Cyxtera Technologies is launching a software-defined platform to offer colocation and connectivity services on demand to its customers. The Cyxtera Extensible Data Center (CXD) allows customers to extend existing colocation resources with additional compute and connectivity. 

The introductory platform, which is available in both of the company’s Dallas data centers, includes two services: CXD Compute Nodes, which offers hyperconverged infrastructure on demand, and CXD IP Connect, for connectivity services. 

Cyxtera
– Cyxtera

Need for speed

Cyxtera Technologies came out of CenturyLink’s sale of its 57 data centers to a consortium led by security and data analytics businesses, BC Partners, Medina Capital Advisors and Longview Asset Management in May last year.

The premise behind the CXD launch is that customers want dedicated hardware and similar levels of control and customization as they do with a colocation model, but want to save the trouble of provisioning hardware, peripheral equipment, and hiring staff. While traditional deployments can take months, the Compute Nodes service guarantees provisioning in one business day, the company said. 

CXD Compute Nodes uses Nutanix Enterprise Cloud OS software, and enables provisioning of hyperconverged infrastructure for companies needing to manage applications across public, private and distributed edge environments. 

Customers are given access to dedicated hardware and the choice of hypervisor includes Nutanix, VMware, Microsoft, OpenStack and bare metal, or another of their own choosing.

The company proposes five node configurations, offering between 24 and 28 cores, and different CPU, RAM, HDD and SDD capacities.

CXD IP Connect is an Internet bandwidth service, allowing for automated access to connectivity aggregated from different IP service providers via a single network cross-connect, as well as access to the company’s cyber security and threat analytics services.

Randy Rowland, president and general manager of data center services for Cyxtera said: “We’re used to point-and-click provisioning for everything from virtual machines in the cloud to SaaS solutions, yet the data center industry still works with a screwdriver in one hand and a cable crimper in the other.

”It can take months to deploy a single application, from provisioning circuits to building out infrastructure in a colocation cage. CXD brings ‘speed of cloud’ power and provisioning to an entire range of data center services with an extensible software-powered architecture that will rapidly integrate Cyxtera-powered services and those of our network and service provider ecosystem.”