Global colocation provider Equinix has launched a new range of services aimed at helping customers move into its International Business Exchanges (IBXs) by providing technical and deployment advice and a technical environment for customers and partners to asses and measure application platforms and deployments.

The Equinix Solution Validation Centers that is adding to its offering, however, are not a push into the managed services market, according to Equinix director for Global Solutions Architects Ryan Mallory.

Instead, they are aimed at providing guidance for new deployments with a range of use cases mapped out in catalogs – or blueprints – designed for specific use cases.

These will focus on the network, power provision and validation and other aspects of setting up a data center in a colocation environment.

“We will be assisting customers in bridging the gap from concept to reaching inside a technical deployment in the IBX (the interconnection ecosystem Equinix offers through its global footprint),” Mallory said.

“What we won’t get involved in is any changes after deployment.”

Equinix is working with a range of technology partners for its new service offering – many of which have tested their own technologies inside the Equinix environment.

These include Juniper, Ciena and Vellos systems for bandwidth and NetApp and AWS.

Mallory said, however, the offering will build on Equinix’ “agnostic” position in relation to hardware and network, and that it will not exclude any technologies available to end users.

“It is all about getting specifications, parameters and controls in an environment instead of running through testing in an ad-hoc way, so to speak,” Mallory said.

“We will always test what will be the best platform inside a company for each different metro and internet exchange. We are in a unique position unlike other providers because we have an agnostic platform, in terms of evaluation. Equinix only assigns service and power flow etc, we are not tied to any vendors.”

Mallory said testing can often be compromised when it comes to data center deployments on deadline.

He points to the recent problems seen with the Obamacare Healthcare.gov rollout which has come under criticism because of a lack of testing and validation.

“Obama care did not go through the proper testing process,” Mallory said.

He said for companies that want to take third-party help beyond testing and deployment can work with a number of third parties, such as Accenture, which provides a managed service.

The Solution Validation Center designed by Equinix focuses, overall, on performance advantages seen in Platform Equinix locations.

It is now available as a service in EMEA, the US – east and west coast - and Asia, from eight data centers.

Mallory said Equinix has put “very senior” staff behind its solution testing offering, with expertise in areas such as core network, AWS (Amazon Web Services), VMware technology services and more.

“We have about 21 individuals behind this service, each with 15 to 20 years of experience,” Mallory said.

The test and validation center has already been used by 25 customers, including partner NetApp and publisher McGraw Hill which used it to roll out a hybrid cloud architecture using AWS following Hurricane Sandy.