Packet is well-known as a smaller cloud player that is focused on bringing disruptive technologies. A great example is that it has been running the developer cloud for Arm servers Arm’s partners. They also made a significant effort to bring Arm cloud servers such as Cavium/ Marvell offerings well before AWS announced Graviton. Packet also has offerings ranging from EPYC 3000 series, EPYC 7002 series, and the new Cascade Lake Xeons. Equinix, seeing the value in a developer-friendly multi-architecture cloud provider has agreed to purchase Packet this week. This has a special significance to STH.
Packet Acquired by Equinix – Congratulations to STH Readers!
At STH, we covered Packet several times including:
- Packet Launching Microservers with Netronome SmartNICs and an EPYC Surprise
- Packet offers GPU Compute Instances Starting at $0 Per Hour
- Intel and Packet Partner to Bring Optane to Developers
- Packet’s Dell EMC PowerEdge AMD EPYC Server Deployment Accelerating
If you look at that last Dell EMC and AMD EPYC piece, we have noted that Zac Smith and several folks on their team are STH readers. We have watched Packet’s Silicon Valley outpost grow as their cage is on the same data center floor as the STH lab where we do our higher-power server reviews. That may well change in the future with this acquisition. Packet has hired even more folks that I know over the years building a great team.
Again, I love it when STH readers build great businesses and see success. Congratulations to the Packet team again on the exit.
Final Words
Equinix buying Packet makes a lot of sense. Datacenter operators are exploring ways to move from being landlords to higher-value service providers. If you look at Packet’s offering, there is a clear path to Equinix being able to offer bare-metal servers. For Equinix’s customers, this essentially allows not just renting space, power, and connectivity. Instead, using Packet’s infrastructure offering, Equinix customers can potentially skip having to manage the physical data center operations entirely. Equinix can offer a geographically distributed bare metal server cloud across its portfolio of properties. There are still some hurdles to clear to make that happen, but it is a great acquisition to accelerate bringing that type of offering to market.
Equinix has been trying for years now to deploy a virtual router platform to push their cloud exchange network to non traditional customers, and struggling. I hope this gives them the ability to build a commercially and technologically viable product …