equinix again because of the neutrality of how we were founded 25 years ago we are looking to complement all of our partners all of our hyperscalers to ultimately at the end of the day provide the best outcome for our customers. So to us we are looking to be strategic consulting arms and extensions of our customers team and not necessarily pulling you know them one way or the other.
So that's a really lovely spot for me to be in right because at the end of the day when you're doing what's best for for everybody involved it makes you feel really good.
[Scott Robohn]
So yeah I couldn't agree with both you more and and for everything that you said about what's true today and what's coming in the very near term this whole model is also going to be shaping how we process AI workloads. Not going to be it already is right and the way that cloud has given us the flexibility to take stuff out of private data centers and put it on someone else's computer right that's a real thing and that's gonna that's a model that's been proven and will continue with AI as AI adoption continues to increase. I think that's a pretty safe bet.
[Katie Truitt]
And these are big problems Scott. These are massive problems massive shifts in how customers think about where they house their data how they you know go to market and so we want them to know that they don't have to do it alone at the end of the day.
[Scott Robohn]
You had something you wanted to add Evan? No I agree with both of you. All right well look Katie and Evan thank you so much for sharing your insights for being here today and talking about hybrid multi-cloud for public sector with us.
To everyone listening we hope this was helpful to you and gave you some valuable information on what's going on with hybrid multi-cloud and what new opportunities are like and what you can pursue if you're interested in learning more be sure to reach out to your Carahsoft rep or visit Equinix website. Don't forget to tune into our next episode where we'll explore more about AI solutions with NVIDIA and Dell in the world of public sector digital transformation. Thanks for listening and we'll see you next time.