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Ethernet Technology Summit, April 2-4, 2013 | Santa Clara Marriot, Santa Clara, CA

40/100 GbE | convergence | cloud computing | virtualization | big data - they’re all at ETS, plus two full days of free SDN seminars

Learn from the experts:   Intel | Broadcom | IBM | HP | Cisco | Brocade | IDC | Dell | Equinix | Synopsys | Cadence | Tektronix | Agilent | Huawei…and many others...

Claudio DeSanti
Cisco Systems
Conference Chairperson

Don’t miss this opportunity to participate in this power-packed three-day event! Take advantage of this opportunity to network with members of the Ethernet ecosystem. Here’s how you can participate:

• 2013 Call for Presentations »
• Sponsor and exhibitor packages »
• Exhibitor/Sponsor Benefits »
• Participating sponsors and exhibitors »
• Exhibitor Registration »
• Speaker Information »

Highlights

Three days packed full of seminars, forums, keynotes, and sessions:

• Two full-day seminars of Software-Defined Networking (SDN)/OpenFlow
• Full-day forums on 40/100/400 GbE and convergence on Ethernet
• Half-day forums on data centers, virtualization, and cloud computing
• Chat with the Experts

More information:   http://ethernetsummit.com

Equinix (EQIX) Q4 2011 Earnings Call February 15, 2012 5:30 PM ET - Transcripts

Operator

Good afternoon, and welcome to Equinix Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Also today's conference is being recorded. If anyone has any objections, please disconnect at this time. I'd like to turn the call over to Katrina Rymill, VP of IR. You may begin.

Katrina Rymill

Good afternoon, and welcome to today's conference call. Before we get started, I would like to remind everyone that some of the statements that we'll be making today are forward-looking in nature and involve risks and uncertainties. Actual results may vary significantly from those statements and may be affected by the risks we identified in today's press release and those identified in our filings with the SEC, including our most recent Form 10-K filed on February 25, 2011, and Form 10-Q filed on October 28, 2011. Equinix assumes no obligation and does not intend to update or comment on forward-looking statements made on this call. In addition, in light of Regulation Fair Disclosure, it is Equinix's policy not to comment on its financial guidance during the call, unless it is done through an exclusive public disclosure.

In addition, we will provide non-GAAP measures on today's conference call. We provide a reconciliation of those measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures and a list of the reasons why the company uses these measures in today's press release on the Equinix Investor Relations page at www.equinix.com. We would also like to remind you that we post important information about Equinix on the Investor Relations page of our website. We encourage you to check our website regularly for the most current available information.

With us today are Steve Smith, Equinix's CEO and President; Keith Taylor, Chief Financial Officer; Jarrett Appleby, Chief Marketing Officer; and Charles Meyers, President of the Americas. Following our prepared remarks, we will be taking questions from sell-side analysts. In the interest of wrapping this call within 1 hour, we'd like to ask these analysts to limit any follow-on questions to one. At this time, I'd like to turn the call over to Steve.

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Executive Summary

Carrier Ethernet as a transport service is gaining traction across businesses of all sizes due to the benefits it offers: scalability, reliability and cost efficient bandwidth. Ethernet has also emerged as an attractive service option for customers migrating from the more traditional ATM, Frame Relay, SONET and Private Line services. In fact, every conceivable vertical of customers represents a potential market opportunity.

Given the expanding market demand, service providers are rushing to expand their footprints to maximize the revenue opportunity. They are faced with two expansion options: 1) building new networks (greenfield deployments), or 2) buying from other service providers (partnerships or organic growth). Ethernet exchanges facilitate the latter option with a solution grounded on cost-efficiency and rapid implementation. As carriers interconnect their networks at these exchanges, their service footprint is automatically expanded to include the reach of the other carriers subscribing to the same exchange. Consequently, the carrier can offer Ethernet services to a more distributed range of connecting locations.

For this reason, a number of Ethernet service providers have chosen to connect to one of the exchanges that have emerged across the major metro markets in the United States. Equinix, Tinet (a Neutral Tandem company), CENX and Telx are the four exchange operators competing in this market. Ethernet exchanges were introduced to eliminate the tedious process of drawing bilateral agreements with every other carrier to which CSPs intend to connect. While the benefits of connecting to an exchange appeal greatly to service providers (thus resulting in the exchange operators signing up a long list of customers to their exchanges), 18 months since the opening of the first exchange, the actual traffic being exchanged at these exchanges is minimal.

Based on interviews with Ethernet service providers and exchange operators, Frost & Sullivan has identified one key reason for the underperformance of the exchange services: exchange operators may have over-promised and under-delivered on the services. Nonetheless, we remain convinced of the viability of the concept, and we expect that technology, services, and carrier expectations will continue to evolve.

In our 2010 insight on the Ethernet exchanges, Frost & Sullivan presented an in-depth analysis of the Ethernet exchanges definition, provider business models, key business and technical challenges that the exchanges could potentially address, and the competitive environment in the Ethernet exchanges services market.2 In this installment of our analysis on the Ethernet exchanges, Frost & Sullivan takes a close look at the following:

1. Current challenges inhibiting faster adoption of exchange services
2. Evolving business models of Ethernet exchanges
3. Impact of Ethernet exchanges on wholesale and retail Ethernet revenues

For more information on accessing this report, please contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

This report is part of Frost & Sullivan's Business Communication Services Subscription, which also includes research in the following markets: Wholesale & Business/Retail Transport Services that include Private Line, SONET, Ethernet, MPLS and Wavelength Services Market, Mobile Backhaul Services, Fiber-based Video Transport Services, Dedicated Internet Access Services, Managed/Hosted Services and others. All research included in subscriptions provide detailed market opportunities (revenue, ports and pricing forecasts) and industry trends that have been evaluated following extensive interviews with market participants.

Interconnections have always been a key focus for data centers located in areas with high concentrations of network service providers. Some of these data center providers are now investing in specialized exchanges to support Carrier Ethernet services.

The Metro Ethernet Forum’s formal definition of an Ethernet Exchange, a form of an External Network-Network Interface (ENNI), is “an interconnect point among service providers where Carrier Ethernet Services are exchanged.” From an end user’s point of view, you want your service provider to supply this service so you can have a direct Ethernet connection from end-to-end.

End Users See Benefits of Ethernet

Today, most enterprises are still encapsulating their native Ethernet data into TDM/SONET/SDH then de-encapsulating it at the other end. However, more and more, end users are seeing the benefits of Ethernet Services and perhaps eventually, the entire public network may be running native Ethernet.