The service leverages Equinix’s globally interconnected platform of more than 190 International Business Exchange™ (IBX®) data centers in 48 markets to securely host encryption keys separate from, but in close proximity to, the data located across networks and hybrid multicloud environments.
According to the Global Interconnection Index, the next three years are forecasted to see approximately 50% growth in the traffic capacity needed by enterprises to directly connect with, and exchange data across, multiple clouds, IT providers and third-party network destinations. This move to disperse data across multiple clouds and third-party providers creates an immediate need that SmartKey is uniquely positioned to solve, including:
· Improving security for multicloud, hybrid-cloud and distributed environments by separating the encryption keys from the data, so that both keys and data are not held by the same entity
· Eliminating the need to purchase and deploy specialized hardware by replacing this traditional method with a private, secure and distributed SaaS capability
· Enabling firms to globally manage encryption keys across multiple, disparate regions, countries and partners
· Providing management controls to maintain data and encryption keys in the same region or country in support of data sovereignty and regulatory requirements
SmartKey is the next step in a series of adjacent coverage, connectivity and service initiatives that Equinix will deliver via the evolution of Platform Equinix® to serve customer needs in a hybrid, multicloud world. When implemented as a part of an Interconnection Oriented Architecture™(IOA™) strategy, SmartKey enables security and data professionals to achieve a globally consistent end-to-end encryption strategy with central control over access, latency, compliance and performance.
As announced last year, Equinix is physically and virtually connecting its global data center footprint, enabling customers to discover and dynamically connect to any other customer or destination across the Equinix platform. This provides an ecosystem platform of more than 9,800 customers and partners at Equinix, including leading cloud service providers (Alibaba Cloud, Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud Platform, IBM Cloud, Microsoft Azure and Oracle Cloud) and SaaS providers (Salesforce, SAP and ServiceNow, among others) that can now be integrated on Equinix Cloud Exchange FabricTM (ECX Fabric) and supported with the adoption of SmartKey key management capabilities.
