A growing number of organizations are setting up private network links between their data centers and infrastructure-as-a-service deployments to improve response times. In an effort to address this trend, VMware Inc. has tapped Equinix Inc. to provide dedicated connections for its vCloud Air platform.

The newly announced partnership gives users reason for optimism amid the recent changes in the hypervisor maker’s infrastructure-as-a-service strategy. Two weeks ago, VMware offloaded the part of vCloud Air that is geared toward the public sector to partner QTS Realty Trust Inc. for an undisclosed sum. And a couple months earlier at its annual customer event, the company revealed plans to make its virtualization software available on rival cloud platforms such as AWS to give customers more freedom of choice.

In other words, vCloud Air is no longer the main focus of VMware’s cloud plans. Today’s announcement should help reaffirm the virtualization giant’s commitment to supporting the platform and the organizations that rely on it to power their remote applications. As part of the agreement, Equinix will provide direct connectivity to vCloud Air from its co-location facilities in Silicon Valley, New York, Washington, D.C., London and Frankfurt.

The connections are provided by the data center giant itself, VMware or both depending on the location. Regardless of which supplier they choose, however,  joint customers will now be able to move data between their private and public cloud deployments considerably faster than before.

Equinix says that the increased speed has the potential to come handy in a wide range of different situations. An organization with strict disaster recovery requirements, for instance, could place important applications in a co-location facility linked to vCloud Air so that they can be recovered faster after an outage.

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